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Robert Sterling
Editor, The Konformist
http://www.konformist.com
'Slobo' Bush
Sun, 19 Nov 2000
consortiumnews.com - http://www.consortiumnews.com
CNN's tally of the nation's popular vote shows Al Gore leading by
about a
quarter million votes. It appears Gore was the popular choice in
Florida,
too, but for misapplied votes and other irregularities in the state
governed by Gov. George W. Bush's brother.
Given his status as the apparent popular-vote loser, one might think
Bush
would bend over backwards to ensure fairness in Florida for the tens
of
thousands of Gore voters whose ballots were kicked out for a variety
of
reasons. That way, Bush might salvage some legitimacy for his
presidency
should he manage to hold Florida and "win" the Electoral College.
Instead, the Bush campaign has done all it could to block voters in
three
Democratic counties from having a manual recount, ironically after
Bush
benefited from hand recounts in several Republican counties.
Bush's high-handed behavior could invite a new nickname -- "Slobo
Bush" --
after the Yugoslavian strongman Slobodan Milosevic who lost the
popular
vote in a presidential election that he then tried to short-circuit.
But
at least Milosevic had the good grace, eventually, to bow to the
popular
will and let the people's choice take office.
For more on Bush's double standards, go to Consortiumnews.com at
http://www.consortiumnews.com
*****
November 19, 2000
Bush Gained Hand Recounts
By Mollie Dickenson
Twelve days after the presidential election, two key facts seem
apparent, jointly indicating that Al Gore was the popular choice for
president.
According to the latest CNN figures, Vice President Gore is winning
the national popular vote by more than a quarter million ballots, a
narrow but clear lead.
Gore also appears to have been the choice of Florida voters, though
thousands had their votes not count because they were turned away
from the polls, mistakenly punched a hole for Pat Buchanan on an
improperly designed ballot, or saw their votes kicked out by vote-
counting machines.
Given these twin realities, one might expect the popular-vote loser �
Texas Gov. George W. Bush � to bend over backwards to assure that the
Florida outcome enhances whatever legitimacy he might bring with him
if he "wins" the White House through the Electoral College.
The honorable thing would be to make sure Gore's supporters have
every chance to compensate for the series of mishaps and abuses that
occurred in the state governed by Bush's brother and run by his
brother's cronies.
Instead, the opposite has happened. For the past 10 days, George W.
Bush and allies of Florida Gov. Jeb Bush have blocked Florida's
southeastern � largely Democratic � counties from hand recounting
their ballots until a deadline had passed for adding them to the
total.
This occurred although Bush himself received at least 418 hand-
counted ballots primarily from Republican counties. Those hand-
counted results made it possible for Bush to remain continuously in
the lead by a margin that began at 1,784 and, publicly at least, went
as low as 225 votes.
On the basis of those slim and changing margins, the nation's pundits
called upon Al Gore to concede Florida's 25 electoral votes and thus
the presidency to Bush, despite widely reported voting irregularities
involving tens of thousands of ballots.
The Orlando Sentinel, for instance, reported that over 180,000
ballots had been kicked out of Florida's computerized counting
machines. According to The Washington Post, 11 of Florida's 67
counties did not even conduct machine recounts, a process that had
found Gore's statewide total undercounted by more than 1,400 votes.
When the Democrats exercised their right to request a manual recount
in three counties � Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach � the
Republicans sought to block those recounts through state edict and a
federal court challenge.
The Bush campaign sued in federal district court to stop hand
counting. Failing there, the campaign went to the very conservative
federal court of appeals in Atlanta, where the campaign was rebuffed
again.
Secretary of State
On the state front, Secretary of State Katherine Harris, a co-chair
of the Bush campaign in Florida, issued an edict on Nov. 14 ordering
the hand-counters to cease. That move was countermanded by Florida's
Attorney General, Bob Butterworth, a Democrat.
Still, the delays and confusion left no manual recount from those
three counties finished at a deadline of 5 p.m., Nov. 14, set by
Harris.
At that point, Harris certified Bush's 300-vote lead as the official
result, pending overseas absentee ballots. She also demanded that the
Democratic counties submit in writing their justifications for doing
hand recounts by 2 p.m. the next day.
After receiving the explanations, Harris promptly rejected the
reasoning. She declared that she was exercising her legally
sanctioned "discretion" and would exclude late-arriving hand-counted
votes from the southern counties from the certified total. Only
overseas absentee ballots, received after Election Day and expected
to favor Bush, would be allowed.
Referring to the obstacles placed in the way of the hand recounts, a
Gore lawyer said it was like a policeman forcing a motorist to pull
over, then blaming him for the traffic piling up behind him.
For its part, the Bush campaign was showing no humility over losing
the national vote and benefiting from voting irregularities in
Florida.
Bush spokeswoman Karen Hughes accused the Democratic counties of "no
longer counting ballots; they are `reinventing' them." Her comment
was an obvious slap at Gore's supposed character flaws, based in part
on the famous media misquote of Gore's mythical claim to
have "invented the Internet."
[For more on the media's mis-reporting, see our earlier story,
Protecting Bush Cheney or see Bob Somerby's detailed analysis at
DailyHowler.com.]
James Baker III, a senior adviser to former President George H.W.
Bush and now to his son, accused the hand counters from the three
counties of "subjective" attempts to "divine the intent of the
voter." The Bush family's consigliere added that hand-counted votes
present "tremendous opportunities for human error and ... mischief."
Democrats called Baker's statements hypocritical, pointing out that
six mostly Republican counties have partially hand counted their
ballots and found 418 additional votes for Bush. (Those counties are:
Franklin, Hamilton, Seminole, Washington, Taylor, and Lafayette.)
If hand-counted votes were so suspect, Democrats said, why not remove
them from Bush's count? The answer seemed to be that doing so would
have put Gore ahead, at least temporarily.
Baker's Democratic counterpart, former Secretary of State Warren
Christopher, said the fact that "Republicans have hand counted in
many of the counties themselves" belied Republican charges that "we
have picked out a certain few counties."
When a reporter asked Bush spokeswoman Hughes if Bush would accept
his hand-counted votes, she did not respond, and ended the press
conference. Likewise, Baker avoided a reporter's question about the
Bush hand-counted tally saying, "Some hand counting was done from
which we benefited," whereupon he ended his press conference.
Indeed, Bush has accepted 418 hand-counted votes as part of his
total, as well as 143 hand-counted votes from Volusia County, and
probably many others tallied before Secretary of State Harris's
deadline.
Pundit Worries
Despite hand-wringing from the punditocracy over the hand recounts in
strongly Democratic counties, there have been few reports in the
major media about the manual recounts in Republican-dominated
counties and how and why they were conducted.
With Bush hoping to claim the presidency with an announcement by
Harris on Nov. 18, the battle raged over the three Democratic
counties.
Despite the obstacles, Broward pressed ahead with its count. Palm
Beach and Miami-Dade, however, waited for the Florida State Supreme
Court's decision on Nov. 16, giving them the go-ahead.
Harris petitioned the state Supreme Court to stop the hand counting,
saying it was being done without "coherent standards" and
threatened "the integrity of the ballots." She didn't say whether
those concerns applied to Bush's hand-counted ballots. The court
rejected her petition without comment.
Still, the Bush drive to discredit the hand-counting continued
unabated. Bush supporters stepped up attacks on the vote canvassers
in Palm Beach County, even alleging that they were committing fraud.
Harris, under heavy fire herself, has said that the outspoken
Democratic canvasser, Carol Roberts, should recuse herself. A
Republican count watcher in Palm Beach County accused Roberts of
corruptly manipulating and over-handling the ballots.
Roberts refused to recuse herself, and denied the charge of
corruption. A lawyer who was serving as a Palm Beach Democratic count
observer told CNN that any charge of corruption against Roberts
was "a lie."
For their part, the Democrats have accused the Bush camp of hypocrisy
for decrying hand recounts in Florida after Gov. Bush signed a law
endorsing them in Texas.
The Texas Election Code, under "Manual Counting, Chapter 127, Section
127.130," states: "Standards by which to judge votes: At least two
corners of chad are detached, light is visible through hole, an
indentation on the chad from the stylus or other object is present
and indicates a clearly ascertainable intent of the voter to vote, or
the chad reflects by other means a clearly ascertainable intent of
the voter to vote."
The national press corps has been slow to grasp the game that Bush
and his operatives are playing - one of stopping hand counts by
Democratic counties, then saying it's too late for those votes to be
counted.
Instead, pundits have been advising Gore to step aside and wait until
2004, as though there were no major issues, such as Social Security,
Medicare, health care, the environment, etc., at stake.
As the week ended, Harris seemed poised to declare Bush the winner,
once the overseas ballots were counted. Then, on Nov. 17, the Florida
Supreme Court enjoined Harris from certifying the election
totals "until further order from this Court." A hearing was set for
Monday.
Bush gained ground from the overseas ballots, with his lead growing
to 960 votes, buoying the hopes of the Bush camp that the margin
could make any concern about the hand recounts moot.
It was unclear whether a simple hand recount of the three counties
could overcome Bush's total. The recount would not address the issues
raised by the mistaken Buchanan votes and similar errors that
apparently cost Gore thousands of ballots.
Yet, whatever the outcome, Gov. Bush clearly benefited from the
psychological edge of having continuously led in Florida, a state
that, like the nation as a whole, seems actually to have favored Vice
President Gore.
Mollie Dickenson is an investigative reporter based in the
Washington, D.C., area.
*****
Mike Boettcher on the election battle's journey to Florida Supreme
Court
November 19, 2000
Web posted at: 10:30 p.m. EST (0330 GMT)
TALLAHASSEE, Florida (CNN) -- As vote counting proceeded in three
Florida counties, attorneys for Democrat Al Gore's presidential
campaign asked the Florida Supreme Court to set the standards
for "determining the voter's intent" during the recounting of
ballots. The issue only becomes essential if the Florida court allows
hand counts to continue at all.
The Democrat's filing Sunday afternoon was in reply to George W.
Bush's written arguments explaining why Republicans want the state
Supreme Court to stop hand recounts from being included in the final
tally. Oral arguments will be heard in Tallahassee on Monday.
With Bush leading in unofficial tallies, his campaign argues that the
hand recounting process is prone to human error and tainted by
Democratic bias. Gore's side says the tedious hand counting that
could continue into next month is the only fair way to proceed.
Latest developments:
� In papers filed today with the Florida Supreme Court, the Gore
campaign argued that Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris used
a new and narrow interpretation of a state election law to exclude
manual recounts. Democrats urged the court to order her to refrain
from declaring a presidential winner without the manual recounts.
They also asked the court to provide standards on how to count
partially punched ballots. (More on today's legal filings)
� Earlier, attorneys for Bush argued in their filing with the state
high court that Florida law sets a clear deadline for election
returns -- November 14. Republicans argued that the state's top
election official -- Harris -- was correct when she stuck to the
deadline.
� The Florida Supreme Court today rejected a motion from Harris that
the 120 minutes scheduled for oral arguments Monday be divided three
ways so that she could present her own arguments. Harris also filed a
brief with the high court today saying she acted correctly in denying
the validity of hand recounts.
� In Miami-Dade County, punch-card ballots are being sorted by
machine today in advance of a hand recount set to begin on Monday;
the hand recount could take about two weeks to complete. Machine
sorting isolates questionable ballots so that election officials can
use their discretion in determining if they should be counted.
Although a state judge today rejected a bid by Republicans to stop
the Miami-Dade recount process, a hearing on the issue may be held on
Monday. Republicans argue that sorting ballots by machine could
damage them and potentially change the election outcome.
(Presidential vote recounts yield few changes so far, officials say)
� In Miami-Dade County, machine-sorting of ballots stopped today at 5
p.m., after ballots from 502 of 611 precincts were sorted. County
election officials earlier denied a Republican request to photograph
the floor of the tabulation room, where the GOP said thousands of
chad -- the tiny pieces of paper that drop off when a punch-card vote
is cast -- were knocked off ballots as they were run through the
machines.
� Palm Beach County resumed its hand recount today amid signs of
tension. A fracas broke out when a counter accidentally put a ballot
in the wrong stack, causing election officials to urge everyone
involved in the process to be polite to one another. (More on the
recount in Palm Beach County)
� As Broward County today resumed its hand recount, which it hopes to
complete by Monday, Republicans accused local election officials of
bowing to political pressure on the chad issue. At first, the county
canvassing board disqualified ballots with dimpled or one corner
chads. Later, however, the board reversed itself and said it would
consider such ballots. By 2:20 p.m. Sunday, votes in 309 precincts
had been counted by hand, with a net gain of 92 votes for Gore. (More
on the Broward recount)
� Bush and his wife, Laura, attended church today in Austin, Texas.
Earlier in the day, the Texas governor went jogging. Bush, a fan of
the Texas rock band ZZ Top, wore a baseball cap bearing the group's
name.
� Gore, who is in Washington, canceled today's planned trip home to
Tennessee, where he had been scheduled to attend an annual conference
that he founded, aides say. Instead, he will speak to the Family Re-
Union conference in Nashville by satellite.
� Regardless of how the partisan fight turns out, President Clinton
does not believe his successor will be politically crippled and
unable to govern the nation. "I don't think we should have all these
hand-wringing, dire predictions," Clinton told CNN today during an
exclusive interview. Clinton, who was interviewed while traveling in
Vietnam, also rejected speculation that the contested election leaves
the United States in a constitutional crisis. (More from Clinton
interview)
� Gore's running mate today refused to rule out further legal action
if Democrats lose in the Florida Supreme Court on the issue of
including hand-counted votes in the state's final, official
tally. "All options remain on the table for now," Joseph Lieberman
told CNN. He's also urging Florida vote-counters to reconsider
military absentee ballots that were thrown out on technicalities.
(More comments from Lieberman)
� A final tally of overseas absentee ballots showed Bush expanding
his lead in the state to 930 votes out of 6 million cast.
� Hundreds of overseas absentee ballots were rejected for late
postmarks, postmarks from within the United States and lack of
witness signatures. Republicans accused Democrats of attempting to
disqualify the votes of U.S. troops abroad. It is unclear what
percentage of the rejected ballots were from U.S. armed forces.
� In a unanimous ruling Friday, the Florida Supreme Court stopped
Harris from disallowing the hand recounts and certifying Bush the
winner, at least until it can consider the recount issue. This left
open the possibility that tallies from hand recounts in heavily
Democratic Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties could still
give Florida and the White House to Gore.
� In Seminole County, a state Circuit Court judge is considering a
case filed by a Democratic activist that seeks to invalidate 4,700
absentee ballots in the predominantly Republican county.
� On Monday, a state Circuit Court judge is scheduled to rule whether
he has the authority under the U.S. Constitution to order a new
presidential election in Palm Beach County, where Democrats say the
county's so-called butterfly ballot confused voters and resulted in
miscast ballots.
� A Republican observer in the Broward County recount accuses a
Democrat of eating some chad, the tiny pieces of paper that fall out
when a punch-card vote is cast. The Republican, Jim Rowland, says an
unidentified Democrat licked his finger, stuck it in a pile of chad
on a table and put his finger in his mouth. Rowland says he did not
report the incident to election officials.
What's at stake
Today marks the 12th day following the November 7 election that the
United States does not have a president-elect.
Results so far from hand recounts have produced higher figures for
Gore than the original machine count did, and his campaign hopes the
full manual recounts in the three counties, where as many as 1.7
million ballots were cast, will add to his vote total.
Control of the White House for the next four years hinges on
Florida's 25 electoral votes. With Florida's outcome undetermined,
Gore has 255 of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White
House, while Bush has 246.
Gore continued to lead in the nationwide popular vote by about
215,000 votes out of the more than 100 million cast.
CNN Miami Bureau Chief John Zarrella, National Correspondent Tony
Clark, Senior Political Correspondent Candy Crowley, Senior White
House Correspondent John King, Congressional Correspondent Chris
Black, Correspondents Susan Candiotti, Charles Zewe, Bill Hemmer,
Patty Davis, Deborah Feyerick, The Associated Press and Reuters
contributed to this report, written by CNN.com Senior Writer Jim
Morris.
*****
Sat, 18 Nov 2000
Lee Markland <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
This claim about voter fraud by flexing punch cards is spurious and
phoney.
I just spent 15 minutes flexing a punch card and couldn't make it do
anything at all. However if it was punched, and there was a chad,
then I
could open the hole a little.
Most folk are too young to even remember punch cards (old computer
technology) and most folk have never processed punch cards.
The IBM 360 system uses a card
that is solid (not perforated) until punched. The card is inserted
into
a device and then punched with a stylus or usually a machine. The
machine
is designed to make a rectangular punch in a solid piece of cardboard,
however as anyone who has ever used a paper punch knows, the punched
hole does not necessarily fall out, and pieces do "hang", and if the
machine was set up so that when a specific lever was pulled, the
punch was
not made clean through and thus would show a dimple or in current
parlance
a "pregnant" chad.
Thus a minor adjustment in the tension, say in the Gore selection,
could
easily result in a vote being cast, but no punch resulting. The voter
doesn't know what happened, because after the remove the card from the
machine all they can see is the hole and rows with numbers and
rectangles,
there is no information on the card that will enable them to audit and
double check their selection.
The charge of fraud against the election supervisor is spurious and
misconceived, eyewitness accounts aside.
The persons who have made the charge are either technically ignorant
or
ideologically motivated.
Lee
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