Articulate conservative response politely requested. Florida election debacle.

Gregpalast.com ^ | March 1, 2002 | Gregory Palast

[smaturin]

Hello,

I'd like to discuss this article about the mistakes that were made in stripping voters from the rolls in Florida. It seems like serious stuff to me, and I'd like to hear a reaction from a conservative.

I'm hoping to start understanding the conservative position on a number of things, and I think this site might be a way to get beyond shallow namecalling and partisanship.

Cheers!

[GeronL]

Voter rolls and oversight of elections in Florida was and probably is handled at the county level. The counties in question were strongly controlled by Democrats. Ask them.

[GeronL]

Well, it all started when Gore-funded lawyers descended to every registriar office in Florida with a memo asking them to boot off members of the military serving oversea's. Thousands of men in women in uniform were disenfranchised this way. This is a very serious matter that should be investigated.

[BADROTOFINGER]

Get Bill Sammon's book, At Any Cost. It has many examples of the type of BS that went on in Florida...JFK

[smaturin]

Thanks for your reply, GeronL.
This is an article about a statewide initiative to purge the voter rolls, and about lists that were handed down to the counties by the Florida Secretary of State. This is not about a few counties, but statewide, and it appears that the State officials who ordered the purge were not very careful about making sure that the rights of legitimate voters were protected. --Smaturin

[GeronL]

Every few years states purge voter roles, because some people die, some people move and some people stop voting. Thats why people register to vote.

Copy of 57-page dissent of the Civil Rights Commission on the Florida election

[edsheppa]

Gore lost - time to move on.

[GeronL]

lol. All they have to do is register. States are supposed to make sure to keep dead people, felons and those who moved from the state off the rolls.

[Leisler]

"..Some counties defied Harris' directives; Madison County's elections supervisor Linda Howell refused the purge list after she found her own name on it. .."

The county election supervisors that commited the stripping of voters , were life long democrats. Ask them.

Regardless of party it was apparent that both at the state and county level, the intelligence of elections officials was less than the usual one finds in government services.( sarcasm ) Maybe next time hordes of Harvard, Yale and Brandies graduates will heroically volunteer to fill in these boring, lowpaying jobs and lead the nation in to political nervana. Ha! Stupidity and incompentance, the two most powerfull forces in any organization,( Just ask the Gore campagin why they didn't win either the Presidents or Gores home state, either of wich would have given him the Presidency. Odd, wonder why no coverage by the leftist scribes of, say, the New York Times?).

[smaturin]

Thanks for the link to the dissenting report--I'm reading it now.

[GeronL]

The National Review, trying to keep us online, posted it page by page but I am sure there's a downloadable copy somewhere online.

[smaturin]

Edsheppa, Thanks for your reply. I agree that Gore lost. I'm still disgusted by some tactics each side used in the election. It's those tactics that I'm reluctant to ignore. For example, I want to follow up on the issue of whether or not Gore's campaign illegally disenfranchised military voters. I've also seen some opinions that military votes were illegally included.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

This did happen ( the felon purge) but there was no partisan intent as Palast deludes himself into thinking. Felons should not be on the voter roles in states where they lose the right to vote. He's only telling part of the story. This part of the election story was mostly ignored at the time by even the liberals because there wasn't anything to it. With a system that relies on voter honesty, some mistakes will happen. Every measure to make sure we only have honest and fair elections where "one man, one vote" is the end result are fought by the Democrats. This is just off the top of my head. I'll search and find a fair and complete treatment of this story and get back to you.

[Eva]

In 1988, while we were living in California, we owned two houses, less than one block apart and moved from one to the other in Sept., and I was not permitted to vote, even though it was the same voting district. The polling place was in the garage of a Democrat who must have personally purged the lists of voters.

[RLK]

What do you think should have been done?

[GeronL]

there were people in prison allowed to vote too (large Democrat majority there of course)

[Cold Heat]

It is necessary to purge voter rolls to prevent multiple voting. What happened in Florida was that people were urged to go to the polls who were not prepared.

When ever I move, and I have moved alot. A trip to the courthouse is on top of the list to register to vote in that county. It is like changing your mailing address at the post office. Any idiot knows this but in major national elections this subject always comes up. Election advocates for all parties encourage or bring people to polls that they are not registered in. Happens every time. To say that they were denied a vote is total BS!

There were some problems that did come to light in Florida that were actually criminal. It seems some black republicans were deleted from the rolls even though they had voted at the same place during the primary. I wonder who could have done that?

[CyberAnt]

If you'd really like some insight and really truly want to hear the conservative perspective of what happened in Florida, just read the book, "AT ANY COST; How Al Gore Tried To Steal The Election".

This book is riviting - I could not put it down. There were details and behind the scenes happenings which never made it into the press - at least not that I ever noticed.

It's simple really - One group wanted to serve the country - the other group wanted to promote themselves and add to their power. When you read this book, it leaves no doubt which group is conservative and which group is liberal.

Good luck in your search.

[smaturin]

Thanks, HGC. I'm not sure that there was "partisan intent" either, but it's the kind of sloppiness that makes me sick to my stomach: a State official too busy to get the facts right when the peoples' right to vote is at stake. Blech.

[bjcintennessee]

Welcome to FReepers where we do not always agree with each other, but hopefully welcome diverse opinions that force us to reason why we believe the way we do. No offense intended, but we are not sheeple, who vote like we are told by leaders who profess to 'have our best interests at heart' -- for the sole purpose of keeping themselves in power.

While I can't help you with voting laws -- except to say that felons and dead people shouldn't have their votes counted -- I do think that every precinct should develop a method of setting aside questionable votes for further investigation. This would allow the votes of those whose names were erroneously dropped from the lists, to eventually be counted.