-Caveat Lector- RadTimes # 96 November, 2000 An informally produced compendium of vital irregularities. "We're living in rad times!" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contents: --------------- --Florida Voting Rights & Wrongs- Campaign for a Legal Election --Florida Common Law and Election "Irregularities" --Nobody Won! --From impeachment to a tainted election --A Gore Coup d'Etat? Linked stories: *VoteScam *Democrats Demand New Recounts in Florida *Agitation Grows Over Palm Beach Ballot *The Chilly Phone Call From Gore That Reopened the Race ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Begin stories: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Florida Voting Rights & Wrongs- Campaign for a Legal Election ===================================================== Yale Law Students CAMPAIGN FOR A LEGAL ELECTION Yale Law School 127 Wall Street New Haven, CT 06511 (203) 432-4888 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ===================================================== How dare either candidate claim an election victory (or concede) before the facts of what happened in Florida are determined? Don't let the politicians or the pundits deprive Florida residents of their voting rights and the rest of the country of our democratic process. Please do your part NOW to change the tone of the debate. Don't let the press spin this story to force a hasty solution. Any country can have a quick result. America is special because we believe in the rule of law and the protection of constitutional rights. Let's set an example for the world by proceeding in a patient and dignified way. Any party or politician that seeks to claim this election prematurely will have violated our trust and threatened the legitimacy of our government both domestically and internationally. It is our responsibility to hold them accountable because we will pay the price. Therefore, please do the following: 1) WRITE TO YOUR HOMETOWN PAPER (please see a sample op-ed piece below; feel free to use/edit any part of it for letters to the editor, etc.) 2) CALL IN TO TALK SHOWS where you live and in Florida. You can find out which staions there are by checking out <www.broadcast.com> . 3) SEND THIS AND OTHER E-MAILS TO FRIENDS AND FAMILY. LET PEOPLE KNOW THAT YOU WILL NOT ACCEPT A RUSH TO JUDGMENT BECAUSE THERE IS TOO MUCH AT STAKE. FOLLOWING IS A STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES THAT WE ENCOURAGE EVERYONE TO DISTRIBUTE TO FRIENDS AND/OR SUBSTANTIALLY EDIT AND SUBMIT TO THEIR LOCAL (HOMETOWN) PAPERS. DON'T DELAY: TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE! ========================== Voting Rights and Wrongs in Florida ========================== Since Tuesday, many politicians and others have suggested that it is inappropriate for the results of the election in Florida to be subjected to a legal challenge. This attitude amounts to a fundamental assault on the Voting Rights Act and the right to vote guaranteed by state and federal constitutions. The right to vote is the underpinning of our society. As the Supreme Court has stated, "other rights, even the most basic, are illusory if the right to vote is undermined." Equally important is the ability to enforce this right to vote. During the civil rights movement, people struggled and died not only for the right to vote itself, but also for the right to pursue legal action if the vote was denied. What James Baker decries as "unending legal wrangling" is the enforcement mechanism of our Constitution. It is premature for either campaign to declare victory or concede defeat. It is neither up to Governor Bush nor Vice President Gore to concede defeat or assume victory until the choice of the people is clear. As the Florida Supreme Court has stated, "the real parties in interest" in a legal challenge to the results of an election "are the voters," not the candidates or their political parties. There is too much at stake to let this election pass without scrutinizing the many reports of problems in Florida: * Thousands of voters in Palm Beach County may have been effectively denied their right to vote due to an illegal and unnecessarily confusing ballot design. * Polls closed while people were still in line in Tampa. * Voters were denied ballots on grounds that their precinct had changed. * Some election officials refused to allow translators in voting booths for Haitian-Americans in Miami. * Hispanic voters in Osceola County alleged they were required to produce two kinds of identification when only one was required. * At least two absentee ballots have already been invalidated due to fraudulent submission, in what may be a statewide campaign of absentee voter fraud. Many have said that such "irregularities" exist in every election. Although that is unfortunately true, a systemic failure in our election process is not license to ignore the law, especially when the very outcome of the election may be at stake. In fact, it is only when elections are subjected to such intense scrutiny that problems such as poorly designed ballots or racial intimidation surface. Courts have the responsibility to ensure that elections are conducted legally, and to order a new election if necessary. If the Palm Beach ballots violate Florida law, this is not a legal technicality; laws provide for a common format for ballots to ensure that the process is uniform and clear statewide, and that the election reflects the intentions of the populace. In fact, under Florida law, a new election is only required if a court finds that violations of elections laws created doubt as to whether the outcome of the election truly reflects the will of the people. Many people have spoken about the rule of law. What the rule of law requires, however, is not a blind respect for the ballot count in an election marred by denials of the right to vote, but a healthy appreciation of the need for legal redress of any violations. Seeking legal redress is not being a "poor sport." Rather, it is protecting one's constitutional rights. Other countries look to the United States as a bastion of legality, stability, and above all democracy. Some have suggested that the continued uncertainty over the outcome of the election is embarrassing, but far more embarrassing would be a rush to an incorrect result. Any country can have quick results. It is a testament to the strength of our democracy and our legal system that the most powerful people in our country must wait for the courts to completely address the concerns of even the most vulnerable American citizens. As law students, we are especially concerned about the assault on the right to use the courts to preserve legal rights. The right to vote was granted to blacks only after the Civil War and made effective only after the Civil Rights movement, and was granted to women only after many years of organizing. To assert that the courts should not intervene to protect this right undermines the very right itself. The late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, a veteran of the Civil Rights movement himself, once stated that "the right to vote is preservative of all other rights." Surely, the ability, indeed the responsibility, to enforce this right is equally important. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Florida Common Law and Election "Irregularities" ===================================================== Yale Law Students CAMPAIGN FOR A LEGAL ELECTION Yale Law School 127 Wall Street New Haven, CT 06511 (203) 432-4888 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ===================================================== The Yale Law School Campaign for a Legal Election According to a CNN on-line report, Florida "Judges have the discretion to invalidate elections and impose lesser remedies if they agree with plaintiffs that there were improprieties on Election Day."(1) That statement is precisely wrong. Such judges have zero discretion - they are required to declare the election void. That bright-line rule comes from the Florida State Supreme Court's decision in Beckstrom v. Volusia County Canvassing Board, 707 So.2d 720 (Fla. 1998). Although the court in that case validated the election in question (which hinged on the legitimacy of the absentee voting process, a substantial difference from the Presidential contest), it made clear that the law in Florida requires judges to void elections in which there is doubt about the true will of the voters. There are several principles in that decision worth highlighting: 1) ELECTION IRREGULARITIES ARE APPROPRIATELY RESOLVED IN COURT. "It appears that the validity of an election . . . is an issue of great public importance whose resolution is required by the high court . . . ."(2) Note the use of the word "required"; we are not talking about whether it would be in the best judgment of all concerned, or whether it is politically responsible or wise for either candidate to support a legal challenge. The law in Florida demands that a court resolve the issue when there is a legitimate concern as to which candidate the voters have chosen. When people like Karen Hughes, Bush's Communications Director, utter remarks like "We certainly hope the Democrats would stop this talk of endless legal battles," and "I hope the vice president and his campaign officials would think through their responsibility to this country and to the process," she is arguing against the rule of law.(3) 2) THIS IS ABOUT THE RIGHTS OF CITIZENS, NOT CANDIDATES. "The real parties in interest here . . . are the voters. They are possessed of the ultimate interest and it is they whom we must give primary consideration."(4) Al Gore and George W. Bush are not the people whose rights may have been violated (although one of them will be very sore when this is all over). The thousands of voters who were confused by the ballot and either voted for the wrong candidate or had their ballots thrown out are the ones who have been deprived of that most basic right in a democracy, the right to vote. They are the people we should be concerned about, whether they meant to vote for Al Gore or George Bush or someone else. 3) THE JUDGE WHO HEARS THIS CASE WILL HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO VOID THE ELECTION. "[I]f a court finds substantial noncompliance with statutory election procedures and also makes a factual determination that reasonable doubt exists as to whether a certified election expressed the will of the voters, then the court . . . is to void the contested election, even in the absence of fraud or intentional wrongdoing."(5) As with the first point, there is no discretion here - note the language - a judge "is to void", not "may void." According to a political scientist quoted by CNN, "It would take a tremendously courageous judge to take responsibility for [voiding an election]. That judge or that panel of judges would be taking responsibility for deciding who is the next president of the United States."(6) Although whichever judge (or panel of judges) hears this case will face a great deal of political pressure, and indeed must be courageous enough to withstand it, he or she (or they) has little choice in the matter. The application of the law requires that this election be voided, for two reasons: A) THERE HAS BEEN CLEAR, SUBSTANTIAL NON-COMPLIANCE WITH FLORIDA ELECTION LAW AS REGARDS THE LAYOUT OF THE BALLOT. Florida law clearly states that the ballot punch holes must be to the right of the candidates' names, and that the Democrat be listed as the second candidate on the ballot.(7) The law exists precisely to prevent voter confusion. In Palm Beach, however, the holes were to the left of some names, and the one to punch for Gore was the third one down. That elected Democrats may have okayed this ballot is totally irrelevant; again, we are not concerned with the rights of political parties or candidates, but rather with the rights of voters. B) THERE "EXISTS REASONABLE DOUBT" AS TO THE EXPRESSED WILL OF THE VOTERS. This is a no-brainer. The election hinges on 327 votes. According to CNN, Patrick Buchanan received 3,407 votes in Palm Beach County, a number even he admits is too large. "I don't doubt a number of those ballots, of those votes that were cast for me, probably were intended for Vice President Gore," he confessed to Larry King. Considering that Gore received 62 percent of the Palm Beach Vote overall, there is little doubt that the confused votes for Buchanan could have swung the election to Gore.(8) Add to that the discounted 19,000+ ballots, and there is simply no question about whether reasonable doubt exists. Huge doubt exists. Given the two clear facts - that there was substantial non- compliance that resulted in doubt as to the expressed will of voters, the Florida judges who hear this case have no choice but to void the election. In so-doing, they will not be deciding "who is the next president of the United States," because until the re-vote is counted, we cannot know who that will be (and, given the network election-night fiascos, we should all be wary of any predicted outcomes). Rather, they will be affirming the voting rights of the citizens of the Great State of Florida. Notes 1. Reported at: <http://www.cnn.com/2000/LAW/11/09/election.remedies.florida.pol/index.html> 2. Beckstrom, 707 So.2d at 724. This statement is made in the context of a finding of gross negligence, but no fraud, with regard to absentee ballots. Gross negligence is later defined by the court to mean "negligence that is so pervasive that it thwarts the will of the people." Id. at 725. Surely, the validity of an election called into question by gross negligence at the actual voting booths is equally an issue of great public importance whose resolution is required by the high court. . . ." Id. at 724. 3. Reported at: <http://www.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/11/10/election.president.03/index.html> 4. Id. at 724 (internal quotes and citation omitted). 5. Beckstrom, 707 So.2d at 725. 6. Reported at <http://www.cnn.com/2000/LAW/11/09/election.remedies.florida.pol/index.html#1> 7. Fla. Stat. 101.191 8. The facts and quotes in this section can all be found at: <http://www.cnn.com/2000/LAW/11/10/palm.beach.controver/index.html> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nobody Won! From: "Ronald M. Jacobs" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Sat, 11 Nov 2000 The mask has fallen off. The facade of democracy we citizens of the United States live under has cracked. One corporate candidate has won the popular vote and another is ready to assume the presidency. The last time the rulers were so freaked out was during the Watergate crisis. Just like then, talking heads in their media speculate about what could happen while politicians and establishment wise men put their faith in a system so corrupt and non-representative that close to half of those eligible didn^t bother to vote. Meanwhile, those who did vote only to find out their vote doesn^t really count grow angrier and more frustrated that the world's greatest democracy denies their decision in the ballot box. One has to admit that there^s a bit of humor in the situation. Russia's leader Putin has offered observers from his country in what can only be a clear dig at the presumptuousness of the American government's perennial insistence in sending its electoral observers anywhere around the globe to insure 'fair' elections. Italy's newspapers call the U.S. a banana republic, pointing out that the only other countries that have electors who can overrule the popular vote are those run by the military. Being a permanent fan of Nobody's candidacy, I'm happy that s/he's still winning as of this writing. Seriously, this crisis among the rulers is a graphic example of the failure of the corporate republic government. It is the perfect time to point out that U.S. elections have never been free and have been controlled since their inception by the wealthy to insure their continued dominance. From the slaveowners and wealthy northerners who insisted on the Electoral College in the first place to today's paid-off legislators who refuse to pass meaningful laws ending corporate contributions, the electoral system in this country insures that the people will never have a real choice of candidates. Like Watergate, the current electoral crisis is just the proverbial tip of the iceberg and is more the concern of those who have a vested interest in the outcome. Still, it is too important to ignore. The fact that millions of Americans who believe in the system enough to vote are discovering for the first time that their vote really doesn't count is a big step forward. Add to that the irregularities in the ballots and the count that seemed to effect mostly African-American precincts and one can only be amazed at the brazenness of the system in its denial of the right to vote. This election proves more than any that I can remember how little voting has to do with true democracy. It is up to us to bring this point home, especially in light of the opportunity their system has handed us. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From impeachment to a tainted election <http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/nov2000/elec-n10.shtml> The conspiracy against democratic rights 10 November 2000 The brazen attempt of the Bush campaign to declare victory in the presidential campaign-in the face of mounting evidence of massive ballot irregularities in the state of Florida-exposes its utter contempt for the democratic rights of the American people. In 1998-99 the Republican Party, controlled by the extreme right, sought to overturn the result of two presidential elections through the impeachment and trial of Bill Clinton. Now it is attempting to hijack the 2000 presidential elections through crudely antidemocratic methods, using their control of the state government in Florida headed by the brother of the Republican presidential candidate. The issue goes beyond the fact that Gore won the popular vote but still, under the US Constitution's archaic and undemocratic Electoral College procedure, could be denied election to the presidency. In fact, Bush is presently trailing in both the popular vote and the Electoral College. His chances for eventual Electoral College victory-by a margin of only 271-267-depend entirely on the outcome of the tainted Florida vote. There is clear and convincing evidence that thousands of pro-Gore voters in critical Florida precincts were disenfranchised. Approximately 19,000 votes were invalidated in Palm Beach County because a defective ballot paper led people to punch two lines rather than one for president; several thousand votes in that county were wrongly cast for ultra-rightist Patrick Buchanan, because of the same improper ballot; computer "malfunctions" caused a sudden drop in Gore's vote total in Volusia County; there was exclusion and intimidation of black voters at polling places in the Miami metro area and in the state's rural Panhandle. Already, only two days after the election, revulsion against the ballot rigging has produced public protests. Hundreds of college students from Florida A&M, mainly black, held a demonstration and sit-in at the state capitol in Tallahassee. Hundreds of elderly Jewish voters rallied in Palm Beach County to denounce the Election Day travesty there. Many expressed outrage that their votes were being counted for the anti-Semitic Buchanan, and they demanded an opportunity to re-vote. So obviously compromised was the result in Palm Beach that a local judge ordered a full vote-by-vote hand recount in the county, rather than the cursory recanvass of computers and voting machines that the state government ordered for all 67 Florida counties. Even this superficial retallying had slashed Bush's lead to only 225 votes out of six million cast, before it was halted at the direction of Florida's Republican Secretary of State on Thursday evening. The evident irregularities, combined with the growing public protests, compelled the Gore campaign to reverse its cautious stance of Wednesday and announce that a full- scale legal challenge of the Florida vote would be made. Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher, named by Gore to represent his interests in the Florida recount, described the Palm Beach ballot as "illegal." Gore campaign chairman William Daley, who the day before had refused to claim victory in the state, told a press conference Thursday that Gore was the winner of the popular vote in Florida as well as in the country as a whole. "If the will of the people is to prevail, Al Gore should be awarded a victory in Florida and be our next president,'' Daley said, adding that "the disenfranchisement of thousands of Floridians" represented "an injustice unparalleled in our history." The initial response of the Bush campaign and the Republican Party was to brazen out the disputed election rather than to try to prove their case. Bush aides scheduled a victory rally in Austin for Thursday evening, after the Florida recount results were to be released. They announced that the Texas governor was beginning to assemble a transition team and plan his first appointments as president-elect. Campaign officials Don Evans, Karl Rove and Karen Hughes dismissed the reports of voting irregularities in Palm Beach County in a manner that demonstrated contempt for democratic rights. By late Thursday, as Bush's margin dwindled to near zero in the state-run recount, a partial retreat was sounded. The victory rally was cancelled. Former Secretary of State James Baker, Bush's designated representative in the Florida recount, said that the outcome of the election would not be known until November 17, the deadline for overseas absentee ballots to be received in Tallahassee. "The presidential election is ... on hold," he admitted. An issue of democratic rights The Socialist Equality Party did not support the campaign of Al Gore. We have unbridgeable political differences with the Democratic Party. Nonetheless, there are fundamental issues of democratic rights involved in the struggle over the outcome of the 2000 election. The working class cannot stand on the sidelines and allow the extreme right-wing elements in the Bush camp to, in effect, steal the election. The issues are essentially the same as those posed by the impeachment drive against Clinton. An attempt is underway, using conspiratorial methods, to overturn a democratic decision by the American people. In the impeachment, the far right made use of bogus lawsuits and independent counsel investigations to bring trumped-up charges against an elected president. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted for impeachment shortly after the 1998 congressional elections had revealed widespread popular hostility to the anti-Clinton campaign. The right wing thumbed their noses at public opinion and went ahead with their politically motivated assault on the White House. Bush and his congressional Republican allies speak for an entire layer of the ruling elite that has grown utterly contemptuous of democratic rights. They want control over all agencies of state power to ride roughshod over democratic rights and impose social policies of the most reactionary character—the abolition of all taxation on wealth and income; the elimination of federal regulatory powers over business; the destruction of Social Security, Medicare, and whatever else remains of the social welfare programs. Impeachment failed to oust Clinton because of public opposition, but there was widespread confusion about the political significance of this right-wing campaign, because of the cowardice of the Democrats and the torrent of media sensationalism about a "sex scandal" in the White House. In the struggle now developing over the presidential vote, the political line-up is clearer and more readily apparent to public opinion. The Bush campaign's vicious response to the Florida vote fraud gives the lie to his entire campaign demagogy about "ending the bickering in Washington." Instead of ending partisan warfare, Bush is engaged in a dramatic escalation, claiming a victory based on the disenfranchisement of tens of thousands of Democratic voters. The installation of Bush in the White House on the basis of such a fraudulent vote would mean a government imposed on the American people against their will. The only genuinely democratic resolution of the Florida travesty is to demand a complete revote in the disputed precincts. As for the Democrats, no one should rely on Al Gore & Co. to fight this attack on basic democratic rights. The Democrats fought impeachment on their knees, and then deliberately buried the issue during the election—thus contributing directly to the closeness of the final result and giving the right wing another opportunity. In the end, the deepest instincts of Clinton, Gore and the Democratic Party establishment are directed toward working out a rotten compromise with the Republicans behind the backs of the people. Even if the election is finally brought to a conclusion with the installation of Gore, it is all but certain that the back-room deal would include conditions highly injurious to the democratic rights and social interests of the working class. Above all, it must be understood that the present crisis expresses, in the final analysis, the fragile state of American democracy. The breakdown of traditional democratic norms-expressed first in the impeachment crisis and now in the tainted election-reflects the tremendous divisions and tensions in American society. While it is critical that workers oppose the present efforts of the Republicans to steal the election, they must recognize that the threat to democratic rights arises from the crisis of capitalist society. In a country whose social structure is defined by a staggering and historically unprecedented level of social inequality, with nearly half the nation's wealth concentrated in the hands of two percent of its population, democratic forms of rule cannot long survive. The unfolding events testify to the urgent need for the development of a genuinely independent political movement of the working class on the basis of a democratic and socialist program. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A Gore Coup d'Etat? <http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=65000576> It looks as if he really will stop at nothing to win. The Wall Street Journal Friday, November 10, 2000 The cliff-hanging Florida results won't be final until the absentee-ballot deadline of November 17, but yesterday Gore campaign head William Daley told a news conference that no amount of recounting would do. Only one outcome would be acceptable: "If the will of the people is to prevail, Al Gore should be awarded a victory in Florida and be our next President." And if the election results don't do that, the Gore campaign will try to find a judge to do it instead. In your ordinary banana republic, this would be recognized as a Gore coup d'etat. When the day began yesterday, we set to work writing an editorial for these columns that in fact was going to express some sympathy for what appears to have happened to some confused voters in Palm Beach County, and suggesting that we really do need a better-run electoral process not only in Florida but across the land. This is still a valid point, but was overwhelmed when Bill Daley and other Gore campaign officials announced that the Democrats intended to go to the mattress to cling to political power. Mr. Daley said the Vice President wasn't going to settle for the recount result, suggesting of course they knew it would go against them and so some pretext needed to be found fast to prevent the election from ending. "Let the legal system run its course," Mr. Daley said. "We will be working with voters from Florida in support of legal actions to demand some redress." He added, "We believe with so much at stake, steps should be taken to make sure that the people's choice becomes our President." Shortly after this, guess what happened? The Democratic Palm Beach plaintiffs seeking "redress" suddenly withdrew their suit from federal court. Why? Because they wanted to shop around for a favorable judge. They had happened to draw federal district Judge Kenneth Ryskamp, whose nomination to the appeals court years back had been defeated in the Senate by Joe Biden. The Palm Beach plaintiffs then announced they would file in state court. Obviously they are judge-shopping, reducing this noble enterprise on behalf of the people's choice to the level of backwater justice. Not only Judge Ryskamp, but any reasonably neutral judge would likely dismiss the case outright. At no point has the Gore campaign suggested that voter fraud has cost them votes. Were that the case, we would be in wholehearted support of their complaint. Voter fraud is one of this country's most corrosive, unaddressed problems. Instead, Warren Christopher, a former Secretary of State, yesterday cited "serious and substantial irregularities." Their argument is that the irregularities deprived citizens of Constitutional rights, so undo the whole election. Yes, voting irregularities do significant damage to elections in America. No serious person involved in politics would doubt that incompetent, flawed or antique voting procedures all over this country disenfranchise some voters in every national election--for the House, the Senate and the Presidency. None of these concerns, however, is sufficient cause for allowing competing squads of political lawyers to force the people of this country into an unprecedented political crisis, which is precisely what the Gore campaign has shown itself willing to do. By turning over the Presidential election to the lawyers, the Democrats guarantee that the Republicans would respond in kind, seeking similar irregularities, as are commonly found in South Florida, or anywhere else people voted in the U.S. last Tuesday. The constant harping on the poor souls confused by the Palm Beach butterfly ballot makes for good TV visuals and stirring speeches about the "denial of justice." But no one should pretend this is going to fly through the courts without a substantial counteroffensive by the GOP's own lawyers. And in any event, there is the prospect of recounts elsewhere. In Wisconsin and Iowa, where Mr. Gore's margin of victory was several thousand votes, automatic triggers may set off recounts. Moreover, the national vote isn't over. Votes are still being completed in many states, with a million absentee votes from California alone. It is not beyond imagining that when this process is done, the current result will be different, or even reversed. Poor Florida. It is being put under a national microscope to determine the credibility of its voting system. No surprise, what we're seeing is that the results aren't always particularly edifying. There is no basis in law, however, to believe that demanding that a vote be restaged because of "irregularities" in Florida's election system, or any other state's for that matter, is going to survive in court. Were that true, there'd have been hundreds of restaged votes in this country. Mr. Gore, Mr. Daley and all the Democratic lawyers know this. Their case about irregularities and confusion is merely a pretext for finding some friendly jurist who will overrule the voters in an excruciatingly close contest. This is a destructive course of action for the Republic and the Constitution. Also, by the way, for a Democratic Party already tainted by eight years of its own irregularities, that is to say, by a habit of trashing the rule of law in the pursuit of political advantage. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linked stories: ******************** VoteScam by James and Kenneth Collier, New York: Victoria House Pr., 1992, an analysis of past corruption of vote counting in Florida elections is online at: <http://www.constitution.org/vote/votescam__.htm> ******************** Democrats Demand New Recounts in Florida <http://tm0.com/sbct.cgi?s=80180978&i=275885&d=590492> WASHINGTON - Governor George W. Bush moved ahead with preparations for a new cabinet on Thursday, but aides to Vice President Al Gore angrily denounced those moves as premature and ''presumptuous'' and demanded a hand recount of contested ballots in four Florida counties. ******************** Agitation Grows Over Palm Beach Ballot <http://tm0.com/sbct.cgi?s=80180978&i=275885&d=590493> WASHINGTON - Democrats on Thursday cited several alleged voting irregularities in Florida in hopes of spurring legal action, conceivably including a court-ordered revote in a major county, that could tip the presidential election to Vice President Al Gore. ******************** The Chilly Phone Call From Gore That Reopened the Race <http://tm0.com/sbct.cgi?s=80180978&i=275885&d=590494> WASHINGTON - There was no script. Things kept happening that had never happened before. So it was simply the crowning weirdness on a wild and whiplashed night, one among many bizarre things, when Vice President Al Gore phoned the Texas Governor's Mansion to take back what he had said about conceding the election to George W. Bush. ******************** ===================================================== "Anarchy doesn't mean out of control. It means out of 'their' control." -Jim Dodge ====================================================== "Communications without intelligence is noise; intelligence without communications is irrelevant." -Gen. Alfred. M. Gray, USMC ====================================================== "It is not a sign of good health to be well adjusted to a sick society." -J. Krishnamurti ______________________________________________________________ To subscribe/unsubscribe or for a sample copy or a list of back issues, send appropriate email to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. ______________________________________________________________ <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! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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