>>>At least 550 Democratic absentee ballot requests, however, were never processed9—Goard did not have “48 hours in a day” to attend to those.10 She had indeed earlier told Democrats11 and the public in a radio interview12 that she would accept no absentee ballot requests without the voter ID, emphasizing that Florida law required it.13 When the Seminole Democratic Party Chairman, Bob Poe, found out about the GOP fill-in activity and asked for the same opportunity to complete Democratic absentee ballot forms, she refused his request.14
Florida law mandates that all absentee ballots in a county be disqualified if any are tainted.15 In a similar 1998 case, a state appeals court threw out all 5,000 absentee ballots after 400 were found fraudulent and overturned the election of Miami Mayor Xavier Suarez.16 Suarez had won the Miami absentee vote by a lopsided 2-to-1 margin,17 as did Bush in Seminole (10,006 to 5,209; Bush won 56% of the total Seminole County vote).18 A 1994 federal appeals court ruling in Roe v. Alabama, involving partially completed absentee ballots, overturned the election of the chief justice of the
Alabama supreme court.19
Reference List:
9. LA Times, 12/2/2000, p. A20; NY Times, 11/14/2000; NY Times, 11/21/2000.
10. NY Times, 11/14/2000.
11. Affidavits of W. Patrick Westerfield and Steve Hall.
12. US Newswire 12/3/2000.
13. Affidavits of W. Patrick Westerfield and Steve Hall.
14. NY Times 11/13/2000, p. 19; Washington Post, 12/1/2000, p. A25.
15. USA Today, 11/29/2000, p. 4A; CNN 11/30/2000.
16. LA Times 11/21/2000, p. A16; LA Times, 11/13/1997, p. A5; Chicago Tribute, 11/13/2000, p. 8.
17. LA Times, 11/13/1997, p. A5.
18. NY Times 11/13/2000, p. 19; NY Times, 11/21/2000.
19. Wall Street Journal, 11/27/2000, p. A22.
www.campaignwatch.org
PartyTime Solution:
550 Democratic absentee ballots never got sent out to the Democrats so they could vote for their candidate. Perhaps the court should rule fairly that 550 absentee ballots should be deducted from the Bush column. Since Bush got certified with a 537 vote lead over Gore, this would mean that Gore would defeat by by 13 unlucky--call it karma--votes! (LOL) |
