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Edited on Tue Oct-26-04 08:25 PM by Nicholas_J
is done by Republicans, and that theRepublican Party has been advising Republicans to use absentee ballots there is a good chance that a lot of these absentee votes were going to Republicans.
In 2000, it was largely absentee ballots that turned the vote towards Bush when early estimates had Gore winniing bt a lot of votes. Once those absentee ballots were counted, the numbers for Bush started creeping closer and closer to Gores and then passed him. Now if they find that these ballots were all abstentee ballots set to Democratic voters, that would be one thing. In Broward, old and disabled people gnerally do not vote absentee. Many of the comunitees for the elderly have polling places right on site, like Century Village. Other places where elderly people live arrange buses to go to the polling places. Most of the abstentee ballots belong tosnowbirds who own propoert in Florida and only live here a few months out of the year, but use Florida as their primary residence becasue of all of the tax breaks that come with it. The intangible tax on stocks and stuff is far lower than in other states, and so if you are richa and live in another state most of the time but want to avoid paying the taxes in that state, you just name Floridaas your place of residence. I think in 2000 over 80 percent of the absentee ballots were cast for Bush.And they were relying on those absentee ballots to tip the race in Bush's favor. It could effect Demos, but It could have a worse effect on Republicans if those ballots were not targetted in the main against Dems. In gneral, not many people living in Broward ask for absetee ballots to avoid going to the polling places on elections day, though some prefer to do so. The Democrats advised peopoe to vote early or on eletion day and to not use absentee ballots.While Republicans were sdvising that people use absentee ballots this year. Since there is still a week for people to recieve these ballots in the mail, and they can be sent back by any type of mail, it is still possible that this willnot have much of an effect, Those who just asked for them to avoid going to vote directly, can still go in. The only time I ever saw people who lived in Broward aske for absentee ballots (I worked in the library which had gave out voters registration forms and absentee ballots, the people who asked for them SEEMED to be more Republican in temperment than Democrat. In gneral, nasty, abusive, poll up their ass buisiness owners who didnt want to take the time off from counting their money, rather than disabled people who couldnt get to the polls. Broward, for all of its Florida problems seems to go to a great deal of effort to make it easy for retirees to vote and every large condominium seems to have a polling place on site. Century Village, all of the condo's in Lauderhill, Lauderdale Lakes, And the large Arvida Communities all have polling places right on site. Smaller Condos all seem to jave buses to take residents to the polling places. Broward does have Republicans and given that80 percent of the absentee ballots in the state were filled by Republicans in 2000, there is a good chance that those 58,000 absentee ballots were going to Republicans , not Democrats. Knowing Broward County Politicians, there is a good chance that they were going to Republicans.
Given that there are overa a half million registered Democrats in Broward., the odds that those 58,000 were all democratic absentee ballots is slim, as there is simply no way that ten percent of the counties Democrats would want to vote by absentee ballot. Given the fact that Republican recommended that their voters vote absentee, the odds that a lot of those ballots are going to REpules seems very good.
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