-Caveat Lector- Clack, clack, moan, moan, gripe, gripe, lie, lie, ... Get over it. Gore lost-THANK GOD! he lost!!!!!!! Someone ought to take a look at N.Y, also. ============================================== On Wed, 28 Feb 2001 22:37:06 -0800 radman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > -Caveat Lector- > > Tally no! - Keep counting votes in Florida > > <http://www.msnbc.com/news/536050.asp> > > Miami Herald's recount results were sloppy, incomplete > > By Eric Alterman > MSNBC CONTRIBUTOR > Feb. 26, 2001 > > The results are in. The hysterical anger and political maneuvering > that > prevented a final tally of the votes in Florida's presidential race > was for > naught. According to a recount of Miami-Dade County, led by the > Miami > Herald, a hand recount would have given Gore only another 49 votes > there. > EVEN WHEN added to the Gore vote tallies in Volusia, Palm Beach and > Broward > counties, Bush still comes out ahead by 140 votes. You would think > this > figure would finally end the 2000 election controversy. You would be > wrong. > The Herald and its parent company, Knight Ridder, retained a public > accounting firm, BDO Seidman, LLP, to conduct the review. Spending > more > than 80 hours during a three-week period, the reporters and > accountants > examined every "undervote" separately and recorded their findings. > Of course, each time the votes were counted they changed ever so > slightly. > The Heisenberg uncertainty principle is never so true as in the > necessarily > subjective case of vote counting. Hanging chads fall off, pregnant > chads > give birth, writing becomes smudged, etc. > UGLY LESSONS > Unfortunately, the Herald recount proves only one thing: Al Gore and > his > campaign pursued a remarkably foolish and self-defeating > post-election > strategy. In picking only five counties in which to ask for a > recount, the > Gore campaign made two fatal mistakes. First, they gave the > impression that > they were hoping to cherry-pick the result by asking for recounts > only in > those counties where they had the most to gain. This played into > Republican > accusations that Gore was no more interested in a fair vote count > than was > Florida Secretary of State and Republican insider Katherine Harris; > rather, > Gore was arguably trying to lawyer himself into the presidency by > hook and > by crook. > Second and most damning, this strategy was not only > counter-productive from > a public relations standpoint; it was destined to lose. Had Gore won > with a > five-county undercount-only strategy, this victory would likely have > been > overturned by the Florida legislature, or if necessary, the U.S. > House of > Representatives. And as we saw in the end, the Supreme Court was > also > willing to place its own credibility on the line in the end if there > were > no other way to overturn a questionable Gore victory. > The only way for Gore to address all of these potential > pitfalls would have been to undertake the strategy suggested in this > space > when the battle was still raging: to call for a full hand recount in > Florida. A call for a complete recount would have provided a > masterstroke > of favorable publicity for the Gore team. What's more, according to > the > evidence available so far, it would have worked. > When the Supreme Court made its final election ruling last December, > one > argument it gave for overturning the Florida high court's pro-Gore > decision > was the Florida court's refusal (at the Gore's team's request) to > consider > the 110,000 "overvotes," where a machine count recorded more than > one vote > for president. When examined by hand, however, many of these votes > turned > out to be legal, as both the punch card (or check mark) matched the > name of > the candidate written in. > In late December, the Orlando Sentinel took a look at > about 3,000 overvotes in Lake County. The paper found more than 600 > valid > ballots that had been ignored by the machines, with Gore picking up > 130 > even in this heavily pro-Bush county. In late January the Chicago > Tribune > reported that in 15 Florida counties with a particularly high rate > of > overvotes, more than 1,700 votes that showed a clear choice had been > discarded. Most of the counties in the Tribune's study were small, > rural > and predominantly Republican. Yet even so Gore's net gain was 366 > votes. And a Washington Post review of the computer records of 2.7 > million > votes in eight of Florida's largest counties reported that overvotes > trended toward Gore at a rate of three to one. > EXPENSIVE WASTE OF TIME > Add these together, even with the new undervote count, and Bush is > back > cutting brush in Crawford, Texas, while Al Gore is your new > president. But > because it chose to ignore these legal votes in its own recount, the > Herald/Knight Ridder effort is an expensive waste of time, useless > for > everyone but Bush/Republican propagandists. It will be a test of the > media > to treat these results with the critical scrutiny they deserve. (One > paper > which has already failed this test is USA TODAY, which ran the > Herald > results under the misleading headline, "Recount Study: Gore Still > Loses," > thoughtlessly accepting the Herald's flawed counting standards.) > We will not have a genuine answer to these recount questions until > the > consortium of eight newspapers that has contracted for a much fuller > investigation than the Herald's finally completes its report. This > might be > months away. Having shot itself in their collective feet over and > over > during this election, it might behoove media mavens to keep their > mouths > shut and their powder dry until we have a better understanding of > what the > Florida vote-undervotes and overvotes, really tells us. > I'm not holding my breath. > ---- > Eric Alterman is a columnist for The Nation and a regular > contributor to MSNBC. > > <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. > That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, > and > always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no > credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. > > Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. > ======================================================================== > Archives Available at: > http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html > <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives > of > [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> > > http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ > <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A> > ======================================================================== > To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: > SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: > SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Om <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. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
