clipped from www.slate.com

But there is a pretty basic distinction between what the law requires and what the law merely allows. Even if Harris is right about the law, there is nothing to stop her from authorizing recounts in any county or every county except for her own partisan desire not to. She could have done it all along. She can still do it. Harris and the Bush contingent are misusing people's respect for the law to override their common sense about what the solution here ought to be. But it's not common sense versus the law—it's common sense versus Katherine Harris' discretion.