Who actually received the most votes in Florida's 2000 presidential election?

Tallahassee Democrat ^ | Lance deHaven-Smith

[do not delete]

Al Gore. State election officials ultimately declared George W. Bush the winner by a margin of 537 votes, but during and after the election dispute, questions remained about the uncounted ballots of 175,010 voters, ballots that had been rejected by error-prone tabulating machines employed in many Florida counties. Confusion and conflict, much of it generated by partisan intrigue, prevented these ballots from being counted during the election controversy. However, in 2001 every uncounted ballot was carefully examined in a scientific study by the University of Chicago, which concluded that when all the votes were counted, more votes had been cast for Gore than for Bush.

[peteram]

IT's OVER!!!!GET A LIFE!!!GET OVER IT!!!!

[peteram]

do not delete - member since 09-04-02

[Non-Sequitur]

Sorry, no instant replay's allowed in politics. Bush was declared the winner, he is the winner, and no after-the-fact finagling of the vote count is going to change that.

[babyface00]

" Listed below are typical questions about the election, along with my best judgment on the answers."

Who needs facts when you can have the "best judgement" of a liberal "journalist"?

[TomGuy]

Still counting and counting and counting.

Of course, there's no prejudice from the Tallahassee Democrat, is there.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Opinion

	Posted on Mon, Sep. 02, 2002
	Clearing up the election that won't die By Lance deHaven-Smith MY VIEW

 

...The key here is that the article is an Opinion piece.

[FreeTally]

This is a response in the "Letters to teh Editor" section of today's Tallahassee Democrat.

Recalling the subjectivity of manual recounts

Re: "Clearing up the election that won't die" by Lance deHaven-Smith (My View, Sept. 2).

The malicious allegations and errors of fact by Lance deHaven-Smith do a disservice to his academic credentials, reducing him to a political shill. While a recent University of Chicago study purported to show that Al Gore would have won in a statewide recount, the fact is that the Bush team offered a statewide recount. This was rejected by the Gore team in favor of selective recounts in heavily Democrat counties. Of course, both teams were motivated by the same perception - that in a statewide recount, Bush would be a sure winner, which is probably right. Every study since has shown that every recount wanted by the Gore team would have been won by Bush.

After watching Palm Beach County poll workers holding punch ballots up to the light to see if there is light around a chad, how can a rational professor say that the manual recounts are not subjective?

FRED DOUGHERTY

doughert@nettally.com

[Sender]

The surest sign that democrats have no agenda, no plan and no clue for the future is that they pathetically keep rehashing the past...so sad. A couple of them have minds too. But not many.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

I took the liberty to add a few keywords to your post.

...before it's deleted

[winin2000]

African Americans may have made errors because of the anxiety they are likely to feel at the polls, where in the not-very-distant past they would have routinely faced threats, violence, police harassment, and worse.

Threats? From who? Violence? At what time in the past forty years, if then? Police harassment? Oh, you mean routine license checks more than two miles from the polling place or polling officials with the temerity to actually ask them to for their frickin' ID! "Worse" than this? Ooh, I shudder to think!

This line alone should have given this a mandatory volcanic barf alert!

[peteram]

Man, don't you understand??? These ballots were rejected for definite reasons - most of which were due to voter error! They did not count because they could not count, therefore no midwestern liberal university CAN make them count no matter what!!

Dammit! I'm sick and tired of you libs constantly dredging this up. Get over it, will you!!!! Get a friggin' life!

[Coop]

Okay, assuming what you posted is [cough, cough] true, that would make the Florida recount score:

BUSH - 7, GORE - 1

Thanks for your participation. :-)

[Between the Lines]

Q: Why were more errors like this made by Democrats than by Republicans?

A: The social characteristics of Florida Democrats. The two groups making the most errors were African Americans and seniors, who are core constituencies of the Florida Democratic Party. Seniors probably made errors because of weak eyesight and other physical limitations caused by aging. African Americans may have made errors because of the anxiety they are likely to feel at the polls, where in the not-very- distant past they would have routinely faced threats, violence, police harassment, and worse.

Pure bull. Stupid is as stupid votes.

[Coop]

Man, don't you understand??? These ballots were rejected for definite reasons - most of which were due to voter error!

By complete coincidence I was reviewing Virginia's voting totals from the 2000 Presidential election just about fifteen minutes ago. We averaged about a 2% vote rejection per precinct, with one precinct as high as 10%. Maybe Gore should challenge the vote here as well! LOL

[Coop]

Q: Why were more errors like this made by Democrats than by Republicans?

You forgot two key points:
-Errors are easy to make when punching ballots in the dark trunk of your car.
-When attempting to ram the stylus through a stack of punch cards, invariably one ends up with "dimpled chads" due to insufficient, er, penetration.

[OldBlondBabe]

Pure bull. Stupid is as stupid votes.

Well said.

[jmaroneps37]

The history of this paper shows that it was bought in 1916 and that the new owner changed it's name to include the word Democrat in it's name. That was to make sure everyone knew where it stood on any issue. From then until 96 they wallowed in a rat cacoon when the pubbies took a fire hose and clean out the rats in in the Fla Assembly. They had to eat dirt again in 2000. What else could we expect from these dim wits?

[freedom4ever]

Personally, I hope they don't delete it. This could be our fun thread for the day.

[hchutch]

My BS detector is going off...

BIG TIME.