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In case you didn't receive this the first time, here it is again:
African-American Precincts Victims of Widespread Fraud
Robert Sterling
Editor, The Konformist
http://www.konformist.com
In the over four and a half years time period I've ran The
Konformist via email and the web, I have never come across a
story this huge. What we have before us is an election scandal
that makes Watergate and The October Surprise look like patty
cake.
In Palm Beach County, as reported, 28,036 votes in the
Presidential race have been tossed, a number nearly twice as much
as the previous election. Until recently, the focus has been on
the effects due to the butterfly ballot, which appears to have
caused confusion and led to votes for Pat Buchanan.
What has only been uncovered now is that nearly half of those
votes tossed out are in African-American precincts.
The percentage of disqualified votes countywide was seven
percent, an admittedly high number. However, in two precints
of Riviera Beach with African-American populates at 94 and
96 percent, the figure of disqualifications was 20%.
As confusing as the ballot may have been, these numbers of
mistakes are virtually impossible.
There is an explanation: there are now reports that African
Americans have complained they were given ballots that
were already marked for rival candidates.
While some may have caught the problem, it is likely that
many people would not notice the problem while voting.
The implications are tremendous: a major attempt to swindle
votes from African-Americans was a deciding factor in the
2000 election. We are no longer talking about "honest"
fuck-ups. We're talking about a sinister conspiracy.
The Konformist will not state for sure who the culprit is,
but some questions must be asked: who would benefit from
suppressing African-American votes in the Presidential
race? How could these votes have been tampered with and
who could have done it? And, perhaps most important, why
is Katherine Harris, Florida's GOP Secretary of State, so
eager to end the investigation of the vote totals in Palm
Beach? (She has claimed, falsely, that Tuesday at 5PM is
the drop-dead date for submitting voter totals.)
The Konformist will have this full story on its website
tonight. It should also be on Conspire.com's and
Disinfo.com's websites too. Parascope is working on this
as well. Please feel free to post this, and the articles
below which supply the evidence to back up everything
that is stated above.
Thank you,
Robert Sterling
Editor, The Konformist
http://www.konformist.com
Nearly half of tossed ballots from black precincts
By Stephen Kiehl and Elliot Jaspin, Palm Beach Post Staff Writers
Sunday, November 12, 2000
Nearly half of the 28,036 ballots that Palm Beach County tossed out in the
presidential election came from areas of the county that are mostly black or
elderly, a Palm Beach Post computer analysis shows.
Those ballots were thrown out because the voter either didn't vote for
president or voted for two presidential candidates.
Almost 10 percent of the ballots cast in precincts where most of the voters
are over age 65 were thrown out, the Post found. And 16 percent of the
ballots cast in majority-black precincts were thrown out -- more than double
the percentage of ballots thrown out from overwhelmingly white precincts.
Overall, about 7 percent of the 387,094 ballots cast in the county were
tossed. (Another 75,000 absentee ballots were cast, though their precinct
wasn't reported.)
The disproportionate number of invalidated ballots in black and elderly
precincts -- traditional Democratic strongholds in West Palm Beach, Riviera
Beach and southern Palm Beach County -- gives a clue as to why Republicans
oppose a manual recount of all ballots in the county.
On Saturday, elections officials began counting by hand 4,695 ballots from
three precincts chosen by the Gore campaign and another precinct the county
canvassing board chose. If a lot of problems turn up, officials will consider
recounting the whole county.
The punch-card ballot used in Palm Beach County presented a number of
problems for seniors that could have led them to punch two holes or none at
all, according to ballot experts and geriatricians.
They said the now-infamous "butterfly" listing of presidential candidates,
along with the tiny stylus used to punch holes and the closeness of the
holes, all contributed to a senior-unfriendly ballot -- especially for
seniors with poor vision and arthritis.
"From a vision standpoint, you could even go so far as to say it
discriminated against the elderly," said Dr. Barry Schultz, a Boynton Beach
geriatrician. "It was designed for a young person with good hand-eye
coordination."
The Rev. Thomas Masters said some black elderly voters were confused by the
ballot. The disproportionate share of those votes being thrown out coming
from the black community is evidence enough for a revote, Masters said.
"We need to correct the first vote," said Masters, who along with local
leaders have been organizing local rallies to protect Tuesday's election.
"The people's vote must count."
The Post found:
• In Precinct 66 in Riviera Beach, 256 ballots were thrown out. The
precinct is 94 percent black and gave Gore 1,203 votes and George W. Bush 25.
• Also in Riviera Beach, 250 of the votes in Precinct 59 were tossed.
The precinct is 96 percent black and gave Gore 1,206 votes and Bush 21.
• In the Lakes of Delray, where 85 percent of the voters are seniors,
258 ballots were thrown out. The precinct gave 1,500 votes to Gore, 151 to
Bush and 47 to Pat Buchanan.
The Palm Beach Post reached these findings after creating a database of the
number and type of ballots rejected in each precinct and then matching that
with each precinct's demographic profile. The data were provided by the Palm
Beach County Elections Office.
Many seniors have said they voted for Buchanan mistakenly or punched two
holes, thinking one was for Gore and one was for his running mate, Joe
Lieberman, listed below Gore.
"People just couldn't see clearly," said Leon Weekes, 74, a former chairman
of the Mae Volen Senior Center in Boca Raton. "If it had been larger or more
clearly delineated, we wouldn't have this problem."
Marilyn Newman, 65, of Boca Raton said she punched what she thought was the
hole for Gore and continued on with the ballot. Then, worried she punched the
wrong hole, she turned back to the presidential listing and punched again.
"The ballot was not great to read," she said, adding that she didn't see the
arrows pointing from the candidates' names to the holes.
"The ballot poses problems to seniors with poor eyesight and physical
strength," said Susan MacManus, a political science professor at the
University of South Florida in Tampa who has studied seniors and voting.
"Punch cards make it difficult for seniors not as strong as they used to be."
Counties that use punch card ballots often have larger styluses available to
seniors upon request, MacManus said. The larger styluses were not available
in Palm Beach County.
Another problem for seniors, some said, was the 5-minute time limit while in
the voting booth.
"There was a lot of pressure for them to move along," said State Rep. Susan
Bucher, D-West Palm Beach.
But GOP leaders and some seniors said the ballot was understandable, even for
elderly.
"It may be there are people with eyesight that's a little bad and things like
that, but I don't think that's a reason for the problem in this election,"
said Murray Kalish, 82, a Democratic party activist who lives west of Delray
Beach.
Database coordinator Christine Stapleton and staff writers Noah Bierman and
William Cooper Jr. contributed to this story.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
*****
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_1020000/1020266.stm
Monday, 13 November, 2000, 15:54 GMT
Anger over US poll deadline
Bush supporters say hand counting is inaccurate
The Tuesday deadline to certify votes in the US presidential election from
Florida's 67 counties will be enforced, the Florida state government has
said.
The decision by Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris has angered the
Democratic camp, which says the deadline will not leave enough time to finish
the recount.
The party is reportedly taking steps to challenge the decision in court,
believing that it reflects political bias within the Republican state
government.
An automatic recount was ordered in Florida after Republican candidate George
W Bush won a slim victory - a result which would have assured him the
presidency.
Democratic candidate Al Gore demanded a hand recount in four Florida counties
over what he claimed were anomalies in the voting.
But Ms Harris's decision to stick to the 1700 local time (2200GMT) deadline
brought an immediate response from Gore spokesman Warren Christopher who
said: "We regard the action of the secretary of state to be arbitrary and
unreasonable, and seeks to nullify and frustrate the whole hand count vote
provided by statute."
Mr Christopher said Ms Harris was a long-standing supporter of George W Bush,
adding: "I think her statement has to be taken in that context."
A Democratic source told Reuters news agency that a party lawyer was on his
way to court to challenge the decision.
Ballot challenge
However the situation was further confused by a separate court appeal.
A federal judge hearing a complaint by Democrat voters, who objected to an
allegedly confusing ballot paper known as the butterfly ballot, has already
ruled that the state cannot certify the results until this case has been
heard.
Earlier, the Republicans had asked a federal judge to rule against the
hand-counting, saying it will only produce more delay and confusion. The
hearing was due to start on Monday afternoon.
Hand counting is still taking place in Palm Beach and Volusia, and is under
consideration in Dade and Broward counties.
Uncertainty grows
The impasse in Florida means that six days after last Tuesday's vote, the
world is no closer to knowing who will succeed Bill Clinton in January.
In the split of decisive electoral votes awarded by each state, Mr Gore held
a 262-246 lead over Mr Bush, so Florida's 25 could put either man in the
White House.
Some Gore supporters are demanding a new vote
Unofficial voting figures in Florida gave Mr Bush a 288-vote margin out of
some 6 million votes cast last Tuesday.
But there will be no final result while questions remain over the manual
recounts and the counting of overseas ballots that are due on Friday.
Meanwhile, black rights groups are calling for the FBI to investigate
allegations of electoral fraud in Florida.
Some voters claim they were given pre-punched ballot papers at polling
stations in Miami and north-west Florida, in what the Democrats allege was an
attempt to fix the election.
While the world's attention was focused on Florida, other electoral dramas
were quietly being played out elsewhere in the United States that could have
just as large a bearing on the US presidency.
Other election battlegrounds
Wisconsin (11 electoral votes)
Iowa (seven electoral votes)
Oregon (seven electoral votes)
New Mexico (Five electoral votes)
Most dramatically, a recount in the south-western state of New Mexico, which
Mr Gore won narrowly in the first vote, gave Mr Bush the lead by a mere 21
votes out of some 570,000 cast, according to the CBS network.
The Republicans were also threatening to challenge apparent victories by Mr
Gore in the mid-western states of Wisconsin (11 electoral college votes) and
Iowa (seven), and the north-western state of Oregon (seven). Mr Gore led in
all by some 6,000 votes or less.
So, although Florida is a must-win for Mr Gore, who had a 200,000 vote lead
nationwide out of 101 million ballots cast, Mr Bush knows that legal
challenges in other states may still deliver him the presidency.
Two votes cast for the US presidential elections have turned up in a family's
letterbox- in Denmark. They opened one of the envelopes to find a vote in
favour of Mr Bush.
*****
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,34812,00.html
MONDAY NOVEMBER 13 2000
Gore camp demands FBI inquiry
FROM DANIEL MCGRORY IN MIAMI
THE FBI is being asked to investigate how thousands of mainly black
supporters of Al Gore were given ballot papers that had allegedly already
been marked for rival candidates.
Yesterday Democrat officials were examining claims that up to 17,000 ballot
papers in the Miami area had been tampered with in what they described as
"organised corruption". Lawyers from across the United States
descended on Miami and were busy taking statements from those complaining
that they had been cheated or intimidated out of voting for Mr Gore.
A senior Democrat official in Miami, who has hired a team of 20 investigators
to carry out an inquiry, told The Times: "Until now in Florida, we have
been arguing foul-ups, human error and stupidity. But this is deliberate
corruption to spoil votes for Gore and that must be a matter for the FBI.
"We don't want to be seen as playing the race card here, but the
areas where this happened are in poorer precincts, which are predominantly
black areas that would be expected to vote almost unanimously for
Vice-President Gore. We are not accusing the Republican Party or any other
ethnic groups for being behind this. All we are saying is the vote was
corrupted. There are just too many double-punched papers."
Jewish leaders in staunch Democrat areas of the city claimed that they, too,
had evidence of voting slips being marked before they reached polling
stations in areas populated by retired Jewish couples. At a rally in a Miami
synagogue, Lisa Versaci, Florida director of People for the American Way,
said: "There can be no innocent explanation for a pre-punched ballot
sheet.";
Republican leaders in Miami dismissed the allegations as "dirty-trick
claims". A spokesman said: "A spoiled ballot is not uncommon.
There is no dark plot here."
