-Caveat Lector- >>>Now, when you read articles like the one below, remember the stories about Bill Jeff going on (into) (for) a third. Remember also one of his famous lines that went something like, "Stroke of the pen and it's law. Cool!", when discovering executive orders. And Gore's motto, "You ain't seen nothin' yet!". HA! A<>E<>R <<< From http://www.knoxstudio.com/shns/story.cfm?pk=ELECT-PREZ-11-09-00&cat=AN }}>Begin NATIONAL Bush lead shrinks; turmoil ensues By JOAN LOWY Scripps Howard News Service November 09, 2000 - As the world watched and waited, Republican George W. Bush's lead over Democrat Al Gore in the pivotal state of Florida had shrunk Thursday to a mere 229 votes, according to an unofficial count. The Associated Press put together the tally based on vote recounts obtained from election officials in 66 of Florida's 67 counties. But at a 6 p.m. EST press conference, Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris announced that Bush's lead officially remained at 1,784 - virtually the same as on election night - and that the results of the completed recount may not be released until Tuesday. More than 6 million votes were cast statewide. So far, 53 counties have filed their recount results with her office, Harris said. Under Florida law, counties have seven days after an election to certify results. Until the press conference, Florida election officials had said they expected the entire recount to be completed by Thursday evening. The final result may have to wait until Nov. 17, the last day on which overseas absentee ballots postmarked by Election Day may be received in Florida. In the 1996 presidential election, over 2,300 overseas absentee ballots were received, according to an election official. Typically, many of Florida's overseas ballots come from military personnel stationed abroad and American Jews living in Israel. Gore campaign officials requested a second recount - this time by hand - in four Florida counties where voting irregularities have been reported. Gore officials also said they will support legal challenges to the Florida tally and may demand a new election in Palm Beach County, the site of the greatest controversy. The four counties are Dade, which includes Miami; Broward, which includes Fort Lauderdale; Volusia, which includes Daytona Beach, and Palm Beach. "In a democracy, everybody counts, every vote must count," the Rev. Jesse Jackson told a rally of angry Democrats in West Palm Beach. "At this point we do not know who won the election because our votes have not been counted.'' Bush's brother, Jeb, is the governor of Florida, but has removed himself from the state board that will certify the election results. Two of the three officials on the board - Harris and state Agriculture Commissioner Bob Crawford - supported Bush's presidential candidacy. The third member, state elections supervisor Clay Roberts, was appointed by Jeb Bush. Nationally, Gore was winning the popular vote by less than 200,000 votes out of nearly 100 million votes cast and was also leading in the Electoral College, with 255 votes to Bush's 246 votes. The number needed to win: 270. Oregon and New Mexico were still too close to call and there could be recounts in Iowa and Wisconsin, but they mattered only academically since Bush would need all four states to win, an unlikely prospect, and Gore could not win the election without Florida's 25 electoral votes. Election officials set aside more than 19,000 ballots in Palm Beach County because the ballots were punched for more than one presidential candidate. Gore campaign officials also questioned the 3,407 votes Reform Party candidate Patrick Buchanan received in Palm Beach, which was at least twice his total in any other Florida county. Palm Beach used a so-called "butterfly ballot" in which the names of presidential candidates were listed in two columns with a third column down the center for voters to punch. Elections officials began receiving complaints midday Tuesday that the ballots confused some voters who may have accidentally punched the hole marked for Buchanan, whose name was in the right-hand column, believing they were voting for Gore, whose name was nearly opposite Buchanan's in the left-hand column. Buchanan acknowledge in an appearance on NBC's "Today" show that he probably received votes in Palm Beach that were intended for Gore. That particular ballot was used only in Palm Beach County. In dueling news conferences, Gore campaign officials accused Texas Gov. Bush's campaign of jumping the gun by giving the appearance of having won, while Bush officials accused the vice president's campaign of flouting democracy by challenging the Florida results. "I believe that their actions to try to presumptively crown themselves the victors, to try to put in place a transition, runs the risk of dividing the American people,'' Gore campaign chairman Bill Daley said. "Let the legal system run its course. Let the true and accurate will of the people prevail ... "We will wait till the end of the process that shows who clearly won the election in Florida and that will show that Al Gore did, if it's based upon a real count.'' Daley was referring to public comments from Bush campaign officials during the day that Bush had begun preparing for the transition to the White House, including the selection of top officials for his new administration. "It seems they are worried they won't like the official recount results,'' Bush campaign official Don Evans responded. "The Democrats who are politicizing and distorting these events risk doing so at the expense of our democracy. "One of the options they seem to be looking at is new elections. Our democratic process calls for a vote on Election Day. It does not call for us to continue voting until someone likes the outcome." Senior Bush campaign official Karl Rove insisted the ballot used in Palm Beach County was nothing unusual and noted that 14,000 ballots were disregarded in that county during the 1996 presidential election because of irregularities. Kendall Coffey, an attorney for the Gore campaign, charged that the ballot used in Palm Beach was "completely illegal" under Florida election law. "The law requires that you not mix and match and overlap different candidates on either side, which was done with the butterfly ballot," Coffey said. The ballot was especially confusing to elderly voters, he said. Former President Jimmy Carter, who has served as an official observer in numerous elections in other countries, supported Gore's approach, saying: "I don't think it's a time for premature concessions because we don't know the facts of what has occurred in Florida. "I think it's very important for the American people to realize that it would be a serious mistake to have the final outcome of the election determined without there being a general consensus that the process has been thoroughly received.'' If Bush ultimately prevails, he may become only the fourth president to win the White House without also winning the national popular vote. The last time was in 1888, when Republican Benjamin Harrison won the Electoral College vote, but lost the popular vote by about 90,000 votes to Democrat Grover Cleveland. However, which candidate would carry the popular vote also remained in doubt Thursday with more than 1 million absentee ballots in Western states remaining to be counted. Most of those ballots were in California, which Gore carried handily. Given the uncertainty over the election results and the possibility that Bush may win the presidency but fail to capture the popular vote "undermines his legitimacy'' and would make him "a minority president,'' said John Green, a political science professor at the University of Akron. If Gore were to win the presidency and the popular vote, he would still be unable to claim a popular mandate because he cannot win a majority of the popular vote, only a plurality, Green said. Given the narrow margin by which Republicans will control the next Congress, either Gore or Bush would be ill-positioned to enact their agenda on all but a few issues where there a near-consensus, Green said. (Joan Lowy is a reporter for Scripps Howard News Service. E-mail LowyJ(at)shns.com) End<{{ A<>E<>R Forwarded as information only; no endorsement to be presumed + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without charge or profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Integrity has no need of rules. -Albert Camus (1913-1960) + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The libertarian therefore considers one of his prime educational tasks is to spread the demystification and desanctification of the State among its hapless subjects. 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