Sour grapes? Seems like you don't know the meaning. Last I heard Bush won the election and the Democrats are using every tactic, by hook or crook, to change the outcome. Since you are such a proud Democrat can you think of any other ways that the military votes can be blocked. If you can this will be a big feather in your hat at the DNC.
Gore campaign 'trying to block military votes'
By Stephen Robinson in Washington and Toby Harnden in Tallahassee
Court battle as Bush clings on
THE painfully slow manual recount of Florida ballot papers took its most
acrimonious turn yesterday when Republicans accused the Gore campaign of
deliberately excluding servicemen's postal votes to fix the election.
Governor George W Bush comfortably won the overseas absentee vote by
1,380 votes to Vice-President Al Gore's 750 but, after vigorous challenges
by Gore canvassers, 1,527 of the postal ballots, many of them from soldiers
and sailors on active service, were rejected.
With the two candidates just 930 votes apart, every ballot paper counts and
is being intensely fought over by Democratic and Republican party officials.
Gen Norman Schwarzkopf, the Gulf war commander who now lives in
Florida, led Republican condemnation of a five-page guide which advised
Democratic tellers how to raise objections to the postal votes.
He said: "It is a very sad day in our country when the men and women of the
armed forces are serving abroad and facing danger of a daily basis . . . and
are denied the right to vote for the president of the United States who will be
their commander in chief."
Democratic tellers were advised to block ballots if there was no clearly legible
postmark on the envelope, which is frequently the case when letters are
posted from military bases. Normally, these ballots pass unchallenged.
Opinions are now hardening and many Republicans are seething at the Gore
campaign's tactics.
Marc Racicot, the Republican Governor of Montana, said: "Last night we
learned how far the Vice-President's campaign will go to win this election.
And I am very sorry to say that the Vice-President's lawyers have gone to
war in my judgment against the men and women who serve in our armed
services."
The apparent effort to suppress the military vote put the Democrats on the
defensive, particularly as it coincided with news that 39 prisoners, including
murderers and rapists, had been allowed to vote in one
Democratic-controlled county in violation of state law.
Senator Joe Lieberman, Mr Gore's running mate, appeared on yesterday's
morning television shows to argue the case for the defence but he was
non-committal when asked if he would instruct Democrats to allow the
disputed postal ballots to be counted.
Thus far, Democrats have remained loyal to Mr Gore, publicly backing his
decision to fight the election through the courts. But there is a growing sense
of unease behind the scenes and a feeling that Mr Gore's interests in winning
the White House may diverge from the Democratic party's interests in
remaining respectable in the eyes of the electorate.
The disclosure that the party tried to stop soldiers voting while apparently
encouraging convicted criminals to do so could help turn public opinion
against a sustained legal campaign from the Gore team. With the Thanksgiving
holiday on Thursday, there is a general desire to have the matter settled
rapidly.
Republicans sought to damage Mr Gore's credibility by seizing on every
potential flaw in the hand recount now under way or planned in three
Democratic-controlled counties.
Karen Hughes, Mr Bush's communications director, said: "We now have
clear and compelling evidence from eyewitnesses that this manual recount
process is fundamentally flawed and . . . distorting, reinventing and
miscounting the true intentions of the voters of Florida."
The Bush campaign was planning to send scores of extra lawyers and staff
members to Miami today to oversee the hand recount there.
In Palm Beach, Judge Charles Burton, the Democratic county judge
overseeing the hand count, pleaded with counters and observers for civility
after a fracas broke out when a counter accidentally put a ballot in the wrong
pile. He said: "You would have thought she'd killed 14 people."
In Duval county, a conservative area in northern Florida, 10 lawyers from
each campaign scrutinised 600 or so postal ballots. Democrats challenged
many of them, and 107 were eventually declared invalid after hours of
wrangling.
Jim Post, a Republican lawyer, said: "A large majority were military. They
were trying to get rid of everyone because this area of the state is
conservative." |
