Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Why is Gore Trying to Steal the Presidency? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dr. Voodoo who wrote (478)	11/15/2000 12:52:15 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 3887

Let the Palm Beach Chaos Continue -- It Helps Bush Is Palm Beach County Commissioner Carol Roberts really a Democrat? Of course she is. She's got that Gore-Lieberman sticker on the car, she went to a $1,000-a-plate Gore-Lieberman fundraiser at the Four Seasons in Palm Beach, and in the early days of the campaign she even got to meet the vice president himself in the White House. So yes, Roberts is a Democrat. But by the end of Florida's tortured vote-counting process, she might also be her state's Most Valuable Player in the election of George W. Bush. In this way: Of the four heavily-Democratic counties in which the Gore campaign asked for manual vote recounts, three have now resolved the issue. Volusia County finished its hand count without giving Gore the votes he needs to win. After a sample counting, Broward County decided there was no reason to recount the entire county's votes. And then Dade County did the same thing. That leaves Palm Beach. With Bush holding a certified 300-vote statewide lead while awaiting the final tabulation of overseas absentee ballots, and three of the four Gore target counties finished or out of the hand-counting process, the vice president's hopes for the White House rest almost entirely on Palm Beach -- and on Carol Roberts. For some reason -- let's just say it's entirely a coincidence -- the county is a particularly rich source of votes for the vice president. Just look at the results certified late Tuesday with the Florida secretary of state's office. The machine recount in Dade County netted the vice president only 23 additional votes. In Broward, also by machine, Gore actually lost one vote to Bush. In Volusia County, where a full hand recount was held, Gore's lead increased by 97 votes. But in Palm Beach, which certified a mix of its machine recount and the four precincts counted by hand, the recount gave Gore a net 682 votes. It's hard to deny that the process going on in West Palm Beach is unusually friendly to the vice president. Unusually friendly. Fortunately for George W. Bush, it is also unusually haphazard and chaotic, which will ultimately undermine any legitimacy the Gore campaign might claim for it. And that's where Carol Roberts is helping the Republican cause. We first saw her as Palm Beach County considered whether to hold a recount. How would officials go about it? "We'll all sit down as civilized human beings, and we'll ask the Democratic Party to tell us which three precincts they want to pick," Roberts told the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel. Now that's a civilized standard. Then, a little later, in the early hours of Sunday morning, she showed her determination to mow down any opposition to an immediate hand recount when canvassing board chairman Charles Burton -- who is also a Democrat -- wanted to get a court opinion on whether the county could go ahead with a manual recount. Roberts would have none of it. "I do not feel that we need to have an opinion to tell us what state law is," Roberts, who is not a lawyer, said. "The law is very clear. I also believe that we've heard enough people. I really want to call the vote. I have the right to call the vote." And yesterday, as the canvassing board again considered the question of how to commence with a county-wide manual recount, members inexplicably decided to hold a meeting on the sidewalk in front of their office. That just happened to also be the location of the ongoing protest and (mostly pro-Gore) street theater. As the board members discussed what might happen if they went ahead with the hand recount before getting a court's go-ahead, Roberts interrupted. "What happens then?" she asked. "Do we go to jail. Because I'm willing to go to jail." There was huge applause from the pro-Gore forces, who began screaming, "We want a re-vote. We want a re-vote. We want a re-vote." A clearly irritated Burton tried to quiet the mob. "This is not a political rally," he said. That was perhaps the silliest statement of all. Of course it was a political rally. And that is what will ultimately be a good thing for George W. Bush. Perhaps the luckiest break the Bush forces have received so far was federal judge Donald Middlebrooks' decision to deny a GOP request to stop the Palm Beach hand recount before it began. If Middlebrooks had given Republicans what they wanted, the hand recount would not have happened, and the public might have assumed that it would have been a rational, fair, and efficient process. On Saturday, everyone saw a different picture. Then there was delay. Al Gore's representatives have said repeatedly that they want a quick resolution of the Florida count. But campaign chairman Bill Daley called for a manual recount last Thursday. Palm Beach County did no manual recounting on Friday. It counted one percent of the ballots on Saturday. Then it did no counting on Sunday. Or Monday. Or Tuesday. And remember, it took them ten hours to count that one percent of the votes. Ninety-nine percent of the vote remains for hand tabulation. Is that the deliberate speed that the Gore campaign wants? Now the vote count that is Al Gore's best hope of becoming president might soon begin again. A few days ago, it seemed urgent that Republicans press hard to discredit the Palm Beach manual-recounting process, to show the public that it is erratic and incoherent -- and therefore inherently unreliable. But that task is less pressing now. Imagine this outcome: More than a week after the official state certification, Palm Beach County produces hand-counted results that are tilted toward Al Gore in a way that is grossly disproportionate to the results from any other county in the state, Democrat or Republican. Further, those grossly disproportionate results were produced by a partisan circus that millions of Americans could witness for themselves on television. The GOP won't have to do anything to discredit the Democratic counters of Palm Beach; Carol Roberts & Company are doing just fine by themselves. spectator.org

To: Dr. Voodoo who wrote (478)	11/15/2000 5:14:56 PM
From: Art Bechhoefer	Respond to of 3887

"Do you think fishing for votes in highly democratic counties, where i might add the probability of finding them is EXCEEDINGLY high, is fair?" Fairness dictates that all votes that are legitimate be counted. If machines can't distinguish between a partially punched out hole and a hole not punched at all, then a visual, manual inspection is warranted. If there is a pattern of ballots thrown out by a machine counter, simply because of the so-called chad remaining on the card, then this problem is likely to occur everywhere the ballot is in use. The Republicans have a perfect right to demand similar inspections in every county if they think it might alter the results in their favor, just as the Democrats are demanding counts in the areas most likely to favor Democrats. In a previous response, I noted that my wife lost an electdion by 5 votes. She was running as a Democrat in a district where Republicans and Conservatives outnumber Democrats by more than 3 to 1. When the machine vote was tallied, she was ahead by 3 votes. The Republicans immediately got the voting machines and absentee ballots impounded, and a recount was ordered (by hand for the absentee ballots, and by hand for the tallies from the individual voting machines). After some two weeks, the result was announced, with the Republican ending up the winner. What's the difference between that experience and Florida? Only the numbers of votes. But if you're going to have a fair election, then you've got to expect to spend some time and money to make sure that close elections come out fairly. What other choice would there be in a system based on one person one vote? And of course, this is a statewide issue, as the states have the right to conduct an election. The only time it might go to a federal court is if there is a question of violation of civil rights or some other federal constitutional issue.