Marketplace: News Archives

Friday, November 17, 2000
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It's Friday, November 17, 2000. I'm David Brancaccio.

It's the third Friday in November and do you know where your Presidential Election is? After the market closed today, Florida's Supreme Court effectively stopped state officials from declaring a winner this weekend and will hear oral arguments about just which recounts should count on Monday. The ruling allows the hand-counting of votes to continue in Florida, where George W. Bush has a 300 vote lead. This morning, a lower state court had handed a short-lived victory to the Bush camp when it had said "no" to a hand recount. The results of Florida's absentee ballots are due tomorrow. Earlier this week, we reported on how the Gore and the Bush camp have been fundraising to pay for their post elect day efforts. But what a week and a half's worth of overtime for vote counters and sheriff's deputies assigned to guard ballots in several Florida counties - not to mention attorneys fees for the various court battles - the question arises: what is all this is costing the Florida taxpayer? Marketplace's John Dimsdale has more on this.

Dimsdale: "Before this election, the tab for recounting votes by hand generally ranged from 30 to 60 cents per ballot, which means Florida could manually recount its six million votes for around three million dollars. The secretary of state for Maryland, John Willis, who's writes and teaches about presidential elections, and served as a member of the Electoral College in 1992, says Florida taxpayers can expect a bill somewhere in that range."

Willis: "If its higher, its only driven because of the nature of the tension and scrutiny and the stops and starts they've had to go through there in responding to the legal swirl that's going on."

Dimsdale: "No county officials in Florida could give us any estimates of the extra costs involved in the vote counting. The Broward County Sheriff's office reports so far they've been able to guard ballots with deputies on straight time salaries. Gary McIntosh is currently the President of the National Association of state elections and the election director in the state of Washington, where they're still counting ballots in a still too close to call Senate race. He hopes the Florida experience will show the need for better education of voters and training for election administrators."

McIntosh: "This is not a simple process. It's not a process we can take for granted. It's something we're going to have to pay some attention to and provide the necessary resources to make sure these people have the tools to get the job done."

Dimsdale: "Election officials say this year's close vote should prompt some improvements in the way Americans vote and count their ballots. Maryland's John Willis says the cost of state of the art equipment with simple, easy to read ballots and secure accounting would be about $20,000 per precinct. Nationwide, that would come to some $4 billion. In Washington, I'm John Dimsdale for Marketplace."

A pair of troubleshooters named Dieter and Wolfgang have been sent to Michigan by DaimlerChrysler to try to fix the American subsidiary of the number five car company that's withered in the two years since the Germans bought it. Dieter Zetsche and Wolfgang Bernard will become the new CEO and Chief Operating Officer of Chrysler, where shares are trading at near a one year low. Zetsche was the head of Daimler's Commercial vehicles division and Bernard did Mercedes high-performance cars. Chrysler sales are down with competition for minivan customers cutthroat and the customers for the darling of the Chrysler line-up, the PT-Cruiser are reportedly canceling orders after waiting months for delivery. The stock is trading right at its low for the year. Company insiders have been complaining about poor communication and mistrust between North America and Germany.

Mailboxes already clogged with holiday catalogues are about to get a little more crowded. As Marketplace's Michelle Brier reports, several top online retailers are sending out old-fashioned paper and ink sale books hoping to lure even more customers to cyberspace.

Brier: "It may seem like a technological step backwards: on-line retail giant amazon.com will mail paper holiday catalogues to ten million potential customers. Some critics says its a sign virtual stores can not succeed in cyber-space alone but Debbi Karpowisz Kickum, author of the book Off the Wall Marketing Ideas, thinks its just smart advertising."

Kickum: "Because even though there are more and more people on the internet and who know how to use the internet there are still millions of people who are afraid of it or don't know how to use it or don't have a computer."

Brier: "Customers flipping through the 24-page sales book will still have to log-on to place an order. Other e-tailers turning to catalogs include gift site red envelope and Etoys. Catalog advertising may be a necessity for some battered dot-coms, says analyst Lisa Allen at Forrester research."

Allen: "I don't think we're going to see as many splashy, over the top TV spots this year from dot-coms as last year because the venture capital dollars that funded those ad campaigns have dried up."

Brier: "But since e-mail advertising is even cheaper still, Allen thinks companies like amazon are just trying to lure customers with one foot in the brick and mortar world and the other in cyberspace. On line holiday sales are expected to top ten billion dollars this year - up fifty percent from last year. In New York, I'm Michelle Brier for Marketplace."

The Federal Trade Commission said today it's warning about 100 so-called "e-tailers" not to make delivery and availability promises this holiday season that they can't keep. ToyRUs.com and KBKids.com were among the online companies hit with $1.5 million worth of federal fines for not fulfilling promises about 48 hour and 72 hours shipment times last year.

And that's the top of our news for Friday. Today the Dow dropped 26 points and the Nasdaq fell less than five points. Details with the Texas stock broker and when we do the numbers.