Ballot Review Shows Gore Stood to Gain Rejected Votes in Florida Yield Findings

(The upshot of this Washington Post article is clear. Bush lost the election in Florida. Notice that the tone of the article undermines that conclusion. And, as Noam Chomsky points out, the most important part of the article is usually at the end. That is the case here. The last sentence reads:

"With the findings in Orange County, Sentinel research indicates hand counts in those 16 counties might have given Gore a net gain of 569 votes--32 votes more than Bush's certified margin of victory statewide."

Notice even this conclusion, that Gore won by “32 votes more than Bush's certified margin of victory” is highly muted by the analysis. And this “conclusion” does not take into account the already published results of manual counts in many other localities, where Gore pulled ahead of Bush by several hundred votes. According to previous Orlando Sentinel stories, the results of hand recounts in Lake County, Broward, and Hillsborough showed the margin of victory for Gore, even as early as Dec. 24 was by several hundred votes. The Orlando Sentinel Web Site has erased these stories from its archive.

As of this week, all but ten of Florida’s sixty seven localities have been recounted Authorities in Duval-Jacksonville, where Gore’s gains may have been largest, are obstructing a manual recount at present through legal maneuvering.

Bush lost, even according to the Washington Post’s rather watered down story on the recounts. What is the rest of the media saying about this? Carville appeared an MSNBC late night talk show to say that Gore had won, according to the recounts. But how much prominence is this story being given? Are CNN and the main networks (CBS, NBC, and ABC) going to report Bush’s election loss as a major story?

Below is the Post’s version of the story, which has the merit of being as far as I know the first major media report on Bush’s loss in Florida. Bush’s “legitimacy” may suffer further erosion, as other media outlets take up the story. Much will depend on how widely this news is circulated on the internet, and taken up by others who can get the story out to larger audiences.]

02/11/01

WASHINGTON POST

ORLANDO--Al Gore would have gained 203 extra votes if Orange County had conducted a hand recount of all of its ballots that machines could not read after the Nov. 7 election.

Results of a new hand count released Friday by Orange County election officials, and an Orlando Sentinel examination of rejected ballots, found clear presidential votes on 799 ballots for which counting machines had detected no vote or votes for multiple candidates.

The findings show that--had Orange County's canvassing board examined all its ballots--George W. Bush would have gained 298 votes and Gore would have picked up 501. That would have given Gore a net gain of 203 votes--equivalent to more than a third of Bush's 537-vote winning margin in Florida.

The results underscore the blow dealt to Gore's campaign by the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that halted a statewide count of all ballots on which machines detected no votes. Orange County's canvassing board had examined about 15 percent of those ballots before the ruling.

Orange County voters mark paper ballots with special pens. Ballots are fed into counting machines at each precinct, which immediately reject ballots with errors and give voters a chance to correct them. Because of that system, which Gov. Jeb Bush wants all counties to use by the 2002 elections, Orange County had one of the lowest rates of rejected ballots in the state.

The most common reason for rejection, the Sentinel's examination found, was because voters apparently used pens other than those provided in the voting booth.

A Sentinel review of about 10 percent of the uncounted ballots, focusing on 16 small counties that use mostly paper ballots, suggests that hand recounts would have helped Gore far more than Bush, even though most of the counties are predominantly Republican. With the findings in Orange County, Sentinel research indicates hand counts in those 16 counties might have given Gore a net gain of 569 votes--32 votes more than Bush's certified margin of victory statewide.

-- Coup2k (thanks@pubs!.com), February 14, 2001

Answers

Yadda, yadda, yadda....call the White House numbnuts and ask for Al Gore. Have a nice day.

-- Barry (bchbear863@cs.com), February 14, 2001.

Translation by shabby and shameless traitor Barry:

"What do I care that Lady Liberty was gang raped in broad daylight by GOP thugs? Just give me my tax break."

-- Coup2k (thanks@pubs!.com), February 14, 2001.

Coup, pay no never mind to Barry who thinks he is a fuckin know it all but really knows nothing.

-- Barry is an asshole (Barry@is.anass), February 14, 2001.

"The most common reason for rejection, the Sentinel's examination found, was because voters apparently used pens other than those provided in the voting booth."

Follow the instructions, or you vote won't count. Period. End of story.

-- Buddy (buddydc@go.com), February 14, 2001.

Yadda, yadda, yadda....call the White House numbnuts and ask for Al Gore. -Barry

LOL. Regardless of how you feel about the article, ya gotta admit... THAT was a witty response!

-- CD (costavike@hotmail.com), February 14, 2001.

Shit with our luck if we called Barry would answer the damn phone.

-- Barry is an ass (Barry@is.anass), February 14, 2001.

A reading comprehension test:

"A ***Sentinel review of about 10 percent*** of the uncounted ballots, focusing on ***16 small counties*** that use mostly paper ballots, suggests that hand recounts would have helped Gore far more than Bush, even though most of the counties are predominantly Republican. With the findings in Orange County, ***Sentinel research*** indicates hand counts in those 16 counties ***might*** have given Gore a net gain of 569 votes--32 votes more than Bush's certified margin of victory statewide."

~10% + "might" != "conclusion

I DO recommend that someone look into the reasons why Gore voters in these counties were so much more likely to bring their own pens...

-- RC (randyxpher@aol.com), February 14, 2001.

Yadda, yadda, yadda....call the White House numbnuts and ask for Al Gore. Have a nice day.

-- Barry (bchbear863@cs.com), February 14, 2001.

I DO recommend that someone look into the reasons why Gore voters in these counties were so much more likely to bring their own pens...

-- RC (randyxpher@aol.com), February 14, 2001.

ROFL!

-- Ain't Gonna Happen (Not Here Not@ever.com), February 14, 2001.

off

-- Ain't Gonna Happen (Not Here Not@ever.com), February 14, 2001.

Gore voters are idiots and don't know how to fill out ballots. What the hell are they doing writing names on the ballots anyway. What frigging idiots the "disenfranchised" turn out to be.

Tooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Badddddddddddd!!!!!

-- the real answer is... (moreinterpretation@ugly.com), February 14, 2001.

Washington Post Reports Gore Might Have Won Florida. So? Your point is?

-- dudesy (dudesy@37.com), February 14, 2001.

What the.. what is WITH my copy of the Constitution? No mention of the Washington Post being the namer of the president.

Besides, their method was- take a little this, add a little 'what was already hand-counted but not registered', etc. Now that they've done a couple counties, when will they do the entire state? And once done there, when will they do the other 49 states?

-- str@webcat.net (str@webcat.net), February 14, 2001.

I read your conversation with BuzzFlash.Com and agreed 100% with your views. What we need in America is Radio & TV Free America....We need to take back the media.....or we will love our democracy.....Isn't there anything we can do to take it back? We are not even watching any news programs anymore....We are reading our daily paper which is so slanted that I get irritated when I read it, too. If I'm going to watch something and give it my precious time, I want it to be slanted my way, (democrat), but you know there isn't any like that, so we've completely stopped watching it. Sad isn't it. But that's the way we feel....and we've always been a political family. I am very confused that the people behind the republican party are so blinded that they can accept the fact the US Supreme Court had to rule in this election.....I wonder just how they would have reacted if the ruling had been for the votes to be counted.......this would have been the only democratic way to handle this and I still am appalled at this happening before our very eyes.....Our great country with all its potential has turned into such a competetive state, like sports, that we don't even care if our form of democracy is being destroyed and the republicans don't seem to see this.. They only want a republican party running everything and if you don't believe like they do then you can just leave the country, I've actually heard this from people, if you don't like what's going on in this country, you can leave it. Hitler had a vast majority not caring what happen to segments of the society of his day, if you don't do as we say, you can be baked....same attitudes, same reasonings. I am a Christian and I've been made to feel that my party is corrupt, non-Christian, evil, and I've had people to ask how I can be a Christian and be a democrat. I answer them with; how I can be a Christian and not be a democrat. They are the party that cares for the needs of everyone and wants to help everyone, regardless of their beliefs or financial status. If we want people evangalized, then that's what the church is surpose to do, we cannot legistate what the church is surpose to be doing, we all believe, even in Christiandom, so many different ways...If the Churches has to complete for money from the government with these faith-based programs, I see the small ones closing, just like the small farmers and businessess. Also, if we take money from the government, regulations won't be far behind and another freedom will be endangered.....Wake up America before it's too late. Satan comes as an angel of light to deceive and to destroy....

-- Jackie (Stroud@no.address.com), February 15, 2001.

Call it the magic moment that never came. From election night, when Bush cousin and Fox election analyst John Ellis first gave Florida to Dubya, to December 12, when a five-member bloc on the Supreme Court ratified the GOP's fuzzy math and handed Bush the White House, no vote tally from Tallahassee showed Al Gore ahead. Despite a widening margin in the national popular vote that eventually reached 540,000 votes, a raft of GOP lawyers, public officials and spinmeisters made sure that he never assumed even the most fleeting lead.

But ongoing news investigations of 180,000 uncounted presidential ballots in Florida are beginning to rain on Bush's honeymoon. An inquiry by the Orlando Sentinel, South Florida Sun-Sentinel and Chicago Tribune of approximately 16,000 discarded overvotes and undervotes from 15 small, mostly rural counties show Gore picking up at least 366 votes from ballots on which voters' intentions were easily determined. Many such votes come from ballots containing both a vote registered next to Gore's name and another vote for him scrawled in longhand in the space for write-ins. Though counted in a few counties and in most other states, such ballots were tossed out by at least nine Florida counties. When added to the votes the Florida Supreme Court tacked onto statewide totals in its short-lived December 8 ruling, the results of this small sampling alone would have tipped the state to Gore.

The Washington Post and the Miami Herald also are conducting examinations of overvotes and undervotes throughout the state. In an initial analysis of overvotes from eight Florida counties, only half of which went to Gore, the Post reported that Gore was selected on more than 46,000 ballots while Bush was chosen on only 17,000. These voters favored Democrat Bill Nelson in the state's closely contested U.S. senate race by a margin of almost 3-to-1, reinforcing the notion that Gore suffered due to the exclusion of all these ballots from the state's presidential vote totals.

Conservatives have attempted to make hay from one survey by the Palm Beach Post in early January of the 10,500 undervotes in Miami-Dade County. That inquiry, which some Democrats had once predicted would yield a small pickup for Gore, actually produced a net gain of 6 votes for Bush. Yet the tide of subsequent disclosures suggests that Gore was massively shortchanged in Florida. Indeed, the conclusion that he was unfairly denied the White House is slowly progressing from a fringe conviction to mathematical fact.

-- More on this (Gore@won.com), February 15, 2001.

>>I am very confused that the people behind the republican party are so blinded that they can accept the fact the US Supreme Court had to rule in this election

er, wasn't it the Democrats that started this thing of going to the courts, once it was clear that they lost the election?

-- Sassafras (Sassafras@internet.net), February 15, 2001.

>>>The Washington Post and the Miami Herald also are conducting examinations of overvotes and undervotes throughout the state.

>>>Indeed, the conclusion that he was unfairly denied the White House is slowly progressing from a fringe conviction to mathematical fact.

"Undervotes" and "Overvotes" are ways of designating, in effect, non- votes. These non-votes are determined by the voting board of each county- in Democratic counties, they are usually heavily Democratic, and vise versa.

So examining non-votes-- whose net effect in an election is zero,no matter whose side you are on-- it is quite a leap to imply that it is becoming a 'mathematical fact' that 0 does not equal 0, but rather some other number that we want it to be.

-- Sassafras (Sassafras@internet.net), February 15, 2001.