Bush approaches his presidency in a delicate position: Fifty-seven percent of Americans lack confidence in the Florida vote count that gave him his victory, according to a new ABCNEWS/Washington Post poll. Forty-two percent — including three-quarters of Al Gore’s supporters — doubt the legitimacy of his election. And large majorities favor fundamental change in the way presidential votes are collected and counted.
     With Bush losing the popular vote and winning the Electoral College only by way of the disputed Florida tally, support for election reform runs high. More than eight in 10 Americans say the federal government should establish a standard ballot design, a single, approved type of voting machine and uniform recount standards — taking responsibility for all these away from individual states and counties.
     Nearly two-thirds (more Democrats than Republicans) also favor banning punch-card ballots, the type that were at the heart of the Florida dispute. As many favor a uniform national poll-closing time. And nearly as many would do away with the Electoral College, although this support shrinks if it would work to the detriment of the smaller states.

Public Likes Powell Pick
Given the election controversy, Bush faces a substantial task of bridge-building with the half of the country that supported his opponent. Selecting Colin Powell as secretary of state looks to be a good start: Seventy percent of Americans have a favorable opinion of Powell, including 65 percent of Democrats.
     But clearly Bush faces challenges, given the doubt about the validity of his election among substantial minorities of the population. Forty percent think the nature of this election left him in a weaker position to lead the country. And as noted, 42 percent — including three-quarters of those who’d backed Gore — doubt the legitimacy of his victory.
     That’s a change; before the outcome was known, more than seven in 10 Americans said that if the election ended with Bush winning, they’d consider him to be legitimately elected. In the event, fewer — 55 percent — say they see him as legitimate.
     The reason is a change of heart among Gore’s supporters. Before the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling and Gore’s concession, 47 percent of the vice president’s supporters said they’d consider Bush legitimately elected if he ended up winning. Now it’s down to 20 percent. Among Bush’s supporters, by contrast, more than nine in 10 consider him legitimately elected.
     These views help support the public desire for bipartisanship: As reported previously, nearly nine in 10 Americans say Bush should name Democrats to his Cabinet, and even more say he should focus mainly on finding compromise between the Democrats and the Republicans in Congress.

Confidence
Fewer than four in 10 adults — 37 percent — express a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in the incoming Bush administration. But the outgoing Clinton administration’s rating on this question is hardly better; it’s another measure in which partisanship runs high.
     The U.S. Supreme Court, despite the controversy over its ruling giving Bush his victory, receives a 57 percent confidence rating. The military leads in confidence at 75 percent; the news media are far back at 25 percent.

Count and Recount
Confidence in another area — the Florida vote count — ends at the lowest its been since the controversy erupted. On Nov. 26, 56 percent expressed confidence in the count there; now it’s down to 42 percent.
     At the same time, comparatively low confidence in the news media, coupled with the difficulties in vote counting, suggest a media-sponsored unofficial recount wouldn’t settle much. Forty-seven percent say they’d be confident in such a count, hardly more than the 42 percent who are confident in the current count. And only 15 percent say they’d be “very confident” in the accuracy of a media-sponsored recount.
     Two-thirds of Gore’s supporters say they’d have some confidence in a media-sponsored recount — not surprising, since it couldn’t be less satisfactory to them than the count they have now. Just a quarter of Bush’s supporters say they’d have confidence in such a count.

Sympathy
Other results point to a farewell sympathy vote for Gore, who’s concession was very favorably received. Sixty-six percent of Americans now express a generally favorable opinion of him — ironically, the most of his career, and 10 points better than Bush’s favorability rating.
     And while a week ago Bush had opened up an eight-point lead in preference as the eventual winner, Americans by an eight-point margin now say they’d have preferred Gore — again, an apparent expression of sympathy for the loser of the extraordinarily close presidential election.

Methodology
This ABCNEWS/Washington Post poll was conducted by telephone Dec. 14-15 among a random national sample of 807 adults. The results have a 3.5-point error margin. Field work was done by TNS Intersearch of Horsham, Pa.

Previous ABCNEWS polls can be found in our Poll Vault.