OK, according to the below reference, Gore leads Bush by 709 votes.
salon.com
Now, this total comes without the Seminole County 4,100 vote controversial votes now in the Bush column and without the butterfly ballot 22,000 controversy where a stastical apportionment could assign Gore at least 11,000 more votes.
And I suspect Gore, under standard handcount counting procedures used in virtually all states which allow them, would have gotten more votes out of Volusia County, a county almost everyone seems to have forgetten about.
Sprinkle in a bit of voter disenfranchisement amongst minority voters--there's still more to hear about on this!--and I think it all adds up to a solid Gore lead, and one sufficient enough that the networks had it called right when they initially called Florida in the Gore column.
Given the Seminole County absentee ballot behavior and other isolated mischief reports we've heard about, maybe Florida originally was bagged for Bush. But what I don't think the baggers counted on was such a strong minority turnout which made a state where the table was set for the Bush column, to become a Gore state won under the most adverse conditions.
Hey, how do you think Bush is gonna feel if he actually gets, not wins, the presidency, and freedom of information requests finally and ultimately show Gore got more votes than Bush? Think Bush will squirm and smirk in office? Probably not. You see, he and his buddies will be dancing to GOPwinger dollar signs and are perfectly capable of showing a stoneface that would rival Rush Limbaugh! |
