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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (85526)	11/15/2000 7:06:47 PM
From: Skeeter Bug	Respond to of 132070

nadine, we don't know reality. nobody does. except democratic partisans. hey, and gore doesn't think they know the truth or he wouldn't sue to have them count indentations...

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (85526)	11/15/2000 7:59:21 PM
From: Dennis O'Bell	Respond to of 132070

It's evident that the finger pointing and fine grain analysis will never end on this issue. But this misses one essential point. This election is not really being "decided" by a handful of senile retirees, it was in a sense decided some time ago. How many votes were there in Florida, 6 million? OK, we write off the substantial percentage of voters with read-only minds, but that still leaves plenty of voters who, at some point were tipped one way or the other by the stupidity of one or other of the candidates or parties. I really think that whoever loses this election has only himself to blame for not obtaining enough votes to have a decisive victory. I'm not saying the system has functioned perfectly here, and do hope that some evidently needed improvements in the voting procedures are put in place, but the decision is now in the noise for a reason and it ain't butterfly ballots.

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (85526)	11/15/2000 11:10:26 PM
From: Don Lloyd	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 132070

Nadine - Other elections are irrelevant. In this election, Buchanan received no more than 500 or 600 votes in any Florida county, even the most conservative, which receiving 3400 votes in a predominantly Democratic district. Buchanan says he believes most of those votes were not intended for him. Over a thousand Palm Beach voters have signed affidavits saying that they meant to vote for Gore but think they voted for Buchanan. Saying that Buchanan really got those 3400 votes simply flies in the face of reality. Even ignoring the power of suggestion, I have no problem with 1000 confused Gore voters, or even more. However, the assertion that Buchanan could not have received 3407 votes on his own defies logic. If Willie Logan could get 4385 votes on the same punch card ballots in the US Senate race, if Joe Simonetta could get 2952 votes in the US Senate race also on the same punch card ballots, if a Reform Party candidate could receive 3000+ votes in the state senate race, why should 3407 votes be impossible for Pat B.? As long as the polling place has enough capacity, it doesn't matter if there were another 1M Democrats in Palm Beach county, he still will be just as able to get 3407 votes. The final issue is whether or not Palm Beach county has some special potential for registering Buchanon votes. There are known to be 16K registrations that are neither R or D, and few would bother to so register without being an enthusiastic voter. So there is potential. Buchanon received 8K votes in the Republic primary in 1996, so at least it is not impossible to vote for him. In the end, Buchanon's vote totals will be a combination of intended votes, confused votes, and lost votes from voided ballots. I don't know what his total is made up of, but I see no reliable evidence that rules out a large portion of them being intended votes. In any case, it doesn't matter for the count. Any valid ballot for Buchanan will be counted for him alone, and any double punched ballot will be voided. (all assuming honest procedures) It is known beyond a reasonable doubt that the primary numerical source of confusion originated in the Democrats' initial instructions to their more challenged voters to merely punch the second bubble for Gore, not realizing that they were working on an erroneous assumption that that would be the Gore position. Regards, Don