-Caveat Lector- [Bush campaign is talking about voter fraud. "Republicans charge that foreign residents awaiting naturalization were allowed to vote in Broward County even though they hadn't yet become citizens." --MS] Wall Street Journal http://www.opinionjournal.com/diary/?id=65000564 A Disputed Election Now more than ever the nation depends on the rule of law. Wednesday, November 8, 2000 6:23 a.m. EST In a surreal moment, Bill Daley, son of the legendary Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley, took the stage in Nashville before a crowd of Al Gore supporters to declare that the 2000 election was "too close to call" and that "this campaign continues." It was 40 years ago when the elder Daley's Chicago figured so prominently in charges that the photo-finish election that year between Jack Kennedy and Richard Nixon had been stolen for the Democrats. An acrimonious repeat of that controversy could be upon us. George W. Bush has cancelled a news conference he had scheduled for this morning. Al Gore retracted his concession, and Greg Simon, a Gore domestic policy adviser, says it can't be determined who won Florida "until an automatic recount is finished." That recount might take only a day or two to resolve. But that won't end Al Gore's determination not to concede. "Recounts are as much art as science," claims Jonathan Alter of NBC News. "There will be inevitable court challenges." There are already contentious issues piling up around Florida's vote count, which shows Mr. Bush with a 1,784-vote lead over Mr. Gore. In Palm Beach County, there are claims that faulty punch-card ballots caused 2,000 voters to vote for Pat Buchanan instead of Al Gore. Early this morning, election workers in Dade County were called back to recount absentee ballots in 27 precincts. Clay Roberts of the Florida Elections Division says that Broward County was still tabulating "late" absentee ballots--but he didn't know how many. Republicans charge that foreign residents awaiting naturalization were allowed to vote in Broward County even though they hadn't yet become citizens. The Voting Integrity Project, a nonpartisan watchdog group, says that Florida was a "hot spot" of allegations of voter fraud and irregularities on Tuesday. The group is preparing a report which it will submit to Florida's secretary of state. Several thousand votes remain to be counted in Florida. Eight small rural counties did not complete their absentee vote count yesterday and will finish today. At least 3,000 absentee votes from overseas military and expatriate voters remain to be counted, and any of those ballots postmarked by Nov. 7 are eligible to be counted. Some of those ballots could take a week or more to trickle in from foreign locales. Bush campaign officials note that in 1996 some 2,300 military ballots were returned, and Bob Dole won 54% of them, 12 points better than his statewide showing. There are already cries that a recount of this close election won't end matters. Attorney General Bob Butterworth, a Democrat, says there will likely be "one or more recounts." Democrats are already talking about the "conflict of interest" created by Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, brother of the Republican candidate, being in charge of the state's government. There is already muttering that Attorney General Janet Reno, a former Florida prosecutor, should step in and appoint a "special master" to oversee the recount process. Such an overtly political move would be uncalled for. Jeb Bush doesn't run the Florida election machinery; the individual counties do, and the state election bureaucracy is managed by civil servants. There is no need for a federal takeover. "We got to make sure this election is right," Gore fund-raiser Terry McAuliffe told reporters yesterday. To some Gore supporters, that may mean pushing for victory even if it means tolerating voter irregularities, fraud and other shenanigans. Florida has a rich history of voter fraud. In 1998, a mayoral election in Miami was overturned after it was shown that hundreds of absentee ballots had been illegally cast. The case became famous enough that it won the Miami Herald a Pulitzer Prize for its investigative reporting. Several local officials in surrounding communities have been convicted of voter fraud in recent years. We are entering uncharted territory because this is a presidential election. But Florida has gone through high-profile photo-finish races followed by recounts before. In 1988, Rep. Connie Mack, a Republican, finished Election Night with a 3,000-vote lead over Democrat Buddy MacKay in the race for a Senate seat. After eight days of recounts, Mr. Mack's lead expanded to 34,000 votes. Mr. MacKay considered challenging the results based on what he claimed were computer irregularities in some counties that resemble those Mr. Gore's aides are talking about. To his credit, Mr. MacKay, who went on to become Florida's lieutenant governor (and briefly governor, when Gov. Lawton Chiles died after Jeb Bush's election in 1998) chose not to contest the decision and graciously conceded What is most important at a time when partisan feelings and suspicions are likely to rise to fever pitch is that the nation resolve to respect the rule of law. Some of the voters who claim their Gore votes were counted for Mr. Buchanan are threatening to hold a protest march today. If Mr. Gore wants to assure an honest count, he should discourage these voters from a public protest at this time. What's crucial is conducting a careful recount of Florida's nearly six million votes--which means not automatically dismissing charges of voter fraud or irregularities by either side as either specious or an attempt to disfranchise minority voters. If the next president is to take office with any kind of a mandate at all and with the country not bitterly divided over his legitimacy, we all must fall back on the Constitution, our founding document, and the laws based on it. We have the longest functioning democracy in the world because we have always tried to follow the rule of law. Now more than ever that must be the path we choose over the course of what are certain to be some acrimonious days to come. ================================================================= Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT FROM THE DESK OF: *Michael Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends ================================================================= <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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