-Caveat Lector- "The need for a [second!] recount became even more apparent when it was discovered in the first recount that votes from one precinct were not counted on election night. An elections worker hit the wrong button, erasing the results." "One reason for [Gore's closing-the-gap], a county employee pushed the wrong button while recording votes from precinct 29E, west of Lake Worth, where voters favored Gore over Bush 368 to 23. ...The `clear' button was hit instead," said LePore. 'It was just an operator error.'" http://www.gopbi.com/partners/pbpost/epaper/editions/today/news_1.html Judge freezes ballots until next week By Scott Hiaasen, Marc Caputo and Joel Engelhardt Palm Beach Post Staff Writers Friday, November 10, 2000 WEST PALM BEACH -- A circuit judge seized control of Palm Beach County's presidential ballots Thursday, bringing the courts into an election that has made the county the epicenter of a growing political crisis. Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Kathleen Kroll issued a temporary injunction Thursday night preventing the county's elections canvassing board from releasing the ballots before a court hearing next week. The injunction was requested by Beverly Rogers and Ray Kaplan, two Boca Raton voters who filed a lawsuit saying they and thousands like them were cheated out of their right to vote because the county's two-sided ballot was illegally confusing. Challenges from voters, protests in the streets and a request by Vice President Al Gore pressured the canvassing board Thursday to agree to a manual recount of more than 4,600 votes on Saturday. This, after a state-mandated, electronic recount on Wednesday discovered 865 votes that went uncounted on election night. The board also agreed to George W. Bush's request for an electronic recount of all 461,000 ballots. That count, also set for Saturday, will mark the third time the ballots have been run through the machines. The need for a recount became even more apparent when it was discovered in the first recount that votes from one precinct were not counted on election night. An elections worker hit the wrong button, erasing the results. On Thursday, the three members of the canvassing board -- Elections Supervisor Theresa LePore, County Commissioner Carol Roberts and County Judge Charles Burton -- met before a dozen television cameras and decided not to send any of the county's votes to the state for approval until the many challenges to the ballot are heard. The hand count could reveal discrepancies that would help Democrats attack the Palm Beach County ballot in court. It also could validate ballots previously considered invalid. Meanwhile, more than 19,000 votes in the presidential election were declared invalid because people voted for two presidents. So this weekend, with the whole world watching and the balance of a presidential election potentially at stake, teams of people selected by the board will eyeball thousands of ballots, literally holding them to the light to check for irregularities. The teams -- which should have Democrats and Republicans -- will pull ballots from at least three precincts, representing 1 percent of the ballots cast. The precincts will be chosen by the Democratic Party, which filed the protest. The canvassing board must decide today the number of people for the hand counting and who they will be. LePore, who has become the target of national scrutiny over the ballot questions, is a Democrat, as is Roberts; Burton is a Republican recently appointed judge by Bush's brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. The canvassing board agreed Thursday to allow two members each from the Republican and Democratic parties to observe the elections in the manual- and machine-counting rooms. Any confusing ballots found in the hand count will be given to the board members, who could be asked to look at ballots and decide for whom they were cast. If discrepancies are found that appear to threaten the integrity of the election, the canvassing board could request a hand count of every ballot in the county. After the hand count, all of Tuesday's 461,000 ballots will be rechecked by machine at the request of the Republican Party, suspicious because most of those newfound votes went to Gore and carved into Bush's narrow lead in Florida. One reason for that, a county employee pushed the wrong button while recording votes from precinct 29E, west of Lake Worth, where voters favored Gore over Bush 368 to 23. "The `clear' button was hit instead," said LePore. "It was just an operator error." The Gore campaign also requested manual recounts in Volusia, Miami-Dade and Broward counties, hoping to make up ground in an agonizingly close election. Broward's canvassing board will meet today to discuss the request by the head of the county's Democratic Executive Committee, who said 7,000 votes there went uncounted. According to an unofficial Associated Press estimate, Gore trailed by just over 200 votes after a recount of about 6 million ballots in the state. Officially, however, Gore trails by 1,784 votes after state officials confirmed the results from 53 of 67 counties. Palm Beach County was among the 14 counties that have not submitted their totals, and now the county can't approve the vote for state officials before Tuesday's hearing in Palm Beach County Circuit Court. Secretary of State Katherine Harris said all counties must submit their ballots by Tuesday, with absentee ballots from overseas being collected until next Friday. After its Thursday meeting, the canvassing board received a hand-count request in the U.S. House race between incumbent E. Clay Shaw Jr. and state Rep. Elaine Bloom. Democrat Bloom asked for it after a recount of 210,827 votes gave the Republican Shaw a victory by 599 votes. Leon St. John, a senior assistant county attorney, said it apparently means the board will have to count three additional precincts by hand on Saturday. These requests, he said, can continue until the vote totals are certified. "We're talking at least five, six hours to get through all this. All I can tell you is it's going to be a long, really long day." ================================================================= Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT FROM THE DESK OF: *Michael Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends ================================================================= <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! 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