-Caveat Lector-
RadTimes # 97 November, 2000
An informally produced compendium of vital irregularities.
"We're living in rad times!"
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Contents:
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--Statement From Secretary James A. Baker III
--In Palm Beach, a Tidal Wave of Political Protest
--Judges have power to overturn elections
--The 2000 US election results: the constitutional crisis deepens
--Ballot designer, under fire, hires lawyer and hides out
--Florida Cops Accused of Harassing Black Voters
--Ore, NM Presidential Races Undecided
--Four other US states may recount election votes
Linked stories:
*Buchanan on the election results
*Voteless in Florida
*NAACP Says Fraudulent Calls Surface in Florida
*NAACP Alleges Voter Suppression in Florida
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Begin stories:
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Statement From Secretary James A. Baker III
The American people voted on November 7. Governor George W.
Bush won 31 states with a total of 271 electoral votes. The vote
in Florida was very close, but when it was counted, Governor Bush
was the winner.
Now, three days later, the vote in Florida has been recounted.
Over two-thirds of the state election supervisors overseeing the
recount are Democrats.
At the end of this recount, Governor Bush is still the winner,
subject only to counting the overseas ballots, which have
traditionally favored the Republican candidate. No evidence of
vote fraud either in the original vote or in the recount has been
presented.
Now the Gore campaign is calling for yet another recount in
selective and predominantly Democratic counties where there were
unexplained large vote swings in their favor in the recount.
It appears that the Gore campaign is attempting to unduly prolong
the country's national Presidential election through endless
challenges to the results of the vote here in Florida.
Furthermore, the more often ballots are recounted, especially by
hand, the more likely it is that human errors, like lost ballots,
and other risks, will be introduced. This frustrates the very
reason why we have moved from hand counting to machine counting.
Let me say a word specifically about the Palm Beach ballot.
There is a rule of law to be followed for elections. The state
of Florida has established legal procedures to design, approve,
publish and, if need be, to protest ballots before the election.
The ballot was designed by a Democratic elections supervisor.
She approved it. The Democratic Party did not question it before
the election. This "butterfly"-type ballot was used in recent
elections in the same county under the same rules. Again, the
Democrats did not complain. The overwhelming majority of voters
who used the ballot understood it and cast valid votes. Our
lawyers have confirmed the legality of this ballot, and we have
copies of the relevant Florida statute available for you to see.
The Gore campaign has also tried to make a lot of the fact that
double marked ballots are not counted. A key principle in
America is one person, one vote. If we have ballots with two
votes, of course we cannot count them or guess about them.
Ballots that are double-marked can't be evidence of the voter's
intent to vote one way or another. No jurisdiction in the United
States would accept such a ballot as a valid vote, and Florida
law specifically does not. It happens in every precinct in every
election. And the procedure is clear: These ballots must be
disregarded.
We understand, and I understand personally, that it is
frustrating to lose by a narrow margin. But it happens. It
happened to the Republican Presidential candidates in 1960 and
1976. Both Vice President Nixon and President Ford put the
country's interest first. They accepted the vote for the good of
the country.
It is important that there be some finality to the election
process. What if we insisted on recounts in other states that are
very close? For example, in Wisconsin, Iowa, (and if we don't
win) New Mexico.
Let the country step back a moment, pause, and think about what's
at stake. This may be the last chance. There is no reasonable
end to this process if it slips away.
The purpose of our national election is to establish a
"Constitutional government," not unending legal wrangling. We
will therefore vigorously oppose the Gore campaign's efforts to
keep recounting until it likes the result. For the good of the
country and the sake of our standing in the world, the
campaigning should end, and the business of an orderly transition
should begin.
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In Palm Beach, a Tidal Wave of Political Protest
By Sue Anne Pressley
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 10, 2000; Page A24
PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla., Nov. 9 This is where people come to retreat from
the cares of the world, to shop, to rest, to sun, to golf, to die
peacefully after a good long life.
So it was no typical Palm Beach scene that unfolded today in front of the
county elections office as more than a thousand angry residents closed down
one of West Palm Beach's busiest downtown streets. It was no typical
protest mob, either; many of the demonstrators were elderly, walking with
canes, sitting in wheelchairs and hovered over by health care attendants as
they chanted "Gore Got More!" and "Revote Now!"
"I've been voting for 60 years and I've never seen anything like this,"
said Doris Church, 82, of Lake Worth, as she sat in her wheelchair in the
middle of the excited crowd. Her granddaughter, Tracy Hill, stood behind
her, holding a sign that said, "My Grandmother Deserves a Re-Vote."
They came to protest what they considered confusing ballots that may cost
Democrat Al Gore the election and to demand something that has never been
done before: a presidential revote. Improbably, Palm Beach County now
stands at the epicenter of American politics, holding, perhaps, the power
to decide who leads the United States for the next four years.
"Of all places for this to happen," said Gary Weeman, provost of Palm Beach
Atlantic College, who's been deluged with e-mail from friends around the
world asking what's going on in his hometown.
Indeed, politics yesterday managed to displace what is normally the chief
subject of conversation in some neighborhoods.
"We've even stopped talking about our grandchildren," said Leon Birnbaum,
88. "Can you believe it?"
Elections officials have conceded that as many as 19,000 county ballots had
to be thrown out because voters punched two choices for president which
some said was the result of confusion about the alignment of punch holes on
the two-page presidential listing. Others in this faithfully Democratic
stronghold also feared with sinking hearts that instead of casting a vote
for Gore, as they intended, they may have voted for a man who in many ways
is his polar opposite, Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan.
Unofficial returns showed that one-fifth of all of Buchanan's votes in
Florida were cast here; Buchanan received 3,407 votes in Palm Beach County,
compared with 561 in Miami-Dade County.
Church said that as she was being driven away from her voting precinct
Tuesday, she felt uneasy about what she had just done. It suddenly hit her
with a jolt that she had voted for Buchanan, an easy mistake to make, she
said, regardless of age.
"I have a master's degree I was a teacher. I am not dumb," she said. "My
body may have failed me, but I still have my brains."
Around her in the tight throng, protesters held signs that said, "This Is
Not a Game This Is Our Future!" and "If Nader Won Texas, You'd Scream,
Too!" City police officers, apparently unaccustomed to such lively
demonstrations, climbed on top of cars to survey the scene, as gulls sailed
overhead in the crystalline blue sky. Heated altercations sprang up, as
Gore devotees set upon the minority of Bush-Cheney supporters in the crowd.
"I've been called a racist and a bigot because I have a belief in the
election system," said Dennis MacIlwain, a 37-year-old hospital emergency
room worker, who was boldly wielding a sign that said, "The Ballot Was
Clear and Simple." "It was just a small group of people . . ."
"It was not just a small group of people! It was a large group! A very
large group!" countered Retha Lowe, 54, a Lake Worth city commissioner, as
she swept by.
Although many Palm Beach County residents insist that the old stereotypes
about the area no longer hold not everyone is rich or elderly, and not
everyone lives along the 45 miles of glorious shoreline known as the "Gold
Coast" nearly 25 percent of county residents are 65 and over.
And the county remains Florida's richest, with a per capita income of
$34,497 in 1995 that easily eclipses the statewide figure of $22,534. There
also are about 50,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans in the county.
Of the 415 places of worship in the county, 30 are synagogues, and the
area, with its large Jewish population, went overwhelmingly for Gore and
his Jewish running mate, Connecticut Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, 62 percent
vs. 35 percent for Bush.
At Century Village, a sprawling retirement community that covers one square
mile and has many Jews among its 14,000 residents, most routine activities
ceased as people could talk of nothing but the election and what might
happen next. As Birnbaum put it, "I usually don't like to discuss religion
or politics because that can keep you up all night, but this is different."
Birnbaum, who once owned a delicatessen in New York City and moved to Palm
Beach County three years ago, said he thinks he voted correctly for Gore
"but only because my eyesight is good."
His sister, Ann Zolchonak, another Century Village resident, did not fare
as well. "She's almost certain she voted for Buchanan, and we are not
Buchanan people," Birnbaum said. Why not? "We have no reason to be."
Annamarie Flamburis, 79, was still fretting about her vote today as she
waited at one of the myriad Century Village bus stops to go shopping. "I
did it wrong, I know I did," she said. "I tried to ask a lady who was
working at my precinct, but she was running around like a chicken without a
head. I said, 'Lady, lady, please.' . . . I could cry, I could just cry. I
haven't even been able to sleep right."
Flamburis wants what many residents here want, a revote, but she
acknowledged it isn't likely. A poll conducted by a local radio station
indicated that 85 percent of the listeners feel a revote is in order. Diane
Jacques, 41, was circulating a petition at the rally, "demanding an
opportunity to recast our votes . . . and strike down current results."
"I'm just an American," said Jacques, who runs a home-based business. "This
is not a George Bush issue. This is wrong it's just not the way the
system is supposed to work."
Elizabeth Kimbler, 43, who moved to West Palm Beach six months ago from
Ohio, described what has happened here as "just another Florida scandal."
"I haven't demonstrated about anything since my girlfriend's brother died
in Vietnam, and I was just a kid then," she said. "But this is a travesty
of justice."
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Judges have power to overturn elections
WILLIAM MARCH
The Tampa Tribune
Nov 8, 2000
TAMPA - Under a 1998 court ruling, Florida judges have broad
authority to invalidate elections or order new elections in cases
in which fraud, or even unintentional error, results in flawed
outcome.
``The criteria are very broad, almost completely undefined, and
they grant state judges a great deal of discretion,'' said Steve
Gey, a constitutional law expert at the Florida State University
College of Law.
Gey said if irregularities are found in Tuesday's vote for
president, proving they affected the outcome wouldn't be hard,
because the race is so close.
The court decision stems from a challenge to the outcome of the
1996 sheriff's race in Volusia County. The state Supreme Court,
deciding the case in 1998, didn't overturn the race, but set
standards under which judges could do so, Gey said.
The standards say the judge can overturn an election if there was
fraud or irregularities that ``adversely affect the sanctity of
the ballot and the integrity of the election.''
Because the election was so close, and could so easily be
affected by any proven irregularity, Gey said, ``that last
criteria is almost a giveaway.''
Unintentional errors as well as fraud can qualify, Gey said.
If the election were found to be invalid, Gey said, the likely
remedy would be a new election. It could be held just in the
county where the irregularities occurred, or statewide, depending
on the circumstances.
In 1998, a judge overturned a Miami mayoral election because of
massive fraud, including absentee- vote fraud, and invalidated
Xavier Suarez's runoff win. His opponent, Joe Carollo, became
mayor instead.
But to many Florida political veterans, Tuesday's voting was
reminiscent of the 1988 U.S. Senate race between Buddy MacKay
and U.S. Sen. Connie Mack.
Tuesday night ``was like deja vu all over again,'' Mack said.
MacKay was initially proclaimed the winner, but the outcome was
changed by the absentee ballots - far fewer than the more than
500,000 in Tuesday's voting.
And as in Tuesday's race, there were cries that faulty layout of
the ballot affected the race. Thousands of voters in 1988
apparently failed to vote in the race because they missed the
ballot line in an obscure position at the bottom of a page.
But complaints in that case didn't change the outcome of the
race.
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The 2000 US election results: the constitutional crisis deepens
By the Editorial Board
9 November 2000
The extraordinary events of the past 24 hours have fundamentally and
irrevocably
altered political life in the United States. For the first time in more
than 125
years, a national election has produced a disputed result. Not only is
there a split
between the popular and electoral vote, but the stench of ballot fraud is
wafting
from the Florida voting precincts upon which Governor George W. Bush's victory
depends.
It remains unclear whether Vice President Al Gore will vigorously pursue a
legal
challenge to the legitimacy of the Florida vote. The fact that Gore waited
until late
Wednesday afternoon to issue a public statement on the election indicates
that there
exist serious divisions within his own staff over whether to continue to
fight for
the presidency.
But even if Gore quickly reconciles himself to defeat, the inconclusive and
tainted
outcome of the presidential election has created a constitutional crisis
for which
there is no easy solution, and has deeply compromised the entire political
setup. If
Republican Governor Bush is confirmed as the forty-third president, his
administration will lack political legitimacy in the eyes of tens of
millions of
American citizens. There is already widespread talk among the people of a
stolen
election, and this will have politically explosive consequences as a Bush
administration attempts to implement—as it certainly will—its reactionary
social
agenda.
The most significant feature of the election results is their exposure of
the deep
fissures and tensions within American society. The electoral map resembles,
to a
remarkable extent, that of the United States at the outbreak of the Civil
War in
1861. Of course, there are differences. But the North-South divide
continues. Another
major division is that between the great urban areas which, for the most
part, went
for Gore, and the rural areas, which went for Bush. As for the voters
themselves,
there was a clear difference in the social composition of the Democratic and
Republican electorate. The poorest and most vulnerable sections of the
working class
in the major cities—above all black and Hispanic workers—voted
overwhelmingly for the
Democratic candidates.
As for the institutions of political rule, the election produced both a
House of
Representatives and a Senate virtually divided down the middle between the two
parties. The Supreme Court is likewise split between a five-member ultra-right
majority and a minority of four somewhat more moderate justices. The electoral
deadlock is the culmination of a series of events over the eight years of
the Clinton
administration that have revealed an intensification of antagonisms within the
political establishment. Particularly in light of the impeachment episode, the
manifold signs of gridlock impel one to ask: what is the source of the
political
impasse?
The crisis of the 2000 elections reflects the growth of social
contradictions to such
a point of intensity that they can no longer be adjudicated within the existing
political and constitutional framework. And because the spectrum of political
discourse in the US is so constricted—to the point that the political
establishment
would not even allow Green Party candidate Ralph Nader to participate in the
presidential debates—deep-going social contradictions can find no open
expression
within the political system. When they finally do emerge, they have already
matured
to the point where they threaten to burst the seams of the existing
constitutional
order.
Most fundamental is the enormous growth of social inequality, which has reached
proportions not seen in the US since the 1920s. The division of America
between a
fabulously rich upper crust and the vast majority of the population is, in
the end,
incompatible with democratic forms of rule.
Whatever the near-term outcome of the election impasse, the American ruling
elite has
no lasting solution to its constitutional crisis. Those, for example, who
propose
simply abolishing the electoral college—the system established by the founding
fathers at the end of the eighteenth century—and electing presidents by direct
popular vote, ignore the fact that the electoral college was set up as a
component
part of a complex constitutional structure designed to balance the
competing claims
of the states and the federal government. It cannot be removed without
calling into
question the federal structure of the United States, including such
institutions as a
Senate with two representatives from each state.
These old structures are incapable of dealing with the intensification of
social
contradictions within the US. But the elimination of the electoral college, for
example, would require the imposition of a new structure. Any attempt at
such a major
change would only inflame the conflicts already tearing at the political
system. As
inadequate as the old structures are, the ruling elite has nothing with
which to
replace them.
It can only move further to the right, and seek to defend its property and
political
power by more authoritarian means. It is instructive to recall that the
last great
constitutional crisis arising from a disputed election—that of
1876—resulted in a new
political settlement that ended Reconstruction in the South and opened the
way for
Jim Crow apartheid.
The present state of affairs stands as a colossal indictment of the prevailing
political culture in the US, which has developed under the tutelage of a deeply
reactionary media, whose operatives devote their efforts to traducing
public opinion.
Even in the midst of the electoral crisis, they evince an attitude of
unseriousness
and cynicism.
Many commentators are predicting that the political stalemate resulting
from the
election foretells a period of stasis, in which nothing of great
significance will
take place in the US. They suggest that should Bush end up in the White
House, the
Republicans will be forced to adopt a policy of compromise and moderation. Such
projections have no more substance than all of the other forecasts of the media
pundits, who have shown themselves to be phenomenally out of sync with the
realities
of American life.
The Republican right already demonstrated in the impeachment conspiracy
that it was
prepared, in the face of public opposition, to employ extra-constitutional
means to
impose its agenda. Should the Republicans capture the White House, they
will seek
rapidly to push through measures eliminating all restraints on the
accumulation of
personal wealth and the exploitation of the working class. The very fact
that the
2000 election revealed that public sentiment is moving against their
policies will,
if anything, impel them to act with greater haste and determination.
Should, on the other hand, Gore be installed, the fascistic elements that
dominate
the Republican Party will refuse to accept the legitimacy of his
administration. From
day one they will begin a new campaign of subversion against Clinton's
successor.
But as the election itself revealed, there is a growing, although as yet
politically
unclarified, determination among working people to assert their own interests.
Notwithstanding the conservative and flaccid character of Gore's campaign,
and the
universal refrain of media reactionaries that the country was contented and
apathetic, the combined popular vote for Gore and Nader registered a
significant
numerical majority of voters with, broadly speaking, liberal and left views.
Without any lead from Gore or the Democratic Party, the electorate once again
repudiated the Republican impeachment campaign. Popular anger over the
year-long
attempt to leverage a sex scandal into a political coup was a major factor
in the
double-digit victory of Hillary Clinton in her New York Senate race, as
well as in
the defeat of two Republican congressmen, James Rogan and Bill McCollum,
who played
leading roles in the impeachment drive.
The electoral crisis has revealed the breakdown of any political consensus,
mirroring the ferocious level of social polarization in America. Within this
situation, a new administration will come to power lacking credibility
among broad
sections of the population. The implications of this state of affairs will
only begin
to become clear when the next government seeks to implement right-wing
policies
under conditions of a deepening economic crisis.
The 2000 election heralds the onset of a period of social upheavals. None
of the
existing parties can establish a popular consensus. That can be achieved
only on the
basis of a mass movement that recognizes and takes as its starting point the
objective reality of the class contradictions within society, and advances a
socialist program for the working class. The next period must see the
development of
this movement in the form of an independent party of the working class. The
Socialist
Equality Party, through its political organ, the World Socialist Web Site,
is devoted
to the realization of this political task.
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Ballot designer, under fire, hires lawyer and hides out
By ALLEN G. BREED
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WEST PALM BEACH, FLA.
Theresa LePore might be the most reviled Democrat in the country.
LePore is the Palm Beach County supervisor of elections who
designed the ballot that some Democrats say was so confusing it
may have cost Al Gore the election.
More than 19,000 of the ballots were disqualified Tuesday, mostly
because people voted for two candidates in the presidential race.
Others say they mistakenly voted for Pat Buchanan instead of
Gore.
Now, LePore has been hit with voter lawsuits. A Democratic state
lawmaker said he plans to organize a petition drive to force her
from her elective office. And demonstrators and others have
denounced her.
Robert Montgomery Jr., a lawyer who defended two former
Salvadoran generals cleared of responsibility in a Miami
courtroom last week for the 1980 murders of four American church
women, has been hired by LePore to represent her in the numerous
lawsuits.
LePore, 45, has said she sent the ballot to dozens of candidates
and others before the election and heard no complaints. She said
she designed the ballot to make the print easier to read for
senior citizens -- one of the groups most incensed by the
election.
She has gone into semi-seclusion since the controversy erupted.
Given her history, friends said it is amazing that LePore should
be caught up in such a maelstrom.
The daughter of a West Palm Beach city commissioner, LePore is a
staunch Democrat.
She took an after-school job as a clerk in the county elections
office in 1971 at age 16, before she was even old enough to vote.
From there, she advanced to secretary to the assistant elections
supervisor, then to supervisor in 1995.
``She has done nothing but work for that county,'' said Mary
Marsh, LePore's younger sister. ``I think the only time that
she's not working is when she's sleeping.''
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Florida Cops Accused of Harassing Black Voters
Federal, State Authorities to Probe Allegations Amid Tight Race
Nov. 8, 2000
By Rick Sarlat
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (APBnews.com) -- As the world awaits a recount in Florida
to learn the outcome of the presidential election, some black voters here
are charging that they were deliberately harassed by state troopers who set
up a roadblock near a polling station.
At the urging of several black motorists, the State Attorney General's
Office today is looking into whether the Florida Highway Patrol
deliberately set up a checkpoint just one mile from Woodville First Baptist
Church. The church is the polling place for a precinct where more than
one-third of the voters are black, said Assistant State Attorney General
Paul Hancock.
"This was not done in accordance with normal [highway patrol] procedure,"
Hancock said. "We certainly see the sensitivity of the black community in
this situation. That's why we jumped right on it."
Of the 13 drivers cited at the checkpoint for equipment violations, eight
were black and five were white. The roadblock was set up between 10 a.m.
and 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, police said.
Feds want full inquiry
Hancock said that the U.S. Department of Justice has called for a full
inquiry into the allegations.
Victor Curry, president of the Miami chapter of the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored People, said that while the public may find
it hard to believe black voters were targeted, to the black community, the
incident is not all that surprising.
"The only thing that surprises me about the incident is all the attention
it's getting," Curry said. "Sounds like something out of the '60s, but all
it takes is a few racists who happen to be police officers."
Unauthorized checkpoint
Highway patrol officials admitted that the checkpoint on Tuesday was not
conducted according to protocol, but said they were "disappointed the black
community perceived it as an attempt to disrupt the political process."
"This was a checkpoint that had not been approved by the district
commander," said highway patrol spokesman Maj. Ken Howes. "The location had
not been approved and no notice had gone out to the news media, both of
which are requirements."
Howes said that since early October, the highway patrol has conducted 31
checkpoints, in which motorists are stopped and checked for licenses,
insurance and equipment safety, as part of an effort to conserve gas.
In late September, the highway patrol reached a $1 million deficit in its
gasoline budget and asked troopers to cut gasoline consumption by 20
percent. Instead of patrolling, officers set up checkpoints to check for
traffic violations.
Internal investigation
Howes said the sergeant who set up the checkpoint only chose the location
because it had not been used in the past. Police did not release the name
of the sergeant and three troopers who operated the roadblock.
Howes said the incident is being investigated internally. He said he did
not expect the sergeant and troopers to be reprimanded.
"They're just out there doing their job," Howes said. "Yes, departmental
policy was violated, but the violations were really only administrative
oversights."
"These driver license and faulty equipment checkpoints have always been a
normal part of our overall enforcement strategies," he said. "The sergeant
and the troopers were oblivious to any connection between the election and
the checkpoint."
----
Rick Sarlat is an APBnews.com correspondent in Florida.
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Ore, NM Presidential Races Undecided
November 9, 2000
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Even as all eyes remained on Florida, ballot
counters in Oregon and New Mexico were also working to establish which
presidential candidate won in their states.
Vice President Al Gore held a slender lead over Texas Gov. George W. Bush
in both states with counting unfinished, but victories for either candidate
would be largely symbolic because the states together have only a dozen
electoral votes.
Bush needs 24 electoral votes to reach the required 270, and Gore needs 15,
so neither Oregon, with 7 votes, or New Mexico, with 5, would decide the
outcome. Whoever wins Florida's 25 votes will move into the White House
next January.
Because of a last-minute rush of ballots, final unofficial results in
Oregon's nationally unique all-mail vote won't be available until late
Thursday, at the earliest. In New Mexico, the problem was technical glitches.
With 96 percent of the vote counted in Oregon, Gore had 662,155 votes, or
47 percent, to Bush's 658,123 votes, also 47 percent. Green Party contender
Ralph Nader, viewed as a spoiler to Gore's chances of winning Oregon, drew
63,284 votes, or 5 percent.
Bush could take the lead in Oregon on Thursday as more votes were reported
from the conservative, southwestern counties of Jackson and Josephine.
Under Oregon law, a recount would be automatic if the margin between Bush
and Gore were less than one-fifth of 1 percent, or about 2,500 votes.
New Mexico was waiting for a recount of 67,000 absentee and early-voting
ballots from the state's most populous county before it could declare a
winner. Officials in Bernalillo County, which includes Albuquerque, began
that recount Thursday morning.
With 99 percent of the precincts reporting before the recount began, Gore
had 255,597 votes, or 49 percent, and Bush had 245,526, or 47 percent.
Nader won 19,215 votes, or 4 percent.
The recount was caused by a software glitch and by ballots that would not
go through the counting machines, officials said. The machines could not
read ballots in which voters marked that they were voting a straight party
ticket, but then chose at least one candidate from another party, election
officials said.
The county clerk, a judge, attorneys from the Republican, Democratic and
Green parties and officials of the company that manufactured the county's
ballot machines agreed to the recount Wednesday afternoon, avoiding any
immediate legal action.
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Four other US states may recount election votes
10th November 2000
<http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_112909.html?nav_src=newsIndexHeadline>
Four more US states may follow Florida and undertake recounts to decide who
will
be the next president.
The recounts may be ordered in Oregon, Iowa, New Mexico, and Wisconsin,
which Mr
Gore won narrowly.
In New Mexico, early voting tallies released in the state's largest county
narrowed the gap between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore to 164
votes, with Mr Gore in the lead. That's a change from a previous unofficial
Gore
lead of 6,825 votes.
Republicans have threatened to challenge close Gore victories if he draws out
challenges in Florida. But New Mexico has only five electoral votes and
wouldn't be enough be itself.
In Oregon, a recount may also be required by a state law if the margin between
Bush and Gore is less than one-fifth of 1% or about 2,800 votes.
With about 40,000 more votes to be counted, many in Republican leaning
areas, Mr
Gore led Bush by 8,485 votes.
In Iowa, Republican officials are exploring the possibility of requesting a
voter recount in a state that Mr Bush lost by less than 5,000 votes.
To ask for a recount, Bush would have to personally write each of Iowa's 99
county auditors by 5 pm Nov. 16 or 17, depending on the county.
In Wisconsin, where Mr Bush lost by about 6,000 votes, there is no automatic
recount. But a candidate may request a recount. The Bush campaign said they are
looking at that possibility.
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Linked stories:
********************
Buchanan on the election results
<http://abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/DailyNews/ELECTION_WatchdogPart7001109.html.html>
"Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan today said he suspects he
received votes in Palm Beach that he wasn't entitled to and would
rather he didn't receive them.
"I don't want to take any votes that don't belong to me," Buchanan
told NBC News. "I have to think, given the 3,000 [votes received by
Buchanan there] plus the 19,000, that Al Gore very probably won
Florida and therefore won the nation and won the presidency of
the United States."
********************
Voteless in Florida
<http://www.motherjones.com/news_wire/floridavote.html>
Thousands of Florida residents were struck from the voter lists because
they were mistakenly identified as ex-felons, just months before what has
become the closest election in US history. With Bush apparently leading
Gore by only hundreds of votes, in a state with hundreds of thousands of
disenfranchised voters, could similar errors be tipping the race?
********************
NAACP Says Fraudulent Calls Surface in Florida
<http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20001106/pl/election_naacp_dc_1.html>
********************
NAACP Alleges Voter Suppression in Florida
<http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20001108/pl/election_naacp_dc_2.html>
********************
********************
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"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
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