Media Recount Alert: Did Gore Blow It? (How To Counter the Impending Dem Spin!)

Slate / kausfiles.com ^ | November 10, 2001 | Mickey Kaus

[Timesink]

kausfiles

Media Recount Alert: Did Gore Blow It? 

Introducing kausfiles' Spinoculator service
By Mickey Kaus
Posted Saturday, November 10, 2001, at 9:38 PM PT

Surprisingly, the results of the media consortium recount of the Florida presidential ballots, scheduled for publication on Monday, haven't leaked out yet – and it's already Saturday night. But Joshua Micah Marshall's me-zine has a partial scoop. Marshall hears that the impending consortium tally will find that "[I]f you count overvotes, Gore would have won big." (Remember overvotes? They're ballots disqualified when the ballot-counting machine detects votes for more than one candidate. But they can be legal votes—if, for example, a voter marks the little circle next to "Gore" and also marks the circle next to "write-in" and writes in "Gore" also.)

Good news for the Gore team? Not quite. The barb, for them, is that they didn't ask that the overvotes be counted! Instead, their entire effort was directed at counting "undervotes," ballots on which no vote was detected by the machines, but which might have a partially perforated "chad" detectable by humans.

Relying on intercepted communications, Marshall predicts a massive self-exculpatory spin offensive by former Gore campaign aides, all designed to erase the impression that they foolishly ignored the very ballots that would have given them the presidency. Indeed, since the results are out Monday, this spin campaign has probably been underway for several days. There is a significant possibility it will succeed – Gore aide Ron Klain played the Washington Post like a fiddle earlier this year, for example. (Details here.)

To help avert this possibility, kausfiles inaugurates its branded Spinoculator ™ service, which provides both reporters and ordinary citizens with information that may protect them and their loved ones from misleading spin attacks.

In this case, the antidote to the looming Gore-team spin can be found in the transcript of the final U.S. Supreme Court hearing in Bush v. Gore. Several justices were concerned that the Florida Supreme Court's recount was focused on undervotes and ignored overvotes, even though some overvotes might be valid, a concern that had prompted Florida's chief justice to dissent. Here is the relevant excerpt from the dialogue between the Court and Gore's lead lawyer, David Boies [emphasis added]:

JUSTICE STEVENS. What is your response to the chief justice of Florida's concern that the recount relates only to undervotes and not overvotes?

MR. BOIES. Well, first, nobody asked for a contest of the overvotes. …

Later in the argument, the overvote issue comes up again:

MR. BOIES: … when you're dealing with overvotes -- and remember, this is a machine issue. When you're dealing with overvotes, the machine has already registered two votes. Now, there may be another vote there, a dimpled vote or an indented vote, that the machine did not register. But once you get two votes, that ballot doesn't get counted for the presidency.

JUSTICE BREYER. They gave an example. The example they gave in their brief was, there's a punch for Governor Bush, and then there's a punch for "write-in," and the write-in says, "I want Governor Bush." And so I think their implication is that that would have been rejected by the machine, but if you looked at it by hand, the intent of the voter would be clear. I don't know if there are such votes, but they say there might be.

MR. BOIES. There's nothing in the record that suggests there are such votes.

But there is plenty in the record, you now know, to suggest that the Gore team blew it by ignoring a trove of potentially valid Gore ballots. Resist all spin to the contrary!

P.S.: If the overvotes do turn out to be crucial, I told you so!

[Peach]

If we're going to count over-votes, what about the 600 over-votes for Bush in ONE county alone that were thrown out? People wrote his name in and punched the hole next to his name and those votes were thrown out. I've forgotten the county in Florida where this happened but remember reading about it several times in November 2000.

[basil]

I'm trying to figure out how (or why) anyone would go into a voting booth and use the stylus to punch out the hole by their candidates of choice, and THEN get out a pencil and write in someone's name. For the life of me, I can't figure out what the point would be.

[Northern Yankee]

Are they kidding me?....

Rather than be concerned about our national welfare, and security, these dunderheads continue to stir a pot that has long since grown cold.

Why even bother.

Like some Dems I know, they'd rather piss in their pants than admit Bush is President.

People... move on with your life!

I am curious as to how many dems would actually vote for Al Gore today. (You'd be amazed at how many I know that are so thankful Dubya is in!!!)

Now... go get some coffee!!!

[LaineyDee]

I am curious as to how many dems would actually vote for Al Gore today.

They'd have to dig them up and find all the illegal aliens again. All cheating aside... Bush probably won by a large margin...IMHO.

[okiedust]

Ok. Gore was a fool and made a huge mistake in not asking for the overvote recount. Prima facie evidence of the kind of president he would have been. That's my spin and I'm sticking to it. Clearly even if this is the scenario, Bush was able to marshall the forces to win, nice thing to have in a commander in chief. Also, since the Gore forces did not ask for over votes, on the other hand the Bush forces did not ask for investigation into voter fraud either. That might have been a very strong case as well. But of course the media is not interested in this angle, but if they were really "objective" as they claim, all what if scenarios should have been analyzed. What a crock.

regards

[Skooz]

I've forgotten the county in Florida where this happened but remember reading about it several times in November 2000.

You will not read about it in the NYT tomorrow.

[Alas Babylon!]

Well, it's time to FReep again!

If the Gorons dems, and big media want to spin this again, it's time for us to FLOOD them with the truth. For every newspaper, magazine, tv show, etc, that publishes the NYT's story, write a letter to the editor.

Remind them:
1. Overvotes are NEVER counted. Not in Florida, not anywhere. No state, from Alabama to Wyoming, counts overvotes.
2. Gore's defense team did not make overvotes an issue, and the record shows they refused to do so (insert Boies's remarks to US Supremes).
3. Any voter who punches a ballot and doesn't check it for hanging chads, non-punched blocks, or any other error DID NOT follow instructions provided with the ballot itself.
4. You cannot have another chance once you've turned in your ballot, and since no one's name is on the ballot itself, there is no way once it's turned in to retrieve it. As in poker, a card laid is a card played.

Finally...
5. The election is over, Bush won, get over it!!!!

[Dane]

If we're going to count over-votes, what about the 600 over-votes for Bush in ONE county alone that were thrown out? People wrote his name in and punched the hole next to his name and those votes were thrown out. I've forgotten the county in Florida where this happened but remember reading about it several times in November 2000

The county was Escambia, where Pensacola is located, and the number was closer to 800.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Maureen Baird of the Citrus County elections office holds up a ballot for scrutiny
during the National Opinion Research Center's review of ballots on Feb. 14, 2001.
[Times photo by Steve Hasel]

Tonight at 10PM go tosptimes.lostvotes

Arduous ballot review--- It's an unprecedented double-check on democracy. At a cost of nearly $1-million, some of the nation's top news organizations have spent the past year in a painstaking review of 175,010 Florida ballots from last year's disputed presidential election.

yawn

[razorback-bert]

I am curious as to how many dems would actually vote for Al Gore today.

Someone should run a poll: who would you vote for today, Bush or Gore?

[SamAdams76]

So Gore might have won if he asked to count overvotes instead of undervotes. And the Red Sox would have won the 1986 World Series had they replaced Bill Buckner at first place in the ninth inning. Shoulda, woulda, coulda. So what's the point? History is chock full of events that could easily have gone the other way had decisions been made just a little differently.

It should have been Gore in a landslide. He was the incumbent VP, the economy was humming along and as we all know, Gore was just so smart and superior compared to candidate Bush. But Gore blew it. Had he carried his home state, all of this would have been a non-issue. Had Clinton been able to carry his own state for Gore, this would have been a non-issue. I'm sure the Yankees were devastated this year to have lost the World Series in the ninth inning of Game 7. But you don't see them pissing and moaning about what could've been. Instead, they are doing what Gore should be doing right now, preparing for the next campaign.

[D. Miles]

All moot point now!Overvote, undervote, writein vote, military vote, had it all been recounted as it should have been....BUSH would still be President....and I for one in this time of peril, thank God daily!

[babyfreep]

Ditto to what you said. Especially...why treat Florida different than any other state.
Though this info doesn't amount to much where we are concerned, because we play by the rules...remember, there are those who like to twist them to suit their own fancy.

[jwalsh07]

I say bring it on, America needs to be reminded on Veterans Day in the midst of a war how the democrats from the leader of their party to the rats in the holes tried to disenfranchise military ballots.

[Movemout]

I think in light of recent events that this story has a certain lack of relevance. I hope the dims try to spin this into a big deal. They will cause revulsion in their own supporters and they will suffer some amount of backlash. The pubbies ought to simply reply that the election has been decided and refuse to engage in debate on the issue.

[Always Right]

Best way to counter Dem Spin? Laugh in their face. I hope these idiots keep recounting non-votes for the next eight years.

[okiedust]

Too right. Gore challenged Bush to a duel, chose the weapons and lost. Now he wants to say if he had chosen the sword instead of the gun he would have won. Gore: take your place in the dustbin of losers, cause you lost. In a sublime sort of way, he is the poster boy for all those "voters" of his who "intended" to vote for him. They were too stupid to do it correctly for heavens sake, and now Gore was too stupid to get his recount done in a way to make him win. Everyone on Gores side screwed up and now he wants to claim he won, cause he's too stupid, his supporters are too stupid, his lawyers were too stupid and the FSC was too stupid. Is that the kind of government we wish we had right now? I don't think so.

regards

[Nataku X]

. If you count overvotes, Gore would have won big.

Which kind of overvotes, the 1 candidate/1 write-in or 2 candidates? My feeling is that it is the latter, considering PBC.

[jackbill]

They'd have to dig them up and find all the illegal aliens again.

Wasn't it recently reported that 350,000 Mexican illegals have returned to Mexico since 9/11? There went over half of Algore's "popular vote majority".