As an American voter with great respect for our democratic system, I feel that George W. Bush should call for the exercise of the greatest care to ensure that the vote in Florida is counted fairly and accurately. At the very least, ballots from certain counties need to be carefully hand-counted to ensure that votes are accurately recorded. The differences between two consecutive machine tallies do not inspire confidence.

Gov. Bush’s position is that the election should be conceded immediately, even before absentee ballots are counted. He has started making announcements about Cabinet positions and has put his transition team to work. His words and his actions belie his claim to be a “uniter who can bring Democrats and Republicans together.” Declaring victory at this time is a slap in the face to the nearly 52 million people who did not vote for him.

Any person who would lead America as president and say “I trust the people” should be happy to allow concerned citizens to vote their minds. Someone who says he wants to “restore honor and dignity to the White House” should not allow himself to come to power in such an questionable and possibly illegitimate way, especially in the face of his unquestioned loss of the popular vote.

Curtis Meadow

Hampden