EST PALM BEACH - Now the rest of the country has learned what most veteran politicians have known all along: Democracy can be an imprecise, even grimy business.
Votes are sometimes bought with packages of cigarettes or dollar bills doled out by precinct captains working in poor neighborhoods of big cities. Turnout is occasionally suppressed by wily strategists. Ballots are often left uncounted by ancient voting machines or readily discarded by inexperienced poll workers whose only malice is their desire to get home.
Usually the problems remain blissfully unpublicized. Rarely do they actually matter. Suddenly, they couldn't be more important.
With this in mind, two things must happen in this bizarre nonelection. George W. Bush must immediately drop his legal attempts to block a hand count of Florida ballots, and Al Gore must dismiss any notion of fighting for electoral victory in court.
Put it another way: This election should be resolved by the most accurate possible count of the ballots actually cast, not by state judges or revotes in Palm Beach County.
Bush's attempt to block a careful hand recount, a time-tested practice in close races all over the country, is nothing short of insulting - an unbecoming expression of fear over who Florida residents really supported on Nov. 7.
Voting machines are old and rickety. They sometimes miss votes because of what is known in the parlance of the ballot business as chad - small pieces of paper that block a clear count. The human eye, even in this day and age, is better than any machine will ever be.
At the same time, it is equally unfortunate that Gore continues to dangle the possibility of a court suit over the Palm Beach County debacle.
He is not without cause for frustration. Even stalwart Republicans should accept that the flawed ballot design cost Gore a significant number of votes - enough to cost him the presidency.
The unorthodox ballot was perfectly awful, not only difficult to align, but nonsensical in its premise. To cast a vote for Gore, the second name listed, actually required people to punch the third hole from the top. It was so bad that county officials sent the following directive to poll workers on Election Day: ''They are to punch the hole next to the arrow next to the number next to the candidate they wish to vote for.'' Of course.
But even stalwart Democrats should accept as fact that there was no fraud involved, no attempt to subvert the electoral will. Theresa LePore, the elections supervisor who designed the ballot, is a Democrat, a county politician regarded as a consummate professional, trustworthy to the bones, someone who was only trying to enlarge the print for seniors.
''She is probably considered to be the most reputable public official we have,'' says County Commissioner Carol Roberts.
Be clear. There will be no revote in Palm Beach County. It has neither precedent nor plausibility. If such a revote occurred, it would immediately, unfairly kill the Bush campaign because most Ralph Nader voters, knowing now what they naively failed to grasp then, would switch their votes for Gore.
Democrats can complain to the end of time, and they will. Impartial observers can forever describe the unfairness of it all, and it is. But mistakes are as ingrained in the process as flaws are in the candidates who seek our votes.
The margin has already dropped from 1,784 last Tuesday to 288 last night, and no one can pretend to know where it might wind up by Friday, when the overseas ballots are counted and important counties are recalculated by hand.
Democracy is an imperfect endeavor, though an unfailingly honorable one. It would be nice for the candidates to begin reflecting that honor - to step back, allow the votes to be accurately counted, and then abide by the will of the people. It's supposed to be the American way.
Brian McGrory's e-mail address is mcgrory@globe.com.
