Rip,
Sorry I don't have time to respond to every thread. There are many Republicans on this board but not as many Dem's to entertain you folks. Must be kinda lonely out there on the farm with nothing but Chickens and pigs for company. Tumble weeds blowing across the yard...<======JOKE
Anyway there are only two ways of looking at the ballot situation in Palm Beach.
1. "The will of the people"
Was it the will of the people that had their votes discounted, to vote for Gore and Bush in the same percentage that was reflected in the registered votes? Obviously, if you are to listen to Bush himself he say's that he "believe's in people" and "trust People" right. So if he trust and believes in people then that must mean the 20,000 people who had their votes thrown out. If you want to follow the will of the people then you must.
Gore would obviously win, the Republicans oppose "trusting the people" and "The will of the people".
2. "Letter of the law"
If you follow the letter of the law then the ballot was approved by both parties and was used for the election and therefore must be valid regardless of the out come right? Wrong. Florida law clearly states that "The punch whole for the ballot must be on the right as to avoid confusion". Then you have an illegal ballot. Re-vote, Gore wins again.
I do not personally believe the ballot was confusing. But what I find very disturbing is that 20,000 people walked into their polling stations believing they were casting a valid ballot regardless of who for and later found out that their votes were entirely discounted. That is confusing. And the fact that the same thing happened in 1996 on a smaller scale only tells me that the problem goes beyond the ballot. Remember it was 14,000 mostly democratic votes that were lost then too. These are not dumb minorities or stupid old people as you choose to label them. They are first American citizens and second Palm Beach is a very affluent and educated area. So I find it very hard to belive that these people(almost 5% of the voters) are to blame for this.
What I do find interesting is that
A. Jeb Bush is the Governor in state and was on TV the morning after the Election telling everyone that voter fraud is a felony. Nobody ask him that question and the votes were not even counted at that time.
B. The exit poles that led to the networks giving Florida to Gore favored Gore heavily even though the voting did not. This is a very rare statistical anomaly. This also indicates who the "Will of the people"
C. George Bush senior is the Ex-head of the CIA. A group that specializes in what?
Fixing elections. Remember Watergate starting as a break in of the Democratic national headquarters with the help of some former FBI agents IE. G. Gordon Litty. Two years later Nixon is giving his "I am not a thief speech". Just remember you heard it hear first.
Later
F4UDOA
[This message has been edited by F4UDOA (edited 11-10-2000).]
