Bush Watch

ANNOUNCEMENT: A hotline has been established for Florida voters to call with any questions, problems, etc. with the voting in yesterday's election. The number is 1-800-579-8871. If you know of anyone in Florida who has encountered any such voting problems, please pass this number along to them as soon as possible.

FLORIDA NEWS UPDATE...Bush leads Gore by 327 votes with all counties reporting, according to the AP. This total does not include any outstanding absentee ballots, which must be received in county offices by next Friday. Also, the present total is informal and is subject to change when the state of Florida provides a formal report of the votes on Tuesday or Wednesday. Further, the total is subject to change on the basis of tomorrow's hand counts in Volusia County (a 100% hand count) and in Palm Beach County (a 1% hand count). As of 7 a.m. ET Friday morning, there is no word on what Dade and Broward counties plan to do, if anything, about the Dem request for hand recounts in those counties. On the legal front, according to CNN a Florida state juedge has ruled that the votes from Palm Beach County may not be certified prior to a scheduled Tuesday hearing. On the political front, the Bush campaign has asked Gore to "cease" any activities to overturn the informal AP unofficial report and give the win to Bush, a request that theGore campaign finds absurd. As a Gore spokesman said, "This is just the beginning of the process." An Emory University political observer observed that what we are seeing is "the battle for public opinion," but in order to give legitimacy to the eventual winner, the eventual loser must acknowledge the winner, something that neither Bush nor Gore is willing to do at this point. --Politex, 11/10/00

OVERSEAS REPUBLICAN FLORIDIANS REPORTEDLY SAY THEY VOTED TWICE FOR BUSH.

VOLUSIA COUNTY GRANTS DEMOCRATIC PARTY REQUEST FOR MANUAL RECOUNT

"Saying it was a matter of critical public importance, Volusia County’s Elections Canvassing Board unanimously agreed Thursday to take the extraordinary step of manually counting the ballots cast Tuesday in the race for President. The laborious process of counting all 184,018 ballots is likely to begin Saturday morning. The count, which will be conducted under the supervision of the Canvassing Board with witnesses from both major political parties, is expected to take until Tuesday to be completed.Volusia voters supported Vice president Al Gore over Governor George Bush by a margin of 97,063 to 82,214. The outcome was verified Wednesday evening when the Canvassing Board completed an automatic recount of the votes The State Executive Committee of the Florida Democratic Party made the request for a manual recount of the ballots late Thursday afternoon. "During the balloting process, the subsequent tabulation of ballots, and the statutorily required recount, numerous problems transpired which call into question the accuracy and the veracity of Volusia County’s returns for the Offices of President and Vice-President of the United States," states the written request for a manual recount. The Republican Party objected to the request. Party representatives said the ballots already had been recounted and in the interest of public "finality" the time-consuming manual recount request should not be granted.Volusia County, Florida is located 60 miles northeast of Orlando. It has a permanent population of approximately 430,000. Its largest city is Daytona Beach. There are 260,752 registered voters, 43 percent Democrats and 38 percent Republicans." --Volusia County, 11/9/00

CNN, WE EXPOSE THEM, YOU DECIDE

During the CNN program on the Florida presidential voting recount this afternoon, as the three-member committee was walking out of the room and the reporters were gathering up their belongings, shouts from the back of the room from unphotographed people were heard: "WHAT ABOUT THE STUDENTS? WHAT ABOUT THE STUDENTS?" The Florida elections committee looked back, but sheepishly continued out of the room. The CNN announcer quickly said, "Those shouting people are not reporters." That was the end of it for CNN. No camera shots of the shouters, no description by CNN of what was going on.

This evening on Jim Lehrer's PBS news show, we learned that those shouting were students from various Florida colleges, sitting in throughout the Florida Capitol Building, trying to get the attention of the committee. On Lehrer, we saw the face of a black woman from Florida A&M. She said the students were staging a sit-in, not to protest the results of the presidential election in Florida, but to protest how numerous voters were being disenfranchised from their right to vote. We got the impression that she was speaking about more than Palm Beach County. As Paul Harvey says, "Now you know the rest of the story." Or as Fox News says, "We report. You decide." --Politex, 11/9/00

FROM A FLORIDA BUSH WATCHER...I've been an avid BushWatcher for a long time and you deserve to know the true story behind the students at the Florida Capitol Building. I live in Tallahassee just a few blocks from the Capitol Building. Today my black friends told me that Florida A&M students have always had a place to vote on campus and when they went to vote on Tuesday they were told that they had to go somewhere else to vote this time. When they went to the precinct to which they had been directed they were told that they were not registed to vote there and were turned away and did not get to vote. So today the FAMU students were joined by FSU students in a march on the Capitol to protest the Highway Patrol roadblocks in Wakulla, the Palm Beach fiasco and the FAMU students who were not allowed to vote. This FAMU story needs to get out. It's just another example of the rampant racism in Bush's Florida. 11/9/00

FLORIDA BREAKS PROMISE TO NATION

Yesterday Florida promised the nation that the recount of the state's votes in the presidential race would be finished today and be presented. This did not happen. Instead, in a way, the members of the state election committee took a step back. Reporting on only 53 of 67 counties, the commiteee said Bush was leading Gore by 1784 votes. However, a press consortium has already reported that the Bush lead has slipped to a scant 362 votes with three counties remaining. Further, the committee reported that the remaining 14 counties now had until next Tuesday to report their results.

This change of plans on the part of the state of Florida appears to mean that the various state law suits which the Democratic Party planned to launch on Monday may be on hold until at least next Wednesday. 7,000 overseas ballots have been sent out and 3,500 have been returned, with more than half expected to favor Bush. The state's footdragging on getting out the promised recount works in Bush's favor, since looking for remedy through the Florida courts could be a time-consuming process, and the Electoral College is scheduled to meet on December 18.

If Florida is unable to report its presidential election results by that date, two delegations of electoral voters, one Republican and one Democratic, could be sent to Washington, with the Republican Congress probably selecting the Republican delegation, making Bush the next President. Or no delegations from Florida could be sent, preventing the Electoral College from electing the next President, throwing the question to the Republican majority Congress, which, again, would probably elect Bush. The only viable Democratic plans would be for Gore to win the popular vote by Friday, which seems unlikely at the moment, or expedite the legal battles in state courts, free up the winning votes, and send a Democratic delegation to the Electoral College on December 18th. --Politex, 11/9/00

BUCHANAN SAYS MOST OF HIS 3,000 VOTES BELONG TO GORE.

"In addition to the more than 3,000 votes he won, Buchanan also disputed about 19,000 ballot papers in Florida that were nullified because people voted both for both Buchanan and Gore due to the layout of the ballot paper.``I don't want to take any votes that don't belong to me,'' Buchanan said, adding that he had not campaigned in Palm Beach and that the majority of those votes probably belonged to Gore." --Reuters, 11/9/00

GORE TEAM CALLS FOR LEGAL REMEDIES, ATTACKS BUSH

William Daley and Warren Christopher, speaking for Al Gore in a 2 pm. ET CNN interview in Florida, called for hand counts of the ballots in four counties, Dade, Palm Beach, Volusia, and Brower. Christopher said that errors in the election process were "serious and substantial" and called for a resolution in the Florida courts. A lawyer familiar with Florida election laws claimed that the ballot in Palm Beach County was both "confusing" and "illegal." Daley began the interview by saying that the people should decide upon the next President, not those pointing to the kinds of technicalities former Sec. of State Baker noted in a CNN interview two hours previously. He also blasted George W. Bush for taking it upon himself to declare victory in an interview in Texas yesterday. Daley repeated that it's the voters, not the candidate, who will decide upon the next President of the United States. He said such statements bring confusion, not clarity, to the nation's process of determination. --Politex, 11/9/00

BREAKING NEWS...Bush is now leading by 830 votes with 35 of 67 counties reporting. However, Pinellas' County's recount gave Gore an additional 465 votes, which has not yet been reported, pending a second recount. The yet-to-be-counted overseas ballots are thought to total 30,000, with Bush thought to be in the lead there, based on Bob Dole's count of over 50% of such ballots four years ago. On the legal front, a federal judge will hold a hearing at 2:30 ET this afternoon to consider a Palm Beach citizen's request to have a new election held in that county, based on improper ballots. In a further indication that Gore does not limit his request for "fairness" to the recount, he plans to collect $3 million for the legal effort in Florida and is presently setting up offices in Washington.--Politex, noon 11/9/00

100,000 MORE VOTERS DISENFRANCHISED. HAND COUNT SUGGESTED.
BREAKING NEWS...Bush is now leading by 830 votes with 35 of 67 counties reporting. However, Pinellas' County's recount gave Gore an additional 465 votes, which has not yet been reported, pending a second recount. The yet-to-be-counted overseas ballots are thought to total 30,000, with Bush thought to be in the lead there, based on Bob Dole's count of over 50% of such ballots four years ago. On the legal front, a federal judge will hold a hearing at 2:30 ET this afternoon to consider a Palm Beach citizen's request to have a new election held in that county, based on improper ballots. In a further indication that Gore does not limit his request for "fairness" to the recount, he plans to collect $3 million for the legal effort in Florida and is presently setting up offices in Washington.--Politex, noon 11/9/00

100,000 MORE VOTERS DISENFRANCHISED. HAND COUNT SUGGESTED.
"There were also a surprising percentage of ballots in some counties that did not reflect a vote for president--more than 100,000 statewide, even while they voted in the lower races. In Duval County, where Jacksonville is located, more than 9 percent of the ballots had no presidential vote. "I don't have an answer," said Dick Carlberg, assistant Duval election supervisor. "That seems awfully high--9 percent without a vote." One reason for the no-vote ballots could be the failure of voters to push a complete hole through the computer punch-card ballots. The only way to determine whether a voter indeed voted but failed to make a sufficient hole is through the laborious procedure of having the ballots recounted by hand by a bipartisan committee to determine the voter's intent." --WP, 11/9/00

POLICE INTIMIDATION OF BLACK PANHANDLE VOTERS ALLEGED.
According to Bob Poe, Chairman for the Florida Democratic Party, reported irregularities...also include, he said, lesser known reports of possible voter intimidation in certain African-American precincts and possibly thousands of lost votes due to a possible computer glitch. “There are a lot of questions here, there are a lot of angry Floridians,” Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Jenny Backus said today. “People are talking about taking away somebody’s constitutional right to vote, there are thousands, literally thousands of reports of irregularities.” Jesse Jackson said he got calls on Election Day complaining that blacks had difficulty voting in Florida and other southern states. Jackson said some voters were told there were no more ballots, or that polls were closed. “What we need is not just a recount by hand, but also a thorough investigation, ” Jackson said. Poe told ABCNEWS.com Democrats had received reports of intimidation of voters in the largely African-American precincts of Wakulla County on the Florida panhandle. Reports suggest “highway patrol troopers were stationed outside of those precincts with lights flashing and ticketing people,” he said. “It was bizarre, it was like going back into the early 1900s,” he said. “Even in a tiny town like Wakulla and those African-American precincts, that could account for the 2,000 [Gore votes] right there,” he said." --ABC NEWS, 11/8/00

PAT'S #S "A STATISTICAL IMPROBABILITY."
"Buchanan's vote total in Palm Beach County seemed like a statistical improbability. Consider these numbers: He received 10 times as many votes in the county as there are registered Reform Party voters. He received only 16,962 votes statewide, according to unofficial totals, but 3,407, or about one-fifth of that total, from this one county, and many of those votes from precincts that are dominated by elderly Democratic voters, such as the Century Village retirement community. By contrast, according to the Miami Herald, Buchanan received only 561 votes in all of the Miami metropolitan area.Buchanan's vote wasn't the only surprise. The Socialist candidate received 302 votes, 17 times more than the county's number of registered Socialist voters." --WP, 11/9/00

19,000 MOSTLY GORE BALLOTS TOSSED OUT BY PALM BEACH ELECTION OFFICIALS ON ELECTION NIGHT...PALM BEACH RESIDENTS PETITIONING FOR NEW ELECTION...RESIDENTS FILE LAWSUITS...BUSH LEAD NOW UNDER 1,000...PINELLAS COUNTY ORDERS RECOUNT OF RECOUNT

26,000 GORE VOTES LOST IN VOLUSIA COUNTY, FLORIDA.
"A Florida Democratic Party official has raised a concern that thousands of votes for Gore may have been omitted from the Democrat’s vote total because of a computer error in Volusia County. The problem was due to a faulty computer disk that contained results from a particular precinct, but county officials have not yet said specifically what the trouble was. According to Bob Poe, state chairman for the Florida Democratic Party, Democrats had received reports of an instance in which a preliminary voting count this morning for Gore in Volusia County, reported by Florida election officials, actually decreased by about 10,000 over time [between 2 and 2:15 a.m.], before climbing again.... A Volusia county court judge said today there is nothing to indicate Volusia’s unofficial vote count is flawed or that appropriate procedures were not followed. The county’s Canvassing Board will meet today to discuss the matter and the judge directed that three members representing the Democratic and Republican parties be present. State election officials could not be reached for comment. Judge Michael McDermott also ordered Volusia’s election office secured and all ballots were locked in the office vault." --ABC NEWS
"Another possible balloting quirk was in Volusia Country, where James E. Harris, an obscure Socialist candidate, polled 9,888 votes out of his statewide total of 10,471. State Democratic Party officials raised concerns that a computer error may have caused the outsized ballot for Harris in Volusia County, south of Daytona Beach on Florida's East Coast. In other counties, Harris received 0, 1, or 2 votes." --CBS NEWS
"The Volusia County elections office was locked and put under guard Wednesday until the county’s canvassing board can meet to recount ballots. One of the reasons given for the lockdown was an incident early Wednesday morning in which an elections office was spotted leaving with two bags. The employee later was stopped and searched by deputies who suspected the bags might contain ballots. Deputies turned up only personal items and a single blank sample ballot but said it was one of the reasons why the elections office is locked down this morning. There was crime scene tape around the office and several deputies were posted outside. In addition, officials with the Republican Party - some of whom would not identify themselves - were outside the elections office Wednesday morning trying to find out what was happening with the recount." --ORLANDO SENTINEL
"A judge ordered the special protection while officials figure out what happened to 16,000 votes. This all began around 11 o'clock Tuesday night when election officials noticed that Democratic Presidential candidate Al Gore lost 16,000 votes that had previously appeared on the computer screen. County leaders say they isolated the problem to a faulty computer disk in precinct 216 in DeLand. Now, Volusia County's unofficial tally gives Gore 97,063 and Bush 82,214 votes. County spokesman Dave Byron believes that tally is correct. He says the canvassing board went back and manually counted the votes of the precinct in question.." --ISF
Questions. If the above reports are correct, Gore lost 16,000 votes around 11 p.m. and an additional 10,000 votes around 2 a.m. Have both loses been accounted for, made up, and verified.? Does the tally of 179,000+ total votes cast in Volusia County jibe with the various statistical comparisons that could be made? Do the actual ballots jibe with the figures? Have the officials and workers been vetted with respect to their activities? Have the glitches in the numbers been explained to and accepted by computer systems experts? Have the Dem observers understood and accepted the explanations? Are further investigations needed? --Politex, 11/9/00

CNN: PALM BEACH RESIDENTS PETITIONING FOR NEW ELECTION
this just in...AP..."Lawyers for the Democratic Party say a two-page ballot listing presidential candidates on different lines is illegal under state law and they may ask for a revote in Palm Beach County. The ballots would have to be challenged in court. As of late Wednesday afternoon, no lawsuit had been filed.... Florida law specifies that voters mark an X in the blank space to the right of the name of the candidate they want to vote for. On the Palm Beach County presidential ballot, six candidates were listed on one page facing a listing of four candidates on another page.Buchanan's name was listed first on the right page, opposite and between Bush and Gore's names. Although Gore's name was listed second on the first page, voters had to punch the third whole in a middle column to cast a ballot for Gore. Lawyer Jeff Liggio, a lawyer for county Democrats, called the ballot ``illegal.'' ``Right means right, doesn't it? The state law says right, it doesn't mean left,'' said Liggio, one of several lawyers representing the Democratic Party.... A former head of the Federal Elections Commission said if state law says all candidates must be listed vertically on a page and the voting marks must the made to the right, the county election is moot.``If that's the way it is worded it would, in fact be an ineffective ballot,'' said Washington D.C. lawyer Kenneth Gross, an election law specialist."

SOMETHING'S ROTTEN IN FLORIDA
On your left is a graph showing Florida votes for Pat Buchanan in yesterday's election. Listed by county, the longest blue line is a total of the votes from Palm Beach County. Although this version is not very clear, a larger version may be seen HERE. Not only is Buchanan's vote total in Palm Beach County his highest county vote, but it is 350% higher than the next hightest vote total for Buchanan in any Florida county. Buchanan is reported to have gotten nearly 3500 votes in Palm Beach County, while his next highest county vote is in Pinnellas County at 1000. Yet, Palm Beach County is not Buchanan country. In fact, it's just the opposite, one report has it filled with elderly Jewish Democrats, another, with jet-setters and blacks, with the black precincts furnishing Pat's votes. Take your pick, but none of these groups are Pat voters. Buchanan, a Christian conservative, has been accused by members of the mainstream press of making racist comments in the past. How can this contradiction be explained?
The only explanation offered thus far is that the layout of the county's confusing ballot led voters to punch the hole in their ballot next to Buchanan's name, thinking they were voting for Gore. Later realizing what had happened, many Palm Beach County voters became very angry, feeling they were duped.. (See a photo of the ballot below.) Creating such ballot confusion is, of course, an old political trick. In fact, some e-mailers claim that a similar ballot problem came up in North Carolina during the tough primary battle between Bush and McCain earlier in the year. Perhaps Bush political guru Karl Rove recalls earlier examples than that of such ballot manipulations, having even presented, according to newspaper reports, lectures on the subject of dirty tricks to GOP party members some years ago. Right now, Bush is leading in Florida by under 1800 votes. As you can see on the graph, the Buchanan discrepency in Palm Beach County is around 2500 votes. it's difficult to believe that any of the votes are honestly Buchanan's. Perhaps a new vote should be taken in Palm Beach County. Given the nature of Florida politics, it's not surprising to learn that there is precedent for doing just that.
Jeb Bush, the Republican candidate's brother who also happens to be the Governor of Florida, sees things differently, In a CNN interview this afternoon he suggested that those voters in Palm Beach County who are feeling duped should have challenged the format of the ballot in advance of the election. In the presence of Florida Attorney-General Butterworth, he asserted that Florida law demands that the ballot be publicized in advance, and that would have been the time for the voters to complain. However, he said the voters have the right to complain if they want to, and let "the process" decide. In a later CNN interview, Gore's campaign guru Bob Daley agreed that voters in Palm Beach County did have the right to "take action if they feel their rights have been violated." Daley reported that he and former Secretary of State Warren Christopher were on their way to Florida to observe such actions. --Politex, 11/8/00

Daily Headlines Page. 30-50 New Stories Each Day. (More Were Posted at Noon)

GORE LEADS 260-246
CNN has now called Wisconsin for Gore, but Oregon is still too close to call. Meanwhile, with nearly all of the vote counted in Florida, Bush leads by around 2,000, which happens to equal the number of votes Palm Beach voters feel was taken from them. (see below) In heavily Democratic precincts of Palm Beach with a large Jewish population, Pat Buchanan, who has previously been castigated for his anti-Jewish stances, received a much higher percentage of the vote than he did in other areas of Florida. The confusion the Palm Beach voters allude to has to do with Buchanan's name placement on the ballot. (see below) Also, a locked ballot box in a Dem precinct was found in a school room used in the election and has been sent to the proper authorities. The state of Florida wants to complete the required recount of the votes by late Thursday, but former Secretary of State Warren Christopher has been sent to Florida to oversee an investigation of a number of reported voting irregularities. --Politex, 11/8/00
If you observe any activity on Election Day that you feel is questionable, please report it directly to your local election officials and your political party officials. Also, here is a watchdog group that monitors voter fraud. If you have specifics about what happened in Florida, contact them. Deborah M Phillips, Chairman and President, THE VOTING INTEGRITY PROJECT, "Defending Your Freedom By Protecting Your Vote," www.votingintegrity.org, (888) 578-4343, PO Box 6470, Arlington VA 22206
On CNN's "Burden of Proof" today, a caller said an elections supervisor in his Missouri precinct handed him Christian Coalition campaign material with his balllot and told him, "God wants you to vote for George W. Bush." When the voter said he thought the supervisor's actions were illegal, she told him that the Christian Coalition wanted her to educate the voters in this way. The voter reported the supervisor to the police. This is only one of the many complaints that are rising to the surface in what was a highly-contested presidential race in Missouri. --Politix, 11/8/00
ABC: DEMS COMPLAIN OF MISINFORMATION, IRREGULARITIES, POSSIBLE TAMPERING.
SS: PAT BUCHANAN GETS HUNDREDS OF JEWISH VOTES IN DEMOCRAT PALM BEACH PRECINCTS.
As to Palm Beach's confusing ballot: I did the math: in Palm Beach (as per CNN) Buchanan received 3,407 of 431,836 votes. However, in the state of Florida it was Buchanan 17,372 of 5,955,919 If Buchanan got the same percentage in Palm Beach as statewide, he should have gotten 1,100 votes! And Palm Beach is Gore country, so it doesn't make any sense that Buchanan would do extra well there. Gore and the DNC need to demand a run-off, particularly in Palm Beach. We're talking at least 2127 votes in Palm Beach, alone. --Bush Watcher
Congressman Robert Wexler who represents the Dade County/Palm Beach area was interviewed on CNN this morning and he said he witnessed total voter confusion at the polls yesterday in southern Florida. He said that there were voters in his area who weren't sure where to vote or if they selected the right hole on the ballot. He thinks 3,000 or so votes could have been affected just in his area. ......Warren Christopher is heading down to Florida for the Gore camp to oversee this mess. You have to wonder what happened with those ballot boxes that were lost for a while in Southern Florida. They were found by a police officer.--Bush Watcher

PHOTO: SOME PUNCHED OUT A BUCHANAN VOTE WHEN THEY THOUGHT THEY WERE SELECTING A GORE VOTE BECAUSE THE BUCHANAN SLOT IS DIRECTLY BELOW THE BUSH SLOT.
6:45 a.m. ET summary: No winner in presidential race, with Florida still too close to call. Bush leads in Florida by 1,200. Official Florida results to be released Wednesday, automatic recount required by law. Gore leads national popular vote. Republicans hold House. Senate 50-50 split possible."--Orvetti
PRESIDENTIAL POPULAR VOTE: Al Gore (Democrat) 48,133,915 (48%); George W. Bush (Republican) 47,918,308 (48%); Ralph Nader (Green) 2,638,204
"They just reported on CBS (Gloria Borger and Dan Rather) that the Democratic Party is sending 150 lawyers down to Florida immediately to investigate all of the complaints and may challenge the election in Florida. There were many reports of voters having problems, etc. A big mess to say the least. Dad Rather has really been fired up all night. He has been just going on and on.....He is riled up." --Bush Watcher, Wednesday morning
"I am from Fl South Palm Beach (Gore Country) and I went to bed not knowing the result and I woke up not knowing the result. But I see that it is still too close to call, but it looks like Gore won the popular vote nationwide (Orvetti.com). If True no mandate for Bush! Please note there have been questions on local NPR about the ballot in Palm Beach ballot, that the ballot was misleading and that it was very easy to vote for Buchanan instead of Gore by mistake. I am not kidding. I don't know how that has been resolved. I do know that I put the stylus next to (DEM) all the way down the ballot. My wife said she felt it was misleading as well and looked twice before punching." --Bush Watcher, Wednesday morning

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