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

To: rajaggs who wrote (99558)	12/3/2000 4:17:53 PM
From: PartyTime	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

12/02/2000 Los Angeles Times Home Edition Page A-20 Copyright 2000 / The Times Mirror Company TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Incensed that Republican officials in eastern Florida allowed GOP operatives to take flawed absentee ballot forms home and correct them, a Democratic voter filed yet another lawsuit Friday, this one seeking to toss out 6,000 votes cast for Texas Gov. George W. Bush. The lawsuit alleges that Martin County Supervisor of Elections Peggy S. Robbins gave "Republican Party personnel unfettered and unsupervised access" to the application forms. The documents, though they had already been declared invalid, were fixed so likely Republican voters could cast absentee ballots. Democrats did not receive the same opportunity to correct absentee request forms with mistakes on them. Florida law says that only a voter, an immediate family member or a guardian can fill out an absentee ballot application. Democrats contend that the arrangement between Robbins, an elected Republican, and GOP representatives constitutes election fraud. Republicans concede the forms were corrected but said the actions do not constitute election fraud--the only standard under which votes can be thrown out. "There are no allegations in the complaint that the ballots were fraudulently cast or fraudulently counted," said Ron Labasky, a Tallahassee attorney representing Martin County election officials. Because it is impossible to filter the disputed ballots from the rest of the pile, Democrats have asked Circuit Judge Terry Lewis in Tallahassee to throw out all 9,773 absentee ballots cast in Martin County, a conservative area north of West Palm Beach. Nearly 6,300 of those votes were cast for the GOP's Bush, while 3,479 were cast for his Democratic rival, Vice President Al Gore. If the suit is successful--and a Democratic attorney acknowledged Friday that it is an "uphill fight"--the move would mean a net gain of 2,815 votes for Gore, more than enough to make up Bush's slim lead in Florida. The suit is similar to one filed in Seminole County. There, the supervisor of elections, an elected Republican, admitted that she allowed two GOP representatives to use a back room of her office to correct flawed absentee ballot applications. Gerald F. Richman, an attorney for the Democratic voter who brought the Seminole County case, said Friday night he has confirmed that Republican representatives corrected 2,132 absentee ballot forms. Once they were corrected, the ballots were sent to the voters, 1,936 of whom sent back actual votes. An estimated 95% of them voted for Bush, Richman said. "The whole thing smells," he said. Weeks before the Nov. 7 election, both parties sent thousands of postcards to Florida voters likely to back their candidate. The cards were supposed to require only the voter's signature before an absentee ballot would be sent to their home. But a contractor hired by the GOP botched the cards and printed the voter's birthday in a spot reserved for voter identification numbers. That made the cards invalid, by state law. Republicans realized their mistake in both counties and were allowed to correct it so the absentee votes would be counted. More than 550 Democrats who received different postcards also sent in flawed absentee ballot applications in Seminole County. The application forms were missing at least one of the pieces of information required by state law before an actual ballot could be sent to the voter, such as the last four digits of the voter's Social Security number or the voter identification number. "[The Democrats' ballot forms] were missing one of the magic pieces of information too. But they were never rescued," said Kent Spriggs, a Tallahassee attorney who is representing the Democratic voter challenging the presidential election in Seminole County. Democrats point out that altering an absentee ballot application is a third-degree felony in Florida. "When a public official allows partisans to remove public records from her office, alter them and resubmit them, I believe that is fraud," said Ed Stafman, the Tallahassee attorney representing the Martin County voter who filed the lawsuit.

To: rajaggs who wrote (99558)	12/3/2000 6:14:19 PM
From: Techplayer	Respond to of 769670

rajaggs, why should he? I believe that Clinton set the standards going forward. Against Clinton, Bush looks like a boyscout and Gore still looks bad. get off your high horse and look at the facts regarding Gore. He has lied to congress, withheld information, illegally raised campaign funds from within the whitehouse and been involved in the Clinton "sell secrets to China" game. The only thing saving his butt is that they have the DOJ in their back pockets. tp

To: rajaggs who wrote (99558)	12/3/2000 6:19:37 PM
From: PartyTime	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Something no one's seen yet! Michael Leach. Who is he? I don't really know, I'm only recently learning he even exists. How and why? Leach is one of two Bush Campaign operatives, the other being Ryan Mitchell, who were provided, by Republican supervisor Sandra Goard, complete and unattended access, over a 15-day period, to Seminole County's voter registration and chief election technology officer's office. It's possible, according testimony from Goard's co-workers, that these two individuals could have gained access to the county's voter registration database while in the election office affixing voter ID's onto Republican absentee ballot applications. The deposed statements note that election-trainees were being trained on the databank and that the computers were left on even while the Bush operatives were in the room with no county supervision. OK, so all of the above is documented and referenced by campaignwatch.org which has cited the mainstream press as its primary source for information. Here's some speculative research: I typed the name "Michael Leach" into the dogpile search engine and here's what I found. Is this the same Michael Leach? garnet.acns.fsu.edu If so, it appears not only does Leach have a strong fascination to the presidency, but Richard Nixon seems to be his presidential hero. Is this mere irony? Given Leach has his own website, this indicates he's proficient with respect to computer technology, perhaps even to a larger entent due to his law enforcement background. Would this moot Goard's claim the GOP operatives didn't have access to the county's database passwords, especially since depositions claim the computers were on while they were present with no one else in the room? And who is Ryan Mitchell? Why has he disappeared? "In a deposition, Goard said Leach provided no identification to prove who he was and neither did a second worker, identified in the lawsuit as Ryan Mitchell. Reached at his office at state GOP headquarters in Tallahassee, Leach declined to comment. Mitchell could not be located." dailynews.yahoo.com Where is Ryan Mitchell? You'd think with all the pressure in the Seminole County situation that he'd be available. Why isn't he?