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Sun-Sentinel story

According to polling place volunteer Susan Engel, this is the problem many seniors had with the ballot used in West Palm Beach:
    Gore/Lieberman were listed in the # 2 spot.
    But the circle to be punched for Gore/Lieberman vote was # 3.

Many, seeing that Gore/Lieberman were # 2 on the list, counted down two circles and punched # 2, paying no attention to the graphic (arrows) or seeing them as general indicators to the column of circles to be punched.

Here's an animated graphic of the misalignment (arrow to circle) from the voting booth perspective.

    Add'l complications: Some thought then that the 3rd circle was for Lieberman and punched that too. These would have been among the 19,120 disqualified ballots.
    By Florida state law for paper ballots, to be adhered to in machine ballots "where practicable" and per the voting brochure instructions, the circle should be to the right of the candidate's name and not on the left as it was for Buchanan.

Also, by Florida state law they are to be listed in the order of votes received, but Buchanan is listed higher than Gore/Lieberman and his punch-circle is #2. This is said to be illegal and a basis for the court challenge, not to mention anti-intuitive for the voter.

Since complaints were made at the polling booth and the number of votes for Buchanan in West Palm Beach was abnormally high, it's obvious they were confused by the ballot.

The Florida state pamphlet (following state law) instructs the voter to choose the candidate by selecting the circle at the Right of the name.

    NEWER:  19,120 ballots in West Palm Beach were disqualified/nullified and not counted on election day, due to having two punches made for President, which matches the reports of confusion - some realizing they may have punched the wrong circle.  Due to high turnout, a rushed voting process (5-minute max for entire ballot) and, with some people, just embarrassment, they did not get new ballots and reported their confusion to Election officials when they got home.

    19,120 ballots thrown out is considered an unusually high number. TV reports tonight identify these as coming mostly from African-American communities, involving about 15% in West Palm Beach County.

    As of Nov. 11, midnight, with 67 of 67 counties completing their recounts, Gore was behind Bush in Florida by only 327 votes (1,700+ before the recount started with all counties counted) out of some 6 million.

    It should be noted that Representative Robert Wexler showed Larry King and others the urgent yellow 8-1/2" x 11" sheet sent by the election officials to the polling staff in the afternoon on Election Day warning them that they had been receiving complaints about confusion over the ballot and that instruction would be necessary in connection with the presidential voting.

Sources: AP, Washington Post, NY Times, L.A. Times, Florida Sun-Sentinel

Andrys Basten

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Things you can do:  Updated 12/20/00.     1.   As needed, WRITE/Call  TV Networks and             appropriate newspapers             instead of just one another.               Get  E-mail and Phone contact info here Try the National Media Guide - the aggressive Christian Coalition's useful feature     2.   Join the Justice in Florida Campaign - "a continuing           grassroots campaign to defend the integrity of the           electoral system"     4.   Join the Declaration of Independence Boycott of Florida     5.   Monitor events via TrustThePeople site.     6.   Take a look around the WorkingForChange site     7.   Monitor (slow-loading) TrustThePeople site and           Democrats.Com.

Dec. 8:  FSC Ordered hand counts
Dec. 9:  USSC, Fearing Hand Counts, Stopped them

After the Election, there was one constant. Gore dared to want normal hand counts, as in Texas (where the standards allow mere indentations) and where Bush signed the law stating hand counts are preferred in close elections; as in New Mexico where Bush benefited from one briefly in November, as in Massachusetts which BANNED punch card ballots due to their unreliability, as in states everywhere, including Florida, where Bush benefited from hand-counts the day after the election, and Oregon where they are mandatory in close elections. But Bush-Cheney, in the most cynical act I've seen in presidential politics, decided on a grim, irrational but transparent agenda to portray hand counts as something only tricksters do, to try to make us think that dimpled ballots were checked this year for the first time, when they are actually a common part of the process in Texas and everywhere else. Why?  Bush couldn't afford a hand count of the thousands of ballots whose partial punch-throughs are not 'seen' (and therefore not counted by the machine. These are the "disregarded." To regard them at all -- to count the votes that can be seen -- is to lose the election. This is the kind of mentality that proclaimed itself president-elect and a transition team. Bush decided to "trust" the machines;  sheltered, he may not have encountered the ones that don't "see" dollar-bills which humans see clearly when trying to get change. Machines are, for Bush, more reliable than humans, an idea counter to all election practice. We saw Bush's willingness to "unite" when, during a time Gore led in the popular vote and even led in the electoral college balloting during contesting of the close Florida results, Bush didn't think to give Gore and his voters a dollop of credit instead of treating Gore as a "Sore Loserman" and with impatient dismissiveness and charges of 'stealing' an election. December 8 - the people finally received, for a few hours, "authorization" to count the ballots which had never been hand-checked after rejected as 'undervotes' - the result of the usual punch card machine problems as well as the known failure of these machines which can merely dimple the topmost columns, to which the inventor of the punch card machine testified at the Nov. 24 hearing in W.Palm Beach.     What were Bush and the U.S. Supreme Court afraid of, while not worrying whatsoever about ballot and ballot-machine inequities between the counties?  Long-time studies (and Bush's expert witness) testified to not only known machine problems and a need for hand-counts to read disqualified votes in a close-election, but also an error rate 3 to 5 times higher than for optical scanner ballots, leading to unduly large numbers of undervotes, leaving those voters disenfranchised relative to richer counties. 11/30/00 Update (Revised 12/20/00): The Bush brothers (and father) and the Florida Legislature openly planned to select Bush Electors even if Gore won via a court-ordered handcount. If  (without the highly criticized Supreme Court Decision that chose the 43rd president)  they had needed to counter a Gore vote-win,     Bush would have lost the popular vote by about 540,000.           (and did)     Bush would have lost the electoral vote by Law. Nevertheless, brother (and father working daily with Baker) would have openly helped GWB grab the presidency anyway, because they felt the presidency was due their family and the Republican party.   This is the character, integrity, and respect for law that had been promised us. Be sure to check out: Myths About the Results of the Election     Fantastic The Gore Exception - Guide to The Decision     Superb

       

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