MR. GORE, END IT NOW

November 27, 2000

There is a line, not all that fine, between perseverance and stubbornness. Al Gore is about to trip over that line and collapse with a thud. His determination to keep fighting, even after Sunday night's formal declaration that George W. Bush won the presidential race in Florida, presents the increasingly unappealing portrait of a man who wants to be a winner at any cost.

Florida has certified that Bush carried the state. Election officials followed the procedures and timetable dictated by the Florida Supreme Court. Florida has delivered a final count more closely scrutinized than that of any other state--ever.

Yet Gore won't accept that judgment. His lawyers now will file official contests, or challenges, of the election results. Gore is certainly entitled to do so. But as Gore knows, this is more serious business than his efforts since Election Day to reverse Bush's lead. This is a world of witness testimony and hard evidence. Gore also knows that the certification of Bush as the winner diminishes Gore's chance of prevailing. Courts are reluctant to overturn certified election results.

By dragging on, Gore guarantees the country more uncertainty--and more gamesmanship. Democrats will continue trying to manufacture votes; Republicans in Congress and the Florida Legislature will continue plotting ways to deprive Gore of any Florida electors.

Perhaps the U.S. Supreme Court will convince Gore that it's over. The only real issue facing the court right now is whether Bush won by the 930-vote margin he had after the statewide recount, or the 537 votes by which he was declared the winner Sunday night. The high court will hear arguments Friday on whether the statewide recount should have been the official Florida outcome.

Gore's efforts thus far have been neither effective nor persuasive. He lost the vote election night, and he lost the subsequent machine recount mandated by Florida law when a margin is so tight. When he couldn't win with votes, he tried to win by invoking "the will of the people" and requesting hand recounts in friendly counties. Will-of-the-people turns out to be code for embracing technicalities when they serve his needs (as with his success in getting Broward County to use a liberal rule for counting indentations as votes), but ridiculing technicalities when they do not (as with his successful challenge to a Florida law that requires hand recounts to be completed within seven days of an election).

And yet these legal maneuvers didn't produce the votes he expected. Rather than accept the failure of his strategy, he is launching, yes, more legal maneuvers.

This mindset is destroying the goodwill Gore initially deserved. He could have graciously called from the start for a second statewide recount by uniform means--either by hand or by machine--but instead aimed only for hand recounts in counties controlled by Democrats. He could have agreed that counties should use their pre-existing rules to determine how questionable ballots should be counted, but instead pushed for new rules, drawn on the fly, on how to evaluate indented chads in ways that would be favorable to him. He could have publicly demanded that legitimate military ballots lacking postmarks be counted, but instead cynically dispatched his running mate to merely pay lip service to that idea. In other words, if it's right but could hurt you, don't do it.

Gore's grasping for a victory that would be tainted and deeply divisive. It's time for him to thank those who worked so hard for his candidacy, then declare this election over. (Liberal) Chicago Tribune: MR. GORE, END IT NOW

-- Ain't Gonna Happen (Not Here Not@ever.com), November 28, 2000

Answers

From IP: Exclusive: Recount Observers Tell NewsMax.com of Democrat Fraud

NewsMax.com Monday, Nov. 27, 2000

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Ballot observers have found one outrageous case after another of tampered ballots, miscounts and bias in the recount in Democrat-dominated Broward County, NewsMax.com learned in exclusive interviews over the holiday weekend.

"If there’s anyone who really believes that the ballot recounts are objective and fair, I’m ready to sell him the Brooklyn Bridge," one Republican recount observer told NewsMax.com.

Among the questionable and outright fraudulent practices that witnesses noted in the recount of presidential votes:

Tampered Ballots

• Numerous absentee ballots had the chad for George W. Bush Scotch-taped back in and the chad for Al Gore punched out.

"We were told there were about 80 such absentee ballots," an observer told NewsMax.com. "The Broward County Canvassing Board's justification for allowing these votes – that voters obviously just changed their minds – might be understandable for the isolated case, but not for 80.

"These Scotch-taped ballots are a shining example of a corrupt process. These ballots can be tampered with after they left the hands of the voters, and the Broward County Canvassing Board is all too happy to count them as Gore votes."

• Chads were dislodged from ballots shaken by county workers during the counting.

On one such occasion, for example, a county ballot counter predicted that a hanging chad on a ballot would fall off if he were to shake the ballot. He then shook it, knocking off the chad. That ballot was subsequently identified as a Gore vote.

• One Republican observer collected more than 75 chads from the table and floor in the area where ballots were being inspected and counted.

While that observer was trying to collect the chads from the table before a lunch break, the counting supervisor ordered him to leave the chads – and leave the room.

• Writing and ink blots, indications of tampering, were found on ballots.

Miscounts

• There were attempts to count 75 Gore ballots as 100.

During the final counting, four stacks of 25 ballots each were supposed to be stacked crossways into stacks of 100 votes. But on at least one instance, four stacks containing only 75 Gore votes each were originally counted as if they were four stacks of 100 ballots, a miscount of 100 votes in favor of Gore.

The Republican ballot observer who saw and objected to this error – leading to its correction – was then kicked out of the room at the Broward County Emergency Operations Center.

• County ballot counters also were observed placing Bush ballots in the Gore pile.

At one counting table, a counter repeatedly put ballots that had been identified as votes for Bush onto the Gore pile. On no occasion was he observed placing a ballot identified as a Gore vote onto the Bush pile.

Also, he continuously watched the wall-mounted televisions. Several times the other counter at the table told him to pay attention to the ballot inspection and counting. He replied, "I’m giving it as much attention as it deserves."

A recount observer said, "It’s important to understand that most of the county workers were professional and fair in carrying out their duties, but it’s a shame that a few bad eggs can make the whole room stink."

Bias and Collusion

• Democrat observers were under instruction to challenge ballots even where it was clear there was no vote cast for president.

Ballots with no presidential votes punched provide a significant opportunity for tampering. A Gore chad could later be dislodged or punched and then counted as a Gore vote.

• A Broward recount supervisor was even overheard accepting pro-Gore instructions from a Broward County Canvassing Board attorney.

The board attorney told the recount supervisor to "err on the side of giving it to us," a witness told NewsMax.com.

The Broward supervisor then reversed his earlier instructions and told the ballot observers to feel free to challenge no-vote ballots.

• On one occasion two Broward counters were observed showing each other their voter registration cards and identifying themselves as Democrats, as if they were members of the correct club.

• On other occasions county workers were observed demonstrating for Gore.

These are the sort of Democrat practices that helped Gore "gain" hundreds of votes from the Broward County recount.

"It’s hard to believe that the leader of the free world would be determined by these kinds of cheap tricks," one ballot observer told NewsMax.com.

(Note: a lot of these incidents are captured on videotape.)

-- ... (...@...com), November 28, 2000

Answers

Tell me, why doesn't Gore ever mention counting the military votes?

I can tell you why right now.

Gore is as two faced as they come.

He don't give a damn about the military votes, because most of them have voted for Bush!!!!

Do you really want another klinton?

Because that is what you get with Gore!!

-- ... (...@...com), November 28, 2000.

Chicago Tribune = liberal? That's the funniest thing I've heard yet, Ain't. I lived in Chicago most of my life, and the Chicago Tribune is the newspaper of Republicans. The Chicago Sun Times is the newspaper of Democrats.

-- Anita (Anita_S3@hotmail.com), November 28, 2000.

Speakin of gore

Shamsheer

watch out for redlof

-- imme (¿¿¿??@greenspun.com), January 21, 2003.