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

To: zonkie who wrote (94816)	11/29/2000 8:12:44 PM
From: Neocon	Respond to of 769669

The AP story, which appears to be the most complete, said that the pre-printing was common to both parties, but had been screwed up by the Republican's printer. I have no independent knowledge, of course. Even as the statute has been described, it does not look like the voters should be penalized, although it is conceivable that those who "tampered" might be, so I think your conjecture is good.......

To: zonkie who wrote (94816)	11/29/2000 8:46:33 PM
From: PartyTime	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769669

>>>What I originally heard was that the absentee ballot applications had been printed without the line or box on them in which the voter registration number would have been entered. The ballot applications were sent out like this but they included in the instructions that the voter must include the number. 4700 people sent the application back without the number and that is when the republican lady in Seminole county allowed people to come into her office space and finish filling in the applications. I have no idea at this time whether this is true or not.<<< Zonkie, you gave a nice and fair-balanced account as to what you think may have happened in Seminole County. Forgive me if I appear more partisan; however, when situations like this happen tough questions and a gleaning eye for speculation becomes necessary. That written, let me move to the operative sentence in what you wrote: "The ballot applications were sent out like this but they included in the instructions that the voter must include the number." The Republican operatives bypassed the voters' right to comply with the instructions on the ballot application because rather than leaving open the option for the voter to include their individual Voter ID Numbers, the operatives took this step for them, in effect making a choice for them. That's wrong. One might, to get a better view on this, read back on this thread into the numerous statements by Republicans who were so willing to not hand count the ballots in the four counties because voting instructions existed on the voting machines in those counties. But this is not surprising, since so many of this same crowd defended Dick Cheney not voting in 14 of the past 16 elections. Anyway, the Seminole County ballots of Democrats and Independents never got sent out, because Voter ID Numbers were not included within their respective applications. In effect, the Republican operatives bypassed the instructions for those voting for Bush, while Gore, Nader, et. al. supporters never got their ballots sent to them. The above is a violation fo equal protection. >>>I have also heard the numbers were put on the applications before they were sent to the voters in the first place. If that is the case I wonder why if they were printed wrong that the republicans who added the numbers didn't just draw a box on the application or print a separate piece of paper for the voter to enter the number.<<< Doing that not only would have been more equitable, but it would have taken the wind out of any sails of contention in the matter. >>>In any case I think the Judge will rule that the votes will count at this time but someone or more than one person will be at least fined over it. The lady that allowed them to enter the numbers has a good chance of losing her job too.<<< I'm not sure the court will rule this way, especially in light of Florida's history of voting irregularity when it comes to absentee ballots. The extra scrutiny of these ballots, in the aftermath of the controversial '97 Miami mayoral race, is what caused so many military absentee ballots to be discarded, contrary to GOPwinger claims Gore did that. Also, and significantly, the same thing happened in Marin County. Given all the obscene millions of dollars Bush raised in his campaign, it might have been prudent to have printed new forms, or at least demanded that the printer reprint them for free under "RUSH." There are three problems with what the Republican-dominated canvassing boards allowed in this matter: First, in Seminole County, two GOP functionaries were left ALONE for many, many hours over 10 days in the same office where the chief election technology officer is located, and where countless other voter registration and absentee ballot information was stored and the entire databank for the county. Secondly, they weren't supposed to be in that office anyway. Thirdly, Democrats were never provided a similiar option to review Mule-like applications. Let's see, who was it? Oh, that's right. Many of you almost forgot. It was James Baker. Yup! He's the one who got on a national stage in front of so, so many American Flags and claimed Democrat-controlled canvassing boards could resort to "mischief" in the hand count. I guess his 'boys' are squeaky clean, huh? So guess what happened folks? You guessed right! The GOP absentee ballots came in like a herd of elephants in Bush's behalf! Now, in Marin County, guess who gave the OK for the GOPwingers to take the absentee ballot applications in their homes in order to assign Voter ID numbers to 'em? Why it was none other than Ambassador-elect Harris! Meanwhile, this Republican-dominated canvassing board allowed the Democrat and Independent voter applications while away, going nowhere. While these GOP functionaries were in these private-entrance only offices, did they do a count of the Democratic applications? Did they, because of this special privilege, then know how many absentee ballots they had to submit in order to best Gore by a two to one margin? No matter how you look at it, unless you're the type who defends Dick Cheney's voting record, this is pretty scammy and obviously an advantage to the GOPside, in violation of equal protection.