You are being played for a chump. The entire carnival of doings in Palm Beach
is being staged by you by your friendly Democrat Party. The county is controlled
by Democrats. The butterfly ballot was designed by Democrats. Democrats threw
out the 19000 spoiled ballots. And Democrats, upon finding out that Bush had
carried Florida narrowly, decided to dig threw the stack of spoiled ballots until they
can find enough to reverse that outcome. The voters angry about the ballot should
have complained when they voted, but waited until Democrat officials contacted them. But as usual, the media circus is trying to put the 'blame' for this whole
charade on Bush and the Republicans. Well, as P.T. Barnum said, there is one
born every minute.
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Other States' Voting Also Close
.c The Associated Press
While the Florida recount battle between George W. Bush and Al Gore campaigns continues, five other states had close votes, forcing county-by-county examinations of the totals and raising the possibility of other recounts.
A rundown:
Iowa: Gore leads by 4,949 votes out of nearly 1.3 million cast.
On Monday, county officials began examining their vote totals before declaring the results official. The Bush campaign sent representatives to monitor this process and will decide when it is finished whether to request a full recount.
The counties are expected to finish their canvassing by Tuesday. All requests for a recount must be made to a county within three days of the canvass - either Thursday or Friday.
The canvassing will update the totals with any uncounted absentee ballots and will consider including ballots that were challenged on Election Day for some reason - for instance, if a voter had moved and was not listed on the new rolls. If the voter is determined to be legitimate, his or her ballots will be added to the total.
If a recount is ordered, each county would have 18 days after its canvass to complete the new tally. A recount could cover the entire state or target specific counties.
New Mexico: Bush leads by 17 votes out of more than 571,000 voted cast.
Officials have until Nov. 17 to count 370 ``in-lieu-of'' ballots. These votes belong to people who requested absentee ballots but did not receive them. In-lieu-of ballots are checked against absentee ballots and are counted only if there is not already an absentee ballot for that voter.
But Democrats fear that counting could be delayed as state police began impounding early-voting and absentee ballots in case they are needed for recounts or review. Republicans requested that ballots be impounded, and police were seizing some of them Monday under court order.
State officials will finalize the results on Nov. 28, and either side would have six days to request a recount.
Oregon: Gore leads by 5,756 votes out of nearly 1.4 million cast, with 99 percent of votes counted.
A recount would be required by state law if the margin falls to less than one-fifth of 1 percent, or about 2,800 votes. If a recount is called, it is expected to be held the first week of December.
Meanwhile, counting of about 40,000 votes from the state's mail-in balloting resumed Monday.
The Bush campaign has said it is waiting to see the final count before deciding whether to seek a recount.
Wisconsin: Gore leads by 6,099 votes out of 2.5 million cast.
The Bush campaign has not ruled out a recount in Wisconsin. It cannot request one until all 72 counties turn in certified vote tallies, which are due Friday. The campaign would then have three business days to request a recount.
The state Republican Party said it has received about 800 complaints of questionable polling procedures from around the state, including 600 from Milwaukee County. The GOP has asked the Milwaukee County district attorney to look into the allegations, which include voters getting two ballots or being told they had already voted.
New Hampshire: Bush leads by 7,068 out of more than 540,000 cast.
A review found proofreading and computer errors, which trimmed Bush's lead. State officials are looking to see if other mistakes were made.
A proofreading error at the secretary of state's office gave Bush 1,000 too many votes in one Nashua ward. Officials do not know if the same mistake was made in totaling results anywhere else and are double checking their numbers.
In several other communities, a programming error miscounted votes for Bush and Gore, denying Bush 107 votes in Randolph and Gore 208 in Stark and Stewartstown. Officials were checking to see if the programming errors were made anywhere else.
Also, in at least two other communities, straight ticket votes were not counted, although officials estimate this mistake affected only about 200 votes, with most of them going to Bush.
Officials said there have been no requests from the Gore campaign for a recount. The deadline for recount requests is Monday, Nov. 13.
AP-NY-11-13-00 1511EST
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Fla. Won't Extend Recount Deadline
By WILL LESTER
.c The Associated Press
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Sticking to a firm deadline, Florida's Republican secretary of state said the states' 67 counties must finish recounting votes by 5 p.m. Tuesday. Al Gore's advisers decried the decision as ``arbitrary and unreasonable'' and promised court action.
Volusia County, one of four Democratic-leaning counties recounting votes, sued in state court Monday for the right to complete and certify its manual count regardless of the deadline, and to bar the state from ignoring its results.
The county asked for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to block the state from enforcing the deadline. Democratic lawyers sought to join the case and asked a judge to delay his hearing until later in the day to give them time to prepare their case.
The deadline is a major roadblock for Gore because some of the manual recounts requested by Democrats probably cannot be completed by then. The state warned that counties that don't certify their vote by the deadline ``shall be ignored.''
``The electoral process is a balance between the desire of each individual voter to have his or her intended vote recorded and the right of the public to a clear, final result within a reasonable time,'' Secretary of State Katherine Harris said, explaining the deadline.
``The process of counting and recounting the votes cast on Election Day must end,'' she said.
Harris said she expected to certify the election results on Saturday afternoon.
Warren Christopher, who is overseeing Gore's recount effort, met briefly Monday morning with Harris and said the county election boards or Gore himself will appeal.
Christopher suggested Harris' ruling was politically motivated. Noting that she has campaigned for Gore's rival, Republican George W. Bush, and is a political supporter of Bush's brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Christopher said, ``Her statement has to be taken into that context.''
``We regard the action of the secretary of state to be arbitrary and unreasonable,'' Christopher said in a hurried-up news conference with Gore campaign chairman William Daley. ``It seeks to nullify and frustrate the hand count.''
Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer said Gore's campaign was making the issue partisan.
``If anyone is acting political it's those who seek to overturn the result of an election by disregarding the laws that are on the books,'' he said from campaign headquarters in Austin, Texas.
Fleischer noted that the manual recounts had turned up new votes for Bush.
``That underscores the fact that it doesn't matter whether we gain or lose votes, our principle remains the same - that a hand recount without any standards is unreliable, and as we can see ... often results in chaos,'' he said. ``The best course of action is to allow the existing two recounts to stand. Anything less would be so subjective that it would neither be fair nor right.''
The development came hours before a federal judge denied Bush's petition for a court order shutting down the hand recounts, which had narrowed the Texas governor's lead in Florida.
Gore's huge team of operatives and lawyers geared up for a public relations battle. Democrats said they would dispatch Gore surrogates across the country to allege that Harris' actions are evidence that Jeb Bush is using his influence as Florida governor to help his brother.
Another member of the state election canvassing board that will certify the state's election results, Agriculture Commissioner Bob Crawford, a Democrat, defended Harris. ``We looked very closely to see if there is any discretion. There is no discretion,'' he said.
In Volusia County, some 42 officials began recounting votes by hand Sunday, and expected to finish as early as late Monday, but sought the extension as a safeguard. ``It is prudent for us to move forward with that course of action,'' county spokesman David Byron said.
Palm Beach - another county involved in manual recounts - also indicated it would legally challenge any deadline.
Election officials in Palm Beach County said workers will start hand counting some 425,000 ballots Tuesday morning and expect to continue through Sunday. The county canvassing board unanimously voted Monday, before Harris's statement, to ask her and the attorney general for an advisory opinion on whether Tuesday's deadline can be extended.
The other two counties, Broward and Miami-Dade, had not yet begun recounts, with Broward starting a manual recount of sample precincts Monday and Miami-Dade with a hearing scheduled Tuesday on the question.
Bush has a 388-vote lead in the decisive state, with the manual recounts and the overseas ballots that are due Friday the biggest remaining issues.
AP-NY-11-13-00 1315EST
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