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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: Lane3 who wrote (13454)5/11/2001 11:22:42 AM
From: The Philosopher  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 82486
 
A Karen attempt to change the subject yet again (who would have believed that breast feeding had longer legs than She-whoMust-Not-Be-Named?

Did you catch this article? Wonder whether this will quell the vast left-wing conspiracy theorists! <g> Egad, maybe the Supreme Court wasn't biased after all.

Report: Bush Would Win Recount of
Disputed Ballots

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush (news - web sites) would
have won a hand recount of all disputed ballots in Florida's presidential
election using the two most common standards for judging votes,
according to a USA Today analysis published on Friday.

The newspaper said the study of 171,908 ballots also found that errors
by Democratic voters probably cost former Vice President Al Gore
(news - web sites) as many as 25,000 votes, enough to have decisively
won Florida and the 2000 election.

The findings were the result of a study of the state's disputed ballots by
USA Today, The Miami Herald, Knight Ridder newspapers and six
other Florida newspapers.

The study found that Gore might have won a narrow victory if lenient
standards that counted every mark on a ballot had been used, the
newspaper said. But Gore could not have won without a hand count of
overvote ballots, which he did not request, the report said.

Bush won the state's crucial 25 Electoral College (news - web sites)
votes only after a ferocious court battle with Gore that was ultimately
decided by the U.S. Supreme Court (news - web sites). The divided
high court halted hand recounts that Gore had hoped would produce
enough votes to overturn Bush's 537-vote margin of victory.

The study analyzed 60,647 undervotes -- ballots that registered no vote
in vote-counting machines. It also examined 111,261 overvotes --
ballots marked with more than one presidential choice. Under Florida
law, overvotes are disqualified.

USA Today said the study found that Democratic voters made far more
overvotes than Republican voters.

``Gore would likely have won if all overvote ballots had been properly
marked,'' said Anthony Salvanto, a political scientist at the University of
California-Irvine who assisted the news organizations on the study.

He said people who cast overvotes were clearly confused by the
presidential portion of the Florida ballot and had few problems casting
votes in other races. The paper said voters were confused by a long list
of minority-party presidential candidates on the ballot.

USA Today said only 6 percent of those who overvoted in the
presidential race made the same mistake in the Senate race, which was
next on the ballot.

He concluded that the leading causes of overvotes in Florida were ballot
design and ballot wording.

USA Today said Florida's controversial ``butterfly'' ballot was a key
problem for many voters. The ballot put candidates' names on facing
pages with punch holes in the middle. The alignment confused some
voters, who punched holes for candidates they did not intend to choose.

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the president's younger brother, signed a
sweeping election reform law on Wednesday that ended the use of
butterfly ballots and punch-card machines in the state.

The governor signed the reform measure in Palm Beach County, where
Gore supporters believe the butterfly ballot cost their candidate the
presidency.

dailynews.yahoo.com