Review Finds Fla. Counties Voted for Bush

©2004 The Associated Press. ^ | Nov 28, 2:20 PM EST | AP

[Former Military Chick]

MIAMI (AP) -- A newspaper's review of ballots cast in three north Florida counties where registered Democrats heavily outnumber Republicans showed just what officials reported: The counties' voters did on Election Day as they often do, voting for a Republican for president.

The Miami Herald review goes against Internet-fed rumors questioning whether there was a conspiracy against Sen. John Kerry in those counties.

Kerry won in much of South Florida, where voters vote on touch-screen machines that can't be checked.

Reporters for the newspaper went over more than 17,000 optical scan ballots cast in three rural counties mentioned by doubters: Suwannee, Lafayette and Union. All three are overwhelmingly Democratic in registration, but chose President Bush.

The Herald said they found minor differences with the official results in each county, most involving a few ballots that had been discarded as unreadable by optical scan machines but which reporters felt made the voters' intent clear. Since there was no official recount, those ballots weren't counted for either candidate.

In Union County, where more than 75 percent of voters register as Democrats, The Herald counted 3,393 votes for Bush, 1,272 for Kerry and 15 that couldn't clearly be counted. The official Union County total: 3,396 for Bush, 1,251 for Kerry and a few dozen that couldn't be counted.

"People here are mostly fundamentalist Christians who work in the prisons," said Union County Election Supervisor Babs Montpetit. "Do you think they're going to vote for the liberal senator from Massachusetts?"

The Herald counted just under 60 percent of the votes in Suwannee County, where nearly 64 percent of the voters are registered Democrats. The newspaper's total from those precincts essentially matched the county's official total: 6,140 votes for Bush and 2,984 for Kerry.

In Lafayette County, 83 percent of voters are registered Democrats. But it too, is heavily conservative and deeply religious. There, the paper found 2,452 votes for Bush and 848 for Kerry, with 20 that couldn't be clearly counted.

[Former Military Chick]

Lets just stick a fork in it, it's done, dems need to move on. But it is nice watching dems squirm.

America Supports You

[need_a_screen_name]

BTTT!

[FreeKeys]

Here's the article in the referenced newspaper, The Miami Herald: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/10286349.htm
They have some related articles too:
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/10286363.htm and
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/10286365.htm

[Former Military Chick]

Thank you for adding the links to the thread, I saw them, got side tracked, and forgot to add them, again thank you.

More information is always better, when it comes to election news.

[Reagan is King]

Well there goes Keith Olbermann's next 10 shows.

[TheGeezer]

Good, now let the truth finish adulterer "rev" Jackson's assault on democracy in Ohio.

[Daaave]

I am a former Democrat, living in the center of Suwannee Co. I voted Republican twice when I was still a Democrat. I switched parties because of Clinton, right after the impeachment. My parents switched also. We also switched so we could vote for Gov. Bush in the Republican primaries, before the 2000 elections.

A couple weeks ago, a friend of my mom finally had enough with the Democrats and she switched parties also.

Now, I always vote the Republican ticket, never for Democrats.

Why don't journalists do stories about the Democrats being the majority party in Florida, BUT electing a Republican state goverment and re-electing a Republican governor for the first time in state history?



Peacock Springs

Dave