PRESIDENT GORE....if only......

[kpete]

PRESIDENT GORE....

As a matter of policy, I think that pining over the results of the 2000 election is pretty counterproductive. But hey — sometimes you just can't help yourself. Here's an interview with Lance deHaven-Smith, a professor at Florida State University who recently published The Battle for Florida:

One of the most interesting points you make in the book is that the focus on undervotes (ballots containing no vote for president) — the hanging, dimpled and otherwise pregnant chads — was misplaced. Instead, you explain that a study by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, which looked at all the ballots that were initially rejected on election night 2000, revealed a surprise: most of these uncounted votes were in fact discarded because they were over-votes, instances of two votes for president on one ballot. What do you think the NORC study tells us about the election?

LdHS: There were 175,000 votes overall that were so-called “spoiled ballots.” About two-thirds of the spoiled ballots were over-votes....And nobody looked at this, not even the Florida Supreme Court in the last decision it made requiring a statewide recount. Nobody had thought about it except Judge Terry Lewis, who was overseeing the statewide recount when it was halted by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The write-in over-votes have really not gotten much attention. Those votes are not ambiguous. When you see Gore picked and then Gore written in, there’s not a question in your mind who this person was voting for. When you go through those, they’re unambiguous: Bush got some of those votes, but they were overwhelmingly for Gore. For example, in an analysis of the 2.7 million votes that had been cast in Florida’s eight largest counties, The Washington Post found that Gore’s name was punched on 46,000 of the over-vote ballots, while Bush’s name was marked on only 17,000.

more interesting stuff at:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/

[ProfessorPlum]

1. Makes me want to cry

especially reading about Gore's speeches since the election, and when reading about his central role in a lot of the excellent policy that happened under Clinton.

I still can't believe that the people who gave him the atomic media wedgie are still free to do their jobs, while we languish under a constantly growing police state . . .

[FreedomAngel82]

9. Especially Katherine Harris

Why isn't this woman in jail? She purged voters and said they were criminals when they weren't. Try to find a special that Greg Palast did on this and he talks to a young guy who is an army doctor and he can't find work now ever because he is said to be a criminal! She ruined his life and not just his right to vote! :mad: You can find it on his website I think at http://www.gregpalast.com I think he talks about it in the 2004 election segment.

[Wilms]

2. Here's the permalink.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2006_01/007948.php

[kpete]

3. Wilms

For future reference, what is a permalink? Thanks

[Wilms]

6. Permalinks

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com gets you to the homepage, which will change at some point, making it hard to find the article.

Permalinks, is the address where they'll "permanently" place the article. In this case, http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2006_01/007948.php

Permalinks are sometimes found near the bottom of the article (as is the case, here), sometimes as link you get by clicking the headline, or, as I've seen on some blogs, by clicking a "#" symbol next to the authors name.

Make sense??

[kpete]

10. Wilms

Thanks, makes sense and I will try to use it where possible

[Wilms]

12. Great.

Because I dig your posts.

:)

[texpatriot2004]

4. "I won't rule out any future interest" Al Gore nm

[mzmolly]

13. I'm salivating at the thought!

:patriot:

[AtomicKitten]

15. oh, please, please, please.

I tell you, that would make me one happy camper.

Of all the fanaticism I've been accused of here at DU in spite of stark evidence to support it, I readily admit I am an Al Gore fanatic.

He deserves the nod and we should be so lucky.

[demgurl]

5. I looked at one article way back...

and it struck me weird about all the over votes. One woman came forward and said that she noticed she had been handed a ballot sheet with a hole punched for * already. It is pure genius on the part of the GOP. I had read about this several times before it really important.

If someone goes and votes for *, the vote is just confirmed and no new holes are made. But if someone goes to vote for Gore then a second hole is made and that vote is null and void. How sneaky, cleaver and illegal!

[minyks]

7. I confused

if someone handed me a ballot that already was punched I would be asking for a new ballot. did she? also what is with write in bit I would have thought his name was already listed.

[FreedomAngel82]

11. I wonder if she did too

I surely would've noticed that. :shrug: This is why I like how my area votes. We have these really big sheets and you have the person's name and than you have a big bubble next to it and you take a sharpie pen and bubble in who you want. You can write in a person but the bubble is big enough for anyone could bubble in and the print is large enough for people to read with bad eye sight. The ballets are counted on some machine but there is a paper trail and I've never heard of any problems. Of course I don't know if it'd be reported. :shrug:

[demgurl]

14. I can not remember exactly what transpired after she noticed that.

The article may not have even stated what happened after she noticed that. I believe she only noticed, perhaps, after she made her vote. I wish I knew where that darn article was. It was in with a bunch of information including a listing of a bunch of cities that had irregularities such as 500 extra voting over the number who are even register to vote in a particular precinct.

[FreedomAngel82]

8. What is very telling

is how they only question the votes for Gore and not Bush. The part quoted states at the end that Bush got those votes as well but obviously they didn't question those. :mad: