Exactly.
The AlGore vote stealing scheme exposed:
The Railroad
"Seek and ye shall find," says the Good Book. No one puts more faith in this proposition than the Vice President's lawyers: Given the time, they know, Democratic counters in Democratic counties seeking more votes for the Democratic candidate for President will find them. Indeed, Time.com already reports that when helpful election officials in Pinellas County, which went for Al Gore, "removed the chaff from ballots before they were submitted for recount by the machines, Gore-Lieberman picked up an additional 417 votes."
It is hard not to admit the obvious: <The Gore campaign is trying to railroad a victory. Nothing captures the true intentions behind this strategy better than the Palm Beach County Canvassing Board's announcement of its 2-1 decision to proceed with a hand count. They held this press conference at 2 a.m. Sunday, in the middle of the night. An excerpt appears below.
Canvassing board member Carol Roberts walked everyone through her math -- there could be 1,900 more votes for Mr. Gore out there! -- and then voted to go ahead with a full hand count. Ms. Roberts was joined in this 2-1 decision by Theresa LePore, a Democrat, and arguably the 2000 election's single most controversial person: She is the designer of the now infamous Palm Beach butterfly ballot.
Unlike Governor Jeb Bush, who recused himself from the state canvassing board, Ms. LePore refused to do so. Given Ms. LePore's standing among Democrats as the person who cost them the White House, by what reasonable standard was she permitted to serve on this board?
Even more telling is the exchange before the vote, in which the board chairman, Judge Charles Burton, also a Democrat, asked for an advisory opinion from the state. At a time when the Gore camp rests its case on the letter of Florida's election law on recounts, what does it say that the two Democratic members of the board were so determined not to hear the state's reading of that law? Read Ms. Roberts's frantic efforts to ram through her desired result.
Then when Secretary of State Katherine Harris announced yesterday morning she intended to adhere to the firm deadline mandated by Florida law, the Gore campaign communications director Mark Fabiani leapt immediately to the ad hominem, labeling her decision to follow Florida law the "naked political act" of a "crony." Campaign spokesman Chris Lehane took it further, likening her to a "Soviet commissar."
There's more. Mr. Gore's lawyers in Palm Beach County rest their legal moral case on what they insist is every citizen's sacred right to vote be honored. Meanwhile in largely Republican Seminole County these same Gore lawyers argue that 4,700 absentee ballot requests be thrown out because GOP officials had (before the election) been allowed to correct a printer's error.
The team of lawyers around Mr. Gore obviously understand the law and its ramifications all too well. In particular they understand that it provides for an Electoral College, sets a deadline for recounts, and does not entertain after-the-fact changes of the rules, whether it be over the counting of ballot "chads" or the tallying of a vote. And so the Gore strategy is staked not on persuading the American public that the Vice President is right, but in casting sufficient public doubt on the system to make the election appear illegitimate, which somehow gives them carte blanche to put every aspect into (legal) play.
There is a certain unavoidable irony in having this spectacle of legal jujitsu created by lawyers for the public official who claimed the defense of no controlling legal authority. It sounded like a strange concept at the time, but it's now clear that Mr. Gore clearly understands its meaning and its uses. Its clear purpose in Florida now is to railroad an outcome.
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Midnight Oil
In the early hours of Sunday morning, the Palm Beach County Canvassing Board voted 2-1 to authorize a manual recount -- as well as to ignore a request to first get a reading of Florida law from the state. The exchange of this 2 a.m. press conference, taken from CNN's Breaking News runs as follows:
Judge Charles Burton (Chair, Palm Beach County Canvassing Board): Can I inquire of the Department of Elections? Assuming this board were to request an advisory opinion --
Carol Roberts (Palm Beach County Canvassing Board): Excuse me, Mr. Chair --
Burton: Hold on.
Roberts: -- but I made the motion and --
Burton: All right, we will vote on it in a moment.
Roberts: Excuse me, but the gentleman said we should be following the laws of the state of Florida. These are the election laws of the state of Florida. And under Chapter 102, I think it's Chapter -- it's 102.166. It's under paren. D. Sorry, it's -- sorry, it's paren. five. If the manual recount indicates an error in the tabulation which could affect the outcome of the election, the County Canvassing Board shall -- this is the law -- correct the error and recount the remaining precincts with a vote tabulation system.
That's A. B, request the Department of State to verify the software or manually recount all ballots. Under existing state law, I do not feel that we need to have an opinion to tell us what state law is. The law is very clear. I also believe, Mr. Chair, that we've heard enough people. I really want to call the vote. I have the right to call the vote. And if you'd like to take a vote on calling the vote, I'll make that.
Burton: All right. Thank you, Commissioner. The Chair would like to recognize one other person from the Department of Elections. Your name, please.
Carrie Carpenter (Assistant General Counsel for the Department of State): My name is Carrie Carpenter and I'm Assistant General Counsel for the Department of State and I believe that the Department could be helpful in providing assistance with interpreting the statute that was just read.
The Department is authorized under the elections code to provide advisory -- formal advisory opinions on the election laws of the state of Florida. And does so, regularly, whenever the interpretation of a statute is questioned or in doubt, or perhaps if there may be more than one interpretation of a statute. For example, in this particular statute that was just read which reads, "if the manual recount indicates an error in the vote tabulation which could affect the outcome of the election, the County Canvassing Board shall . . ." and then it lists three things. However, you really don't get to those three options unless that criteria has been satisfied. And an interpretation of that could be helpful because it is my understanding that it is the Department's position that when a manual recount for the entire county is done, it is because the manual recount of the one percent demonstrated some type of error in the equipment, in the machines that were used. And if what this board found today was not an error of that type, but, instead, was an error of voter -- of voter error. For example, if a voter did not push a chad completely through, or a voter did some other type of voting error by not following voting instructions and that caused the machine not to properly read the ballot. That is not the type of error that can be attributed to an error with a machine. And, therefore, that would not be a vote tabulation error that would affect the outcome. It would be a voter error that may affect the outcome. And so I believe that we can provide assistance in giving an interpretation, a formal advisory opinion to this board.
Burton: And just one other quick question. Quick question.
Roberts: I'd like to answer --
Burton: One quick question.
Roberts: I'd like to answer her --
Burton: Please. Assuming we were to ask for an opinion, when could we receive it?
Carpenter: You could receive it tomorrow.
Burton: All right.
Roberts: Mr. Chair, I was -- I was -- I was involved in a recount that produced the immediate past senator of the state of Florida. It was the Mac McKay recount. At no time did anyone ever have the allegation that there was anything wrong with the machines. There was a hand manual recount because I was part of that. And that hand manual recount was actually asked for for the same reasons that I am asking for this now. And I believe based on that, and I will tell you that this is not -- that was not the only manual hand recount that I have been involved with. I was involved with a manual hand recount of a state representative's race. It was also asked for. Not because there was any question about the machine tabulations, but because there was a question about the error in the actual count. And I still would like to call the vote. I would like to call the vote.
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