Approval Rating For Bush Below 50%, Poll Finds (Florida)

[soup]

By ELLEN GEDALIUS [e-mail]
Published: Oct 7, 2004

TAMPA - For the first time in Florida, President Bush's job approval rating has slipped below 50 percent, suggesting rival John Kerry still could gain support in the state just weeks before the Nov. 2 election, a poll showed Wednesday.

Bush's performance rating, which peaked at 80 percent shortly after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has fallen from 58 percent in July 2003 to 49 percent in the poll this week.

Meanwhile, the presidential race remains in a statistical dead heat across Florida, with 48 percent of likely voters supporting Bush and 44 percent backing Kerry, according to Mason-Dixon Polling & Research, which did the work for The Tampa Tribune and WFLA, News Channel 8. The poll had an error margin of 4 percentage points.

``What those numbers say more than anything is that 52 percent of Americans in Florida don't want to vote for President Bush,'' said Art Collins, a senior adviser to the Kerry campaign. ``We have said all along it's going to be a very close race.''
http://news.tbo.com/news/MGBEGGBA00E.html

-----
Note: Polls make me crazy - Methods, margins of error, 'likely' voters, ups, downs, hope followed by despair - but with that said, Gotta love this one.

[muchacho]

1. sweet!

They're still going to try and steal the game.

They want power at all costs.

[opihimoimoi]

2. The Pressure is Mega HIGH...way past the RED ZONE, Bush implodes

on his deflate with Kerry due to over prep this Friday.

[soup]

5. So true.

Three articles I've read just this morning -

Court delays touch-screen enforcement

Disabled voters had sought more of the machines before Nov. 2.

By STEVE PATTERSON and PAUL PINKHAM
The Times-Union

A federal appeals court decided Tuesday to delay enforcement of a court order requiring Duval County's elections office to install more touch-screen voting machines for disabled voters.

To a large degree, the decision makes meaningless a lawsuit the American Association of People with Disabilities filed in 2001 to force the purchase of machines that are more accessible to blind or manually disabled people.

But a judge could still hear arguments Thursday asking for the Supervisor of Elections Office to be held in contempt for announcing last week it would not have the machines in place for the Nov. 2 general election.

Working from his Jacksonville office, U.S. District Judge Henry Adams scheduled the contempt hearing about the same time that the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was issuing its ruling in Atlanta.

A lawyer for the disabled voters, Ari Rothman, filed papers late Tuesday arguing the contempt hearing was still necessary. Earlier, his law firm filed a motion that claimed the elections office "wasted at least a full week by refusing to make even a good effort attempt to procure the machines and train poll workers."
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/100604/met_16830068.shtml

---

High court to review voting rights

With the election less than a month away, the Florida Supreme Court has agreed to hear a lawsuit demanding that all provisional ballots be counted regardless of where they are cast.

BY GARY FINEOUT

[e-mail]

TALLAHASSEE - Many of Florida's voters may still get a chance to use a paper ballot on Election Day, thanks to a long-shot lawsuit that has rocketed forward to the state's highest court.

By a razor-thin margin, the Florida Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to take up a lawsuit challenging the law that overhauled the state's election system after the chaotic 2000 presidential election.

Justices voted to hold a hearing on the lawsuit on Oct. 13, setting up the possibility that they could order election supervisors to make substantial changes to Florida's election system days before voters head to the polls on Nov. 2.

A coalition of unions, including the AFL-CIO, want the court to order election supervisors to count so-called provisional ballots regardless of where the voter turned them in.
>snip<

But the caveat added by state legislators is that provisional ballots must be discarded if the voter didn't go to the right precinct. Lawyers for the unions say this violates Florida's Constitution, which requires only that voters cast their ballots in their home county.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/9845253.htm?1c

---
and finally, this one, which is a pretty good wrap-up of the ongoing insanity in FL.
---

Preelection legal challenges abound

By Dara Kam

Special to The Palm Beach Post

Wednesday, October 06, 2004

TALLAHASSEE — Civil rights groups, organized labor and Democrats intensified pressure Tuesday on Florida Secretary of State Glenda Hood to further open elections, now just 27 days away.

The American Civil Liberties Union threatened to take Hood to court over her directive to elections supervisors regarding incomplete voter registration applications. A coalition including the ACLU demanded action regarding manual recounts for touch-screen voting systems. And the Florida Supreme Court scheduled oral arguments in a challenge from labor unions over provisional ballots.

Meanwhile, Gov. Jeb Bush issued an executive order Tuesday night giving elections supervisors the ability to send absentee ballots by forwardable mail in counties where "a significant number of voters" are unable to occupy their residence as a result of one of the four hurricanes. Without Bush's order, state law requires that absentee ballots be sent by non-forwardable mail that must be returned if not deliverable.
Palm Beach Post article with a Very long URL

---

If they don't like the rules, they just change them as they go along. If the law is to their benefit, it MUST be enforced and they scream 'Rule of Law'. They fight accountability and claim everything is fine with no accountability.

This quote from the last article cited is about as hypocritical as they get- "The law is very specific on what it requires," Hood's spokeswoman, Jenny Nash, said Tuesday. "The Department of State cannot decide that it will ignore the law because it will be the least-criticized decision." - but they sure as hell just ignore or change them if it's to their benefit. :grr:

FL 2000 seems like child's play in hindsight. FL 2004 is looking like it's being set up to become the fiasco to end all fiascos.

So as far as this below 50% approval poll goes, and as much as I hate all these polls, I think it's a very important development. If news like this continues to be reported and the polls continue to show *jr dropping, won't a black-box touchscreen 'win' in FL be harder to explain?

[Amigust]

22. WE have to win by a big margin to keep it from being stolen again.

eom

[0007]

3. All Hell may break loose in Florida "again" and worse than before

may have to even call in the National Guard. Oh, I forgot! Does Florida have their electricity back on these days?

[soup]

6. I so hope it doesn't come down to us again in 2004.

It's one of my bigger fears.

and, yes. The destruction from this hurricane season could make a huge difference. When personal survival has to be top priority, there's understandably very little thought even for an election as important as this one.

---

Yesterday's mail brought us a flyer from the Republican Party of Florida. It was addressed to our daughter who hasn't even lived in FL for about 5 years now. (Is she registered as a Republican? I don't know. But, none of the rest of us are.)

A picture of jeb with - 'INSIDE: An Urgent Message from Governor Jeb Bush' on the front.

A pic of Guilliani and 'DEFEND FREEDOM: Vote by Mail for Our 2004 Republican Team' on the back.

Inside, another pic of jeb and a letter headed by a graphic reading 'Stand Up and Be Heard VOTE BY MAIL' over the numbers '537'
that mentions the devastation suffered with the multiple hurricanes, and how they're working incredibly hard (is 'it's hard work' - the new Bush family mantra?) to ease our pain and provide assistance - also urging act today! vote by mail! - 'signed' by jeb.

a 4 step instruction on how-to with 2 attached Vote by Mail Request Cards made out to our County Supervisor of Elections.

---

Trust us, everything is just hunky-dory. no worries.

---

More polls! Keep dropping *george! and I hope not even your brother and his stacked government can save yer sorry behind this time around.

[0007]

9. Does she get to vote in the Florida election? Just curious.

[amber dog democrat]

10. If they try it again, it may not work

I honestly don't think the American people will stand for it AND it may well begin the process to dump the electorial college.

Plus, this time it won't go to the SCOTUS. Again, Neopugs will be desparate and may try anything. These are interesting times.

[malachi]

12. Can't call in the Nat'l Guard, them boys is in Eyeraq fightin'

terra.

[0007]

19. Damm I forgot! Is that Noelle Bush in Post #9?

[cthrumatrix]

4. awol is screwing with seniors medicare & soc sec.... big mistake

[Tight_rope]

8. And seizing their medications for Canada too...

[Tight_rope]

7. Kick-ing Bushs* ass!

[underpants]

11. Not crazy about the MRE's are they?

:shrug:

[skooooo]

13. You gotta think the hurricanes have some role in this..

...people are in a bad mood and may take it out on Bush.

[yellowcanine]

14. If M-D has Bush up by 4% in LV the race is at least tied and most likely

Kerry is actually leading. Mason-Dixon consistently favors the Repub. candidate.

[shraby]

15. I think the most telling figures are the

ones that state what percentage thing its time for a change of presidents and is the country going in the wrong direction.

Those two figures DON'T indicate a vote for Bush.

[Demeter]

16. They Can't Fool Any of the People All the Time

except for the fools, who do it to themselves.

[VegasWolf]

17. The Tampa Trib is one of the most conservative papers in

Fla. I grew up reading the trib, used to make me puke.
This means Kerry is really ahead in Fla.


"Kerry has a 'chocolate chip' on his team", Limbaugh says
on his radio show after learning Jesse Jackson has joined the organization.

[Ezlivin]

18. If this was a fair fight, it would matter

But with the electronic rigging of the elections taking place right before our eyes, it won't be.

Regardless of what the polls say, all that matters is who appears to win on November 2.

Fasten your seat belts and put your seat in the upright position. We are going to hit some serious turbulence.

[VegasWolf]

20. How could his approval rating be above zero???

"Kerry has a 'chocolate chip' on his team", Limbaugh says
on his radio show after learning Jesse Jackson has joined the organization.

[Deja Q]

21. Good. May Lil' Jebbie-kins get tossed out too.

x(