vision2020
Re: News from inside the FL recount: A Democrats perspective
Comment: This "anomaly" apparently occurred in more FL counties than
Palm Beach, both according to news reporting and from word-to-mouth
accounts. For ex., I was sitting next to a Broward Co./FL woman on a
plane into Seattle yesterday. She stated that the FL ballots differed
greatly from county to county, and that her ballot was "confusing ..
I really did not know how to punch it correctly, and in
a couple instances, the paper in the punch hole partially stuck -- it
did not drop off properly." Florida elections laws require
standardization of ballots, but do not apparently get enforced by
State government (Jeff Bush's govt.). She added that according to
hearsay thousands of ballots were thrown away because people made
mistakes. Other thousands were turned away from the voting places
either because there were insufficient ballots, or because the lines
could not be processed by closing time! From all the bits and pieces,
it seems clear that the Florida State Government does not conduct
elections in accordance with the law or with the interests of
citizens uppermost. Do citizens have proper recourse to officialdom
to redress these "anomalies"? Or do we just have to sit it out and do
nothing? Is democracy in trouble? How about voting on Saturday or
Sunday, like many other democracies? How about campaign finance
reform? Etc. KM
>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
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