Final Vote Count, Gore Donors

* Re “Final Tally Shows 105 Million Voted,” Dec. 19: While the front-page “news” seems to be about President-elect George W. Bush’s glad-handing, the real presidential news is banished to a three-inch box on Page A24. We are now being told that Al Gore won the popular vote by a full 539,897 votes. This is more than 150,000 more votes than previously reported anywhere. And this isn’t news?

Remember, the community your newspaper serves is not interested in Bush’s grandstanding. We are interested in justice and the continued struggle to find out 1) what really happened in Florida and 2) to change the electoral process so that our votes, here in Los Angeles and in the other large population centers, count just as much as their votes in “God’s country.”

CHRIS BOHNERT

Los Angeles

* All you need to know about the disaster that campaign financing has become can be found in “Gore in ’04 Run May See Funds Shrivel” (Dec. 15), about Gore’s big donors piling on after the election. Most Democrats believe that Gore won, not lost; if the Supreme Court had ruled the other way, all the fat cats would be congratulating themselves on their great judgment and lining up for favors. What charlatans! As it is, all they can do is whine about not getting their money’s worth.

ROBERT LEVOR

Los Angeles

* Once again, it’s Arianna Huffington who sets us straight on the road of grim political reality (“Money Keeps Flowing, Because It Pays,” Commentary, Dec. 12). While Gore repeatedly protested Bush’s proposed tax giveaway to “the top 1%,” the Clinton-Gore administration proceeds to place into law a $60-billion tax break to campaign donors like Boeing and General Electric. Is it any wonder that the one candidate who exposed this duplicity and warned of corporate power, Ralph Nader, garnered as many votes as he did?

Don’t blame him for Gore’s loss. Blame Gore!

ALICE POWELL

Los Angeles