Florida Supreme Court rules to accept recounts
By Linda Deutsch
The Associated Press
November 21, 2000 10:21 PM EST
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- Florida's Supreme Court ruled unanimously Tuesday night that manual recounts may continue in Florida's contested presidential election until Sunday or Monday, when a final statewide vote must be certified.
The 42-page ruling was a setback for George W. Bush, who holds a 930-vote lead in the state that stands to settle the race for the White House. It also gave hope to Al Gore, who is counting on recounts under way in three counties to overtake his rival.
The court thus rejected Secretary of State Katherine Harris' insistence that a deadline prevented her from accepting amended returns after Nov. 14.
"Twenty-five years ago, this court commented that the will of the people, not a hyper-technical reliance upon statutory provisions, should be our guiding principle in election cases," the court ruled.
"We consistently have adhered to the principle that the will of the people is the paramount consideration."
Copyright 2000 The Associated Press
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Tuesday November 21 1:19 PM ET
Gore Gains 69 Votes in Miami-Dade
By CATHERINE WILSON, Associated Press Writer
MIAMI (AP) - Circuit Judge David Tobin rejected Republican requests to set standards for ballot review and to search garbage cans for chads in Florida's most populous county.
``It's not my job to manage it. I don't see how I can do it anyhow,'' he said Tuesday. ``I'm not going to manage the minutiae of each ballot being counted. That's not my job.''
Election workers resumed their hand count of Miami-Dade County's 654,000 ballots Tuesday, with Al Gore (news - web sites) picking up 69 votes since counting began Monday. Workers had completed 77 of the county's 614 precincts by Tuesday afternoon.
Republicans turned up their attacks on the process, calling it ``rigged'' and accusing Democrats of ``manufacturing votes.''
``The end game is to delay the process at any cost,'' Democratic attorney Steve Zack said outside court Tuesday.
Democratic attorney Kendall Coffey said Republicans were trying to undermine the recount.
``You don't have court hearing after court hearing after court hearing and now these personal attacks if they're not afraid of the outcome,'' Coffey said.
On Monday, GOP congressmen went further than previous Republican criticisms of the manual recount as unfair or subject to tampering,
``This thing is rigged,'' said Rep. David Hobson, R-Ohio. ``It is a joke on our democracy.''
Democrats said the accusations were dead wrong.
Miami-Dade County began mechanically sorting its punch-card ballots on Sunday, separating those with clear punch holes from the ballots in question.
Those so-called ``undervotes,'' ballots on which no vote was registered by the machines, were being reviewed by the canvassing board because members didn't want the regular teams of counters to use their discretion in determining what constituted a vote. There were about 10,750 undervotes.
Republicans claimed board members were twisting and turning ballots to determine voter intent, looking for votes that weren't there.
``Unfortunately Miami-Dade has become ground zero for producing a manufactured vote,'' said Rep. John Sweeney, R-N.Y., who called the elections officials roaming the counting room ``pit bosses.''
Coffey, the Democratic attorney, responded: ``I think any attempt to raise fraud or any other type of innuendo is nothing short of outrageous.''
Lawrence King, chairman of the Miami-Dade board, said he did not hear the comments from Hobson or Sweeney.
``I'm sure it was very entertaining, but this is not point-counterpoint,'' he said.
Republicans were planning to try and stop the recount through legal action Tuesday. A hearing was scheduled in circuit court, where GOP will argue the canvassing board erred in reversing its decision against a hand recount. On Sunday, a judge rejected a request by backers of George W. Bush (news - web sites) to stop the recount.
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ELECTION 2000, Day 15
'Condo commandos'
caused ballot snafu
'Gore operatives,' others mistakenly
instructed thousands of Palm Beach
seniors to 'punch #2'
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By Diana Lynne
© 2000 WorldNetDaily.com
As the Palm Beach County canvassing board muddles through an arduous countywide hand count of ballots, WorldNetDaily has learned that the county's "condo commandos" -- leaders at condominium complexes for those 55 and older -- and other Gore operatives created the perceived need for a recount by giving the wrong instructions to loyal voters about how to cast their ballots in the Nov. 7 election.
The bad information, in turn, created confusion that ultimately contributed to more than 19,000 ballots being thrown out.
The "condo commandos" traditionally play starring roles in elections in Palm Beach County, where a quarter of the million-plus population is 65 years and older, but their star appears to be fading fast on the Gold Coast.
"Condo commandos take credit for delivering votes after elections. I don't think you'll find them doing that now," stated Democrat Jody Gleason, a Palm Beach County school board member.
Retirees, particularly in the southern part of the county, historically represent a massive voting bloc for Democratic candidates. One retirement community in West Palm Beach, Century Village, has 7,000 residents year-round and as many as 14,000 during the winter months. The heavily Jewish community was a magnate for Gore cheerleaders on the stump, including Jesse Jackson and vice presidential nominee Joseph Lieberman. Century Village's clout makes the president of the Century Village Democratic Club, Sam Oser, a powerful man in the eyes of Democratic candidates running for office.
"I don't even know if I voted correctly," said the 75-year-old condo commando, "You're dealing with older folks who come in on crutches and in wheelchairs. They're used to voting a certain way all these years and it was switched."
Century Village residents are used to relying on "palm cards" to help them vote. As the name suggests, a "palm card" is a printout that's small enough to fit into the palm of one's hand, and they are distributed en masse by condo commandos prior to the election.
"This is a card that has the numbers of candidates we recommend residents vote for," said Oser, who describes it as an aid for elderly voters who have poor eyesight or are vulnerable to confusion in the voting booth. Unless there's a polling station set up within the retirement community, as is the case at Oser's Century Village, condo commandos arrange to bus residents to the polls. It is common for residents who take the journey to the polling place sponsored by the retirement community to arm themselves with the palm card issued by that community.
"The retirement communities are critical. Any candidate goes into their midst with fear and trembling. We know what a powerful voting bloc they represent," reflected former school board member Gail Bjork, who successfully ran three campaigns. "If your name isn't on that [palm] card, you're in trouble."
But WorldNetDaily has learned that Oser and many other Gore supporters issued marching orders to voters in error. As reported by the Palm Beach Post, the Democratic Club of Greater Boynton Beach got the candidates' numbers mixed up in their voting recommendation published in its November newsletter to members. A few days prior to the election, according to the Post, the club issued postcards headlined "Oops!" which explained that members had been incorrectly instructed to "punch #3 for Al Gore" but that number 3 would actually be a vote for Republican George Bush. The postcard further instructed members they should "punch #5 for Al Gore."
Asked whether he got the candidates' numbers right on Century Village palm cards, Oser replied, "I don't recall whether there were numbers."
However, a worker at Century Village told WorldNetDaily the "palm cards" that were distributed prior to the election were wrong. When the error was discovered, new palm cards were printed and handed out outside of the polls on Election Day.
According to this worker, who wishes to remain anonymous, "Whoever took the palm card from us outside the polls got the right information. Those that didn't wouldn't have."
This is not the first election in Palm Beach County to have been affected by palm-card errors. In 1986, Bill Graham surprised political analysts by winning the District 4 school board seat over the favored Democratic candidate, Lou Martinez. According to the Palm Beach Post, the upset was partly attributed to a printing error on 5,000 palm cards put out by the South County Political Cooperative. While the cooperative endorsed Martinez, they encouraged voters to punch the number associated with Graham.
The error with the palm cards is linked to the so-called "butterfly ballot" adopted this year by Elections Supervisor Theresa LePore, a Democrat, which listed the candidates' names on both the right and left-hand pages with arrows pointing to punch holes in the center of the ballot. The sample ballot mailed out prior to the election listed Al Gore second on the left-hand page but did not contain holes that could have been counted. Thus, it only would have been possible to assume that the second punch hole would correspond to Al Gore.
Because of the "butterfly" design, however, the second hole on the ballot actually corresponded to Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan. Staff at the Gore campaign argue the ballot caused thousands of confused voters to be "disenfranchised," since they may have either selected the wrong candidate or, realizing they made a mistake, chosen two different candidates, thereby invalidating their ballots. More than 19,000 voters punched more than one hole on their ballots, spoiling 4.4 percent of the total cast in the county. Thousands of Gore supporters have signed sworn statements saying they may have mistakenly punched the ballot for Buchanan. Even independent analysts think Buchanan received about 2,400 more votes than he should have.
Several voters filed suit seeking a re-vote on the basis that the "confusing" ballot caused them to vote incorrectly. Yesterday, Circuit Judge Jorge Labarga ruled he did not have the authority to order a revote and that such a revote would be unconstitutional because it gives one candidate an unfair advantage over another.
"Historically, they [senior citizens] go by the numbers and don't look at the ballot," explained Gleason, suggesting that if retirees are instructed to "punch number 2," they troop into the voting booth and punch number 2 without even reading the ballot.
According to a Republican businesswoman in the Democratic stronghold of Boca Raton, this is precisely what took place on Nov. 7. The businesswoman, who asked to remain anonymous, told WorldNetDaily that Gore operatives made the rounds of all the retirement communities instructing residents to "punch the second hole."
"A 75-year-old Jewish friend of ours said he was mad his vote went to Buchanan and complained they told him to punch the wrong hole," the source told WorldNetDaily. "And another Jewish friend said she couldn't believe they had told all the seniors to punch the wrong hole when they went to vote at Century Village."
Testimony from seniors also indicates that Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Fla., of West Palm Beach visited retirement communities and instructed residents to "punch number 2" which amounted to a vote for Buchanan.
Wexler's press secretary, Josh Rogin, initially called this untrue, but added, "I don't believe he was saying that. Even if he was, it doesn't address the issue that the ballot was illegal." Rogin went on to explain that under Florida law, Gore's name should have appeared second instead of Buchanan's. Technically, Gore's name did appear second on the left-hand side of the ballot. His name, however, did not correspond to the second punch hole.
As soon as calls started pouring into the office of Wexler and others about the "confusing ballot," after the polls opened on Election Day, the Gore camp went into crisis management mode. The Associated Press reports that the Democratic National Committee hired a telemarketing firm to call voters on Election Day to notify them of the "confusing ballot" and urged them to raise questions about it and complain to local elections officials.
Wexler has been among the most vocal proponents of the recount in Palm Beach County, declaring with confidence that his constituents did not intend to vote for Buchanan. Also speaking out was Lieberman, who received a rousing reception from Century Village residents during his October visit and was confident of earning the Jewish vote. But the testimony of senior citizens that it was the Gore operatives who misled them and not the "butterfly ballot" calls into question the validity of the ongoing recount in Palm Beach County, even as the state Supreme Court wrestles with whether the hand-count results should be included in Florida's final vote tally.
As for the mood at Century Village, residents feel they were gypped.
"These folks were in World War II. Their sons and fathers went to World War II," stressed Oser. "Their eyesight isn't the best, and they don't deserve to be made fun of by the whole country about how they voted. And for many, this will be their last vote."
"Indeed, no right is more precious in a free country than that of having a choice in the election of those who make the laws under which we live," stated Labarga in yesterday's ruling.
Whatever the outcome of this presidential election, the lesson learned in Palm Beach County is that if you aim to sway seniors to vote for a particular candidate, you better give them accurate instructions or the effort just may backfire.
Asked whether she thought this election would sound a death knell for the 'palm card,' Gleason replied, "No, it'll be around."
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Ignore the Court: Harris Should Certify Bush
Christopher Ruddy
Sunday, Nov. 19, 2000
Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris needs to comply with Florida state law and certify Gov. George W. Bush the winner of the Florida election, without delay.
If she doesn’t, I fear that Bush has lost his best chance to gain the presidency, which he fairly and squarely won.
Time and delay favor Gore.
The notoriously partisan Democratic Florida Supreme Court understands this point.
This is why the court issued an injunction Friday to stop the certification of Bush this weekend.
Harris has every right to follow the explicit instructions of Florida law, which state that she is to certify the winner on Saturday afternoon after the count of the absentee ballot.
The Florida Supreme Court, whose duty is to interpret the law, overstepped its bounds by ordering the secretary of state to break the law.
The secretary of state should ignore this judicial intrusion into her jurisdiction.
If it has a problem with her certification, the Supreme Court can attempt to overrule her decision, but what penalty can it impose on her for complying with Florida law?
The truth is that once Bush is certified the winner, it will be very difficult to overturn the result. Pressure will likely mount for Gore to concede.
If Harris takes the initiative and certifies Bush, I believe most Americans will rally around her for bringing an end to this national nightmare.
The Democrats and the liberal media know Harris has the power within her hand to bring this matter to a conclusion and end Al Gore’s gambit to steal the presidency.
This is why the Gore people are making not-so-veiled threats to investigate Harris, why they are making wild accusations against her and the major media has been demonizing her.
They fear her, so, following Carville’s advice, they are attempting to destroy her.
The Bush camp and Harris have nothing to lose and everything to gain by having Bush certified pursuant to Florida law.
Gore has everything to gain by having the Supreme Court of Florida delay and likely vote in favor of including the manual recount.
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With Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff
For the story behind the story...
Tuesday, November 21, 2000
Memo to Dubya: No More Mr. Nice Guy
"For the good of the country, Bush must defeat the Democrats' dirty tactics," begins an editorial in today’s Wall Street Journal that goes on to enumerate in mind-numbing detail the sleaze and countless deceptions perpetrated by the despicable Gore campaign in Florida.
From betraying the members of America’s armed forces who have had their ballots thrown out for the most technical of reasons, to the endless smear campaigns against Florida’s dedicated Secretary of State Katherine Harris, the blatant manipulation and deliberate manhandling of ballots, the thinly disguised hostility to the lawyers for Harris and Gov. Bush displayed by the Democrat-dominated Florida Supreme Court, the litany of Gore campaign abuses as outlined in the Journal is nothing less than shocking.
"If this Republic is ever to get back to a politics of comity, these tactics have to be defeated," the Journal editorialist writes. "And if Mrs. Harris, the Florida legislature and conservative jurists do not draw the line at the theft of the Presidency, where can it ever be drawn?" the newspaper asks.
Noting that: "... the Florida Supreme Court may not be the final arbiter of these matters," the Journal explains that the "Constitution and the laws" give the power to the Florida legislature to say how electors are appointed.
"The legislature meets in its organizational session today, and can convene on its own motion. The legislature has an option, it seems to us a duty, to make clear that it stands ready to resolve any dispute between Mrs. Harris and the Supreme Court Democrats. Since the Republicans now solidly control the legislature, they hold the winning hand."
But there’s a problem: "... and it is a congenital one reaching far beyond Florida ... the squeamish GOP," the Journal laments.
The paper suggests that given the GOP’s past record of backing down in the face of Democrat outrages, it isn’t difficult to "imagine Mrs. Harris, under fire for being a Southern aristocrat rather than a New York sophisticate, buckling before a Florida Supreme Court ruling, rather than holding her ground to preserve the legislature's options."
Nor, the Journal adds, is it equally hard "to imagine the Florida legislature declining to exercise its Constitutional prerogatives. It is not hard to imagine an eventual U.S. Supreme Court decision in which the conservative justices defer to the principle of states rights and the liberal justices go with Gore.
"Republican restraint is in a way admirable, but someone ought to say a word for the truth."
The Journal concludes by noting that it is the "conventional wisdom" that should Bush emerge from this contest as the winner, he will be a crippled President. That might be so, the Journal admits. "But we find it equally plausible that facing down the kind of assault now being waged in Florida would be precisely the best preparation for what may lie ahead. It is Governor Bush's nature to extend the velvet glove, but he will be much more successful if he and his party can show that within it there is some steel."
In other words, GW, no more Mr. Nice Guy.
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Comment: Democrats Wage War; Republicans Play Badminton
Phil Brennan
Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2000
The Kennedys used to say that "politics ain't beanbag." They were right - as good Democrats they saw politics as war ... all-out, no-holds-barred, fight-to-the-death war. Republicans, on the other hand have a different view: they see politics as badminton.
So while Democrats lob 80mm mortar rounds at them, Republicans reply with a feathery barrage of shuttlecocks.* Needless to say, carnage runs wild through the GOP ranks, while the only discernable effect among the Dems is an occasional sniffle bought on in some allergic to feathers.
If anybody disputes this I refer him to what's going on at this moment in Florida. The huge phalanxes of Democrats and their high-priced shysters who invaded the state in the wake of George W. Bush's apparent victory arrived here fully armed and ready for battle to the death.
Facing them were a corporal's guard of confused Republicans outflanked and outwitted by a foe without regard for decency, honesty, the law or, for that matter, the future of this republic, which they have made the laughingstock of the world.
Truckloads of tough, hard-nosed political pros skilled in the niceties of stealing votes and manipulating ballots were shipped into the state and sent into the counties where manual recounts were under way, there to act as counters and monitors. Facing them were often elderly Republican volunteers totally unskilled in dealing with the unscrupulous pros on the other side and utterly ignorant in the ways of fraud and electoral chicanery.
In heavily Democrat Broward County, for example, the only Republican on the canvassing board was 70 years old and had to bow out because he couldn't handle the 15-hour days required of board members as they went about the tedious job of hand-counting or mangling ballots.
As the Democrats romped merrily about in their jolly theftfest, their GOP opponents were stunned to discover that the Democrats were acting like ... well .. like Democrats.
What the hell did they expect? Especially when the chief of the Gore recount brigade is one William Daley, son of the most notorious of all vote manipulators, the late Richard Daley, former mayor of Chicago, a city where, it is said, vote fraud is taught in third grade.
Former GOP House minority leader John Rhodes used to say, "Just because we can't be smart all the time doesn't mean that we have to be stupid all the time."
Doesn't it?
During the campaign Gov. Bush's mantra was the need for working with both sides to obtain a consensus. By now I hope he's learned that trying to work with Democrats unlike those he dealt with in Texas is like a condemned man trying to work with his executioner. The only consensus the two can possibly reach results in the condemned's demise.
Should Bush finally pull this thing out of the hands of the vote thieves and their judicial allies, he's going to discover that the real battle has not yet begun. If he doesn't already know it as a result of his experience here in the darkness of the Sunshine State, he will quickly learn that the Democrats' demand for "bipartisanship" means "Give us everything we want or we'll bury you by whatever means, fair or preferably foul, we deem necessary."
The Democrat toadies who think of themselves as the mainstream media elite are having a field day speculating on the gridlock they see developing unless GW, should he win, makes a fervent effort to secure bipartisanship, which means the same thing to them that it means to the Democrats: "Play the socialist game or we'll bury you."
Regardless of who comes out of the Florida swamps the victor, Republicans are going to have to learn, once and for all, that they are involved in politically nuclear conflict in which only one side is going to survive.
This war is not a gentleman's game. It's down and dirty, and they're going to have to gird their loins and do battle with an enemy that will stop at nothing to win and convert this republic into the socialist dictatorship so dear to their hearts.
Faugh a' Ballagh
* For those not familiar with the rather effete game of badminton, a shuttlecock is the feathered object that substitutes for the ball in this dainty take-off on tennis.
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Phil Brennan is editor and publisher of Wednesday on the Web, http://www.pvbr.com. He is a veteran journalist and one-time Washington correspondent for National Review magazine and a former staff aide to the House Republican Policy Committee. E-mail: pvb@pvbr.com.
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The Democrat Nazi Party
Paul Craig Roberts
Nov. 21, 2000
Two weeks after Americans chose a new president on Nov. 7, the Democratic Party is still trying to change the vote count. Responding to this unusual situation, the Wall Street Journal called on Republicans not to allow Democrats to steal the election and with it the Constitution.
The editorial, "The Squeamish GOP," indicates that the Journal does not think the Republicans have what it takes to defend their president elect and the American Constitution. Obviously, the Democrats think likewise, or they would not so brazenly steal an election in broad daylight with the connivance of the media and the Democrat Florida Supreme Court.
The Florida Supreme Court did not hesitate to show that it is not a court but a partisan arm of the Democratic Party. The court has no power or authority to stop Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris from exercising the legal powers of her office according to Florida law. Yet, without even hearing cause or petition, the court issued an injunction forbidding her from exercising her responsibility under law.
This is clearly an overreach of judicial authority and a violation of the separation of powers. The court’s only reason for its overreach is to help Al Gore steal the election. If the U.S. media actually constituted a media instead of the Propaganda Ministry of the Democratic Party, the Florida court would not dare to be so brazen.
The Democrats are stealing the election by revoting ballots that have already been recounted two or three times. The ballots are being revoted by the Democrats conducting the "recounts." Any and every excuse is being used to interpret ballots that were not cast for Gore as votes that voters meant to cast for Gore.
When one set of "recount" rules doesn’t produce enough new Gore votes, the rules are changed. Soon Democrats will be saying that the people who voted for Bush really meant to vote for Gore.
There are a number of Democrats — I know several myself —who will vote a Democrat ticket but refuse to vote for Gore. They won’t vote for a Republican either, so they leave the presidential choice unmarked. They support their party as far as they can, but no farther. These ballots are being revoted for Gore, the argument being that someone who voted a Democrat ticket meant to vote it all the way.
Squeamish Republicans are cooperating in this fraud. They pretend that the Florida Supreme Court is a real court instead of a political arm of the Democratic Party, and they pretend that a recount, not a revote, is under way. Republicans only dispute the validity of the "hand count."
This is an amazingly weak position for Republicans to take. It is a strategic mistake for Republicans to go along with the pretense that the issue is a proper vote count.
Disputing the "hand count" is a technical complaint that, to many Americans, seems petty. It has given the Democrats and their media allies two weeks to hide a stolen election behind "the intention of the voter" and "the will of the people." The media suggest that it is the wicked GOP that wants to steal the election by frustrating the will of the people.
Harris has been demonized by the Democratic Party’s Propaganda Ministry (the TV networks and CNN). Adolf Hitler best described the tactic that Democrats are using against Harris. Success, Hitler says, comes from unleashing "a veritable barrage of lies and slanders against whatever adversary seems most dangerous, until the nerves of the attacked person break down." This tactic, Hitler says, is most successful against "the bourgeoisie [Republicans], which is neither morally nor mentally equal to such attacks."
If Republicans allow the election to be stolen, they will forever be discredited. There is no excuse for a party that controls executive and legislative power in Florida to stand aside while thieves steal the election. Every member of the Florida Supreme Court should be arrested, indicted and immediately put on trial for aiding and abetting vote fraud. The Democrats, who are revoting already recounted ballots, must also be arrested, indicted and tried for perpetrating vote fraud.
The media that threw the West Coast to Gore by falsely announcing Gore’s victory before the polls closed, together with the media that are cloaking Florida vote fraud as a recount, must also be indicted for their participation in vote fraud.
Once Bush assumes the office to which he has been elected, Republicans must turn their attention to dismantling the Democratic Party’s Propaganda Ministry that masquerades as a news media. The most obvious solution is nationalization. Give the corrupt media the socialism it wants, and run the organizations as strict news outlets with all editorializing and opinion banned.
Once Americans can get the facts, they will realize that a Nazi Party (aka the Democratic Party) has grown up in their midst.
Continue