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 : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: E who wrote (87458)	11/25/2000 6:04:02 PM
From: puborectalis	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Florida ballot counters race the clock Gore gains hundreds of votes on Bush in hand recounts By Rex Nutting & William L. Watts, CBS.MarketWatch.com Last Update: 5:15 PM ET Nov 25, 2000 NewsWatch Latest headlines WASHINGTON (CBS.MW) -- Election boards in Florida's Broward and Palm Beach counties fought fatigue Saturday as they raced to make a Sunday deadline for completing their hand recounts of presidential votes. And in Tallahassee, George W. Bush dropped his statewide legal challenge to how Florida counties disqualified overseas ballots. Based on Associated Press accounts of the tabulation, Vice President Al Gore has cut Texas Gov. George W. Bush's 930-vote lead by 487 votes in Broward County, including 350 from disputed ballots under review. Palm Beach County is not releasing numbers, but Bush had gained seven votes over the last machine count. An observer told the Associated Press that Gore had gained about 50 votes in Palm Beach County. Whoever wins Florida will gain 25 electoral votes and can claim the presidency. Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris is scheduled to accept final vote tabulations Sunday at 5 p.m. Eastern time and has said she will certify an election winner an hour later. On Friday, Bush won a legal victory when the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear his appeal of the Florida Supreme Court's overruling of the secretary of state. The court will take written arguments Tuesday and hear oral arguments Friday. Justices rejected a second motion by Bush's lawyers that challenged the hand recounts in three Florida counties, all Democrat strongholds. A day after the justices' historic move, Palm Beach County' canvassing board had examined about 2,000 of 9,500 questionable ballots. Board Chairman Charles Burton, a county judge, said his panel is not counting dimpled chads on punchcard ballots if votes in non-presidential races on the card are clearly punched. Members of Gore's legal team said Saturday he will challenge the results of Palm Beach County in an attempt to force a more liberal interpretation of what constitutes a voter's intention in punchcard chads that were not punched out. In Broward County, the canvassing board is using a different standard, looking for marks or slivers of light through the cards to determine voters' intent. Additionally Saturday, hundreds of Broward County absentee ballots were found among challenged ballots, alarming Republicans. Gore's campaign vowed Friday to contest election results in Miami-Dade County after the Florida Supreme Court refused on Thursday to force election officials to proceed with a manual recount of presidential ballots. The recounts are likely to be Gore's last hope of overtaking Bush in Florida and winning the presidency. The state Supreme Court justices decided the issue on a conference call during their Thanksgiving celebrations. The Miami-Dade County canvassing board voted Wednesday to stop the recounts, saying it could not complete them before Sunday's deadline, which the Florida top court imposed in a dramatic ruling late Tuesday. See Florida Supreme Court ruling. A senior Gore adviser told the Associated Press, on condition of anonymity, that the vice president plans to give a speech to the nation Monday explaining why he was fighting the Florida vote certification. Neither candidate holds the 270 electoral votes needed for victory in the Electoral College. Florida's 25 electoral votes will determine the victor. Saturday, Bush threw in the towel on a statewide legal maneuver to gain overseas votes. A circuit court judge in Leon County had indicated he would not order a reconsideration of ballots that did not meet legal criteria such as postmarks and witness signatures. Ben Ginsburg, a lawyer for the Bush, told the Associated Press that the campaign instead is suing individual counties ''to require the electoral boards to count the signed ballots of men and women risking their lives on the front lines of America's defenses overseas.'' Six of 14 counties in Bush's suit have already given the rejected ballots another look and the GOP standard-bearer picked up 67 votes. If Gore continues to lag Bush when the state's final tally is certified on Sunday, the Gore campaign is prepared to file suit in state court contesting Miami-Dade's final tally. Gore spokeswoman Jenny Backus said that meant Gore would not concede the election even if Sunday's tally shows that he remained behind Bush. "We want a full, fair and accurate count and the only way left to do that is to file a contest for Miami-Dade," she said. In Tuesday's ruling the state Supreme Court indicated it established its timetable to give either Gore or Bush time to protest the certification of electors, yet still leave time for that issue to be resolved so that Florida's votes will count when the Electoral College meets on Dec. 18. Miami-Dade's decision to halt the recount marked a stunning turnabout for the Gore campaign, which had been dealt a victory on Tuesday night by the Florida Supreme Court. The court's justices ruled unanimously that state election officials must accept recounted ballots in three heavily Democratic counties through Sunday. The Miami-Dade canvassing board ruled unanimously to halt the recount and use the county's machine recount, citing its inability to complete the recount by the Sunday deadline. The county began its recount Monday and had re-tallied less than a third of its 654,000 presidential ballots. Gore's campaign saw Miami-Dade as a potential source of hundreds of votes. Gore leads Bush by about 263,000 votes nationwide out of more than 100 million cast. For now, Gore also holds an Electoral College margin of 267-246. Gore defeated Bush by fewer than 7,000 votes in Oregon and by fewer than 500 in New Mexico. See CBS News' complete election results..........ALSO:http://www.msnbc.com/news/494511.asp

To: E who wrote (87458)	11/25/2000 6:11:21 PM
From: Thomas A Watson	Respond to of 769670

>don't leave thousands of citizens who tried to vote feeling anguished. E. do you really believe that clap trap? Why would expect that any who tried would think that they had failed. If those who tried knew they had failed then indeed they doubly confirm their own stupidity. toM Watson tosiwmee Sore unfit Investors Business Daily watman.com Sore unfit Investors Business Dail

To: E who wrote (87458)	11/26/2000 2:36:16 PM
From: Constant Reader	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

I agree that we need to do more to guarantee the accuracy of our voting system. Not only Florida, but a number of state results (and the nationwide total) are probably well within their margins of error and would not hold up well under close scrutiny. I am afraid that the problems won't go away with the adoption of any system currently used. Computer voting has appeal until one considers how easy it has been for amateurs to hack supposedly invincible computers. Imagine the results of organized mayhem by one or more parties (or interested outsiders - foreign or domestic). Absentee balloting, such as in Oregon, has its appeal, but is easily manipulated. There have been a number of cases in a number of states in recent years where it has been shown that absentee ballots were fraudulently obtained and cast.