Deadline matters

Again, our Founding Fathers have proven to be so much smarter than our-present day foundering fathers. Our Founding Fathers anticipated the political warfare that could erupt in deciding a winner in a close political race as we are witnessing today.

In order to preclude this onslaught of vote-searching tactics by the candidates and their parties, which tend to mushroom to the point of chaos, they had the foresight to institute a procedure that would be as fair and as simple as possible and to leave no doubt as to the winner. That procedure was to establish an expeditious deadline for completing and certifying the vote count; a deadline that wouldn't permit an idleness that could become a devil's workshop. At first blush, this procedure might appear more chancy than fair, but it has proven to be equally fair to each candidate.

It's no irony that after all the ballot counts, recounts, re-recounts, lawsuits and the reinterpretation of voting laws, the Florida Supreme Court came up with a decision that our Founding Fathers had long ago anticipated -- the deadline.

In essence, it appears, and rightly so, that all the recounting chaos will be for naught and could have been prevented had the lawful deadline been heeded at the outset.

Clearly, our Founding Fathers' intelligence was surpassed only by their common sense.

ARMOND "SI" SIMMONS, Pell City, Ala.