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Election 2000: Middle Americans Sound Off on Florida Recount

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: We have to look at the upside of this. I mean, people are really energized and they are talking about it. You know, you come in and the cleaning crew is talking about it, you go to the fast-food restaurants and people are arguing over it.

STEPHEN FRASIER, CNN ANCHOR: When do you have time to go to those?

LIN: During the day, research.

Let's go to see what folks in Middle America are saying. Jeff Flock standing by.

FRASIER: We have sent Jeff Flock all around Middle America, he's been to a diner, he has been to a dinosaur museum, now we are going to send him back to campus.

Jeff, good morning.

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning from the train station Evanston, Illinois, which is, of course, Cook County, just north of Chicago. And you know, while we are talking about Cook County we should point out that we talked to Cook County election officials who said, you know, all the allegations about the Palm Beach ballot being the same as Cook County with the butterfly effect, Cook County election officials and Chicago election officials making the point clear that they do not put candidates from the same race on facing pages, they put them in a row on one page, so they want to clarify the point on that.

But now on to how this affects the populace, folks on their way to work this morning. How is this all striking you? Are you worried about what you are seeing down there?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I am not so much worried as I am excited about by the whole drama of this, and I think in one way it is good for the country because it brings a lot of people and focuses their attention on this, and helps kind of galvanize the whole youth and the rest of...

FLOCK: This is a good thing is what you are telling me?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think in some ways it is because it brings a lot of people who maybe weren't as focused on the election or the electoral process and now they are.

FLOCK: OK. Good point.

Some people have said perhaps Vice President Gore should not fight it in the court if it comes to that. What do you think?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think he should.

FLOCK: Really, why?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because of the fact of the whole voting issue down in Florida, that's a big controversy, and I personally think that they should re-vote.

FLOCK: You do? There are obviously some problems associated with that, but you are not worried about that. You think the best thing would be to re-vote?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think the best thing would be to re-vote, to eliminate all of the controversy and people wanting to go to court and voters suing and -- that's just too much.

FLOCK: OK. Moving on into the coffee shop here this morning. Let's see if we can get somebody hard at work, somebody behind the counter, the papers are in here, I don't know, Bruce, maybe you can see behind us here. Obviously the morning papers with all of the headlines -- I'll give you the last word this morning as you work. What do you think ought to happen down in Florida?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why? Is there something going on?

FLOCK: That would be a healthy perspective, wouldn't it?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I assume that they are just -- I don't know, half are going to like it and half aren't, so there is going to be a fight no matter how you look at this. But at some point you have to say maybe we are done. I don't know.

FLOCK: We'll make that the final word here from Evanston, Illinois this morning as we continue to listen to the populace out here, folks keeping a close eye on what happens down there. We will continue to watch it.

I'm Jeff Flock, CNN, reporting live from Evanston, Illinois.

LIN: All right, thank you very much, Jeff.

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