Re: News from inside the FL recount: A Democrats perspective

[Tim Lohrmann <timlohr@yahoo.com>]

Visionaries,
Did anyone see the figures on registered Reform Party
voters in Palm Beach County?
Apparently, the area has significantly MORE Reform
Party types than surrounding areas. So the # of PJB
votes don't seem out of line when that is taken into
consideration--especially since the number of actual
Buchanan votes was much less than the # of the
registered Reform'ers. 

Also, once a vote has been cast, how is any election
official to know that the person claiming to have made
a mistake isn't simply motivated by the desire to cast
more than one vote for the candidate of their choice? 

The fact is that this ballot was approved without
objection by a Democratic election official and
published in widely cirulated newspapers for comment.
Therefore the period for raising objections under Fla.
State Law has passed and the right to object was
waived at the expiration of that time period.

Also it has been reported that in the 1996 election
there were 14,000 invalidated ballots in the same
county. Given the fact that the turnout in '96 was
significantly lower, the number of invalidation seem
plausible. 

Unfortunately, there will always be some who are
unable to vote correctly. The remedy for this is for
election officials to carefully design ballots and
raise timely objections to those that are unclear, NOT
to seek to invalidate elections after votes have
already been cast. 
TL



--- Bob Hoffmann <escape@alt-escape.com> wrote:
> At 11:33 AM 11/09/2000 -0800, Cliff Todd wrote:
> >  In the case of the
> >Palm Beach County Ballots there is a big fat arrow
> pointing to the punch
> >hole. What is so confusing about that?
> 
> Agreed, I'm sure I would have figured it out.  But
> given such discrepancies 
> as the high Buchanan vote for the county, and the
> high number of 
> invalidated (two-vote) ballots, perhaps the ballots
> should have been more 
> idiot-proof.  Can anyone verify the claim that the
> ballot was actually in 
> violation of the layout prescribed by Florida law? 
> That will certainly be 
> a crucial question.
> 
> What disturbed me more than the layout was an
> interview last night on NPR 
> with a first time Palm County voter.  She went to
> vote for Gore, then 
> noticed that she probably punched the Buchanan hole.
>  She took her ballot 
> to an election official and said "Who did I vote
> for?"
> 
> The official said "Buchanan."  The voter said, "But
> I didn't want to, could 
> I have a new ballot?"  The official said, "No, once
> you've cast your vote, 
> we can't let you do that."
> 
> The voter pointed out that the voting envelope
> explicitly stated, "If you 
> make a mistake, return your ballot to an election
> official and take a new 
> ballot."  The official told the voter, "No, it's too
> late," and TOOK HER 
> BALLOT and dropped it into the box.
> 
> If this is true, it is indeed an outrage.  And how
> many more people did it 
> happen to?
> 
> 
> Bob Hoffmann
> 846 Mabelle St.
> Moscow, ID  83843  USA
> Phone: (208) 883-0642
> Fax: (877) 495-2279
> 


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Calendar - Get organized for the holidays!
http://calendar.yahoo.com/