Florida Recount Update -- From Red Rock Eater News Service\r\n \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nFlorida Recount Update Links & Messages-- From Red Rock Eater News Service<\/b><\/p>
\r\n\r\n\r\nPresented By Phil Agre<\/b><\/p>
\r\n\r\n[I've enclosed three messages about the Florida recount. Although\r\nI am obviously comfortable enough about them to send them out, I am\r\nnot totally comfortable about any of them.<\/p>
\r\n\r\nThe first is by a guy who says his mom was precinct clerk for Palm Beach\r\nCounty. I have not authenticated this message; I am going on my sense\r\nthat it's for real.<\/p>
\r\n\r\nThe second is a letter by Michael Moore about the elderly Jewish voters\r\nin Palm Beach County who are upset at having voted for Pat Buchanan by \r\naccident. It's good as a reminder of why elderly Jewish voters would\r\nbe upset by such a thing, but it's excessive in forcing too much of\r\na comparison between our current election problems and the much deeper\r\nproblems in Germany that understandably made them so sensitive. On\r\nthe other hand, it's much worse to hear the vicious name-calling and\r\nridicule that the loathsome pundits have been heaping on these people.<\/p>
\r\n\r\nThe third message is a provisional analysis of the patterns in the\r\nFlorida vote recount. The analysis was prepared in good faith and is\r\naccurate as far as I can see, but I wish that we had more information\r\nto go on, for example about the voting methods used in every one of the\r\ncounties and especially the ones with the strangest numbers.<\/p>
\r\n\r\nHere is another batch of URL's relating to the election controversy:<\/p>
\r\n\r\nOn Election Night, Democrats Called Florida Voters About Problem
\r\n http:\/\/www.herald.com\/content\/archive\/news\/elect2000\/decision\/068797.htm<\/p>
\r\n\r\nPalm Beach Ballot Discard Rate Considered on High Side
\r\n http:\/\/www.herald.com\/content\/archive\/news\/yahoo\/digdocs\/058333.htm<\/p>
\r\n\r\nChoosing A President: Assessing Online Election Coverage
\r\n http:\/\/www.poynter.org\/election2000\/index.htm<\/p>
\r\n\r\nWas Nixon Robbed?
\r\n http:\/\/slate.msn.com\/HistoryLesson\/00-10-16\/HistoryLesson.asp<\/p>
\r\n\r\nDoubting Florida Voting Data
\r\n http:\/\/ojr.usc.edu\/content\/story.cfm?request=486<\/p>
\r\n\r\nVolusia Officials Find Three Suspect Bags of Ballots
\r\n http:\/\/www.sun-sentinel.com\/news\/daily\/detail\/0,1136,36000000000125072,00.html<\/p>
\r\n\r\nIt's a Myth That Nixon Acquiesced in 1960
\r\n http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/news\/comment\/20001110\/t000107675.html<\/p>
\r\n\r\nThose Florida Ballots Were Clearly Illegal
\r\n http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/news\/comment\/20001110\/t000107677.html<\/p>
\r\n\r\nElection Workers' Nightmare
\r\n http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/print\/asection\/20001110\/t000107857.html<\/p>
\r\n\r\nBay Buchanan Sees Something Peculiar in Palm Beach Voting
\r\n <\/p>
\r\n\r\nPalm Beach County Supervisor of Elections
\r\n http:\/\/www.pbcelections.org\/<\/p>
\r\n\r\nAuthentic 1994 Republic of South Africa Ballots
\r\n http:\/\/www.littleafrica.com\/ballots\/<\/p>
\r\n\r\nRepublican Spin: Go Home, Al
\r\n http:\/\/www.perpetualelection.com\/article.pl?sid=00\/11\/10\/2128226<\/p>
\r\n\r\nA Fateful Step Toward Court
\r\n http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2000\/11\/10\/opinion\/10FRI1.html<\/p>
\r\n\r\nWhy 19,120 People Voted Twice
\r\n http:\/\/slate.msn.com\/code\/BallotBox\/BallotBox.asp?Show=11\/9\/2000&idMessage=6462<\/p>
\r\n\r\nWith Recount, Having Some Fun
\r\n http:\/\/washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/articles\/A52267-2000Nov9.html<\/p>
\r\n\r\nI am quite burned out with the effort of covering this story, but like\r\nan awful lot of Americans (hundreds of whom have written to me) I am\r\nfinding it hard to focus on anything else. I am actually getting some\r\nwork done amidst the flood of e-mail, but I have started delegating my\r\njob here as much as possible, for example asking people to do research\r\nor keep track of Web sites. If the controversy spreads to Oregon, New\r\nMexico, Wisconsin, Iowa, and heaven knows where else, then we are going\r\nto need a new approach. A lot of people are following the story in\r\nfine detail, and it would be great if we could produce a daily scan of\r\nthe Web sites for all of the relevant local newspapers. But even if\r\npeople out there are poking at the newspapers and sending me relevant\r\nURL's individually, I don't have hours in the day to filter them all.\r\nI've had fantasies of putting out a call for volunteers to form work\r\ngroups -- it certainly seems like there's enough energy out there --\r\nbut even organizing that sounds like too much work right now. We'll\r\njust have to see what happens next.]<\/p>
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\r\n\r\n<\/p>
\r\n\r\nDear friends, <\/p>
\r\n\r\nI don't normally send emails like this to a large block of people,\r\ncertainly when it comes to my family, and certainly when the import\r\nof the issue makes it seem like the letter might travel far and wide.\r\nBut so many people have asked about this story that it seems important\r\nto send it out. This is the true story of my mother, precinct clerk\r\nin Palm Beach county, Florida.<\/p>
\r\n\r\nMy mother was a precinct clerk in Palm Beach county, Florida, election\r\nday of 2000. Mom's very good friend Leah was a precinct clerk as\r\nwell. Both of them were incredibly upset during and after election\r\nday, before anyone knew the import of these specific voters. And my\r\nmother was convinced there were serious irregularities long before\r\nthey gained national prominence, and she called me to say so.<\/p>
\r\n\r\nI note this because some Republicans are now asking \"if there were\r\nthese irregularities, how come they were not raised until after the\r\nelection?\" In fact, my mother and the other precinct clerks raised\r\nthese issues from the moment that the polls opened in the morning --\r\nthe problem is that the person they intially called on was Theresa\r\nLePore, elections supervisor of Palm Beach county. She was the source\r\nof the ballot confusion, and was uninterested in the issue.<\/p>
\r\n\r\nFirst, the paper ballot was extremely confusing to these voters.\r\nAlthough both major parties got a chance to review the card layout,\r\nit is not clear if any had a chance to put the actual ballot in an\r\nactual machine and punch the holes. The card is laid horizontally\r\nas you vote, and it is hard to see the holes as you punch them.\r\nAnd my mother, who supervised the precinct she was in (this is a paid\r\nposition, and she reported directly to Ms. LePore) said the card did\r\nnot even fit correctly in the ballot machine, so the holes in the card\r\ndid not line up with the ballot.<\/p>
\r\n\r\nAnyone who thinks this was minor voter confusion has never dealt with\r\nretirees in a West Palm Beach retirement village in Florida, I promise\r\nyou.<\/p>
\r\n\r\nMy mother, following the rules, said the poll workers had been told\r\nnot to help people with the cards, as it might bias the voters. My\r\nmother witnessed many, many people who voted incorrectly. Some stayed\r\non a second line and had their cards re-done, some punched the second\r\nhole (and thus were probably thrown out), and some found out they\r\nvoted for Buchanan after they had deposited their cards in the ballot\r\nbox, and there was thus nothing they could do.<\/p>
\r\n\r\nMom called me up to complain about this after the elction, and she\r\ncalled me up again on Thursday, very upset after reading a story in\r\nthe New York Times (Nov. 9 2000, p. B6). The Times story states:<\/p>
\r\n\r\n\"After numerous complaints were received on Tuesday morning, Ms.\r\nLePore issued this directive to the county's 106 precincts: \"Attention\r\nall poll workers. Please remind all voters coming in that they are\r\nto vote only for one (1) presidential candidate and that they are\r\nto punch the hole next to the arrow next to the number next to the\r\ncandidate they wish to vote for.\"<\/p>
\r\n\r\nMom never received this directive, and she believes that if anyone\r\nknew they could have helped people vote their preference, the outcome\r\nwould have been very different. Instead, my mother and the others\r\nwere trying to do the right thing, and they felt that helping explain\r\nthe ballot to these people would have been helping them to vote for\r\nGore, something she didn't feel was proper. These women are honest to\r\na fault.<\/p>
\r\n\r\nLeah did receive the directive, but not until 4pm on election day, and\r\nonly by accident -- someone was coming to visit from the main office\r\nand told her about it. In the mean time, my mother and Leah (and most\r\nof the precinct clerks) had been desperately trying to call the county\r\noffice. They had been given a phone number by Ms. LePore and told\r\nthat the phone line would be staffed throughout the day. They were\r\ntold to call if there were any problems.<\/p>
\r\n\r\nMom tried to call starting at 7:30am, calling straight through when\r\npolls closed, but she got a busy signal the entire time. But mom\r\nwas at a polling station with only a pay phone, so she had to deposit\r\ncoins each time, and with long lines waiting for her, she was becoming\r\nincreasingly frustrated.<\/p>
\r\n\r\nLeah was precinct chief at the retirement village where they live, and\r\nran a polling station at the clubhouse. Having a more modern facility,\r\nLeah tried on the phone as well, and when she couldn't get through,\r\nshe called the operator to ask her why the phone was busy. Leah had\r\nthe presence of mind to get the operator's number (history is made\r\nby people like Leah) when the operator told her the phone was off the\r\nhook, meaning nobody was on the line the entire day. Evidently, the\r\nsupervisor's office just didn't want to hear the complaints.<\/p>
\r\n\r\nLeah then faxed the supervisor's office with her concerns at noon and\r\nagain at 2pm. Nobody called Leah back until 5pm, when she heard from\r\nMs. LePore, with the following words \"don't bother me\".<\/p>
\r\n\r\nSo as this news starts to be spun and re-spun, let me tell you a few\r\nthings I am certain to be true:<\/p>
\r\n\r\n<\/p><\/li>
\r\n\r\nYou are free to send this to anyone you wish.<\/p>
\r\n\r\nBen Austin<\/p>
\r\n\r\n<\/p>
\r\n\r\nNovember 10, 2000<\/p>
\r\n\r\nDear friends,<\/p>
\r\n\r\nThere was something about yesterday's demonstration in front of the\r\ncourthouse in Palm Beach County that profoundly moved me. Hundreds\r\nof elderly Jewish citizens, many in tears, demanding, begging for\r\nsomeone to listen to them. They tried to explain that the ballot\r\nthey voted on was so confusing they feared that they had actually\r\nvoted for Pat Buchanan (a man who once said \"Hitler was an individual\r\nof great courage\") instead the man they wanted for president, Al Gore.<\/p>
\r\n\r\nRather than being heard, they have been ridiculed across the country\r\nas being \"stupid\", \"ignorant\" or \"sore losers\". They are portrayed as\r\na bunch of whiners, old people who maybe shouldn't be behind the wheel\r\nof a car, let alone in the voting booth. Get off the road, you're\r\nmessing up the election for the rest of us!<\/p>
\r\n\r\nThis is the tone of much of what I have heard in the media and on\r\nthe street: You had your chance, you idiot, you screwed up your own\r\nballot, now shut up.<\/p>
\r\n\r\nI find it more than ironic -- actually, downright abhorrent -- that,\r\nin addition to the thousands of ballots that have been thrown out,\r\nat least a few hundred of these senior citizens' votes, through what\r\nappears to be an illegally constructed ballot, will end up being\r\ncounted for a right-wing, anti-Semitic like Mr. Buchanan. South\r\nFlorida has perhaps the largest population of Holocaust survivors\r\noutside of Israel and New York. Is it just me, or do these good\r\npeople, all of whom have suffered enough in their lives, deserve\r\nnot only our respect, but our commitment to see that their vote is\r\ncounted?<\/p>
\r\n\r\nTo many of you, World War II and the Holocaust probably seems like\r\nancient history. The truth is, there are tens of thousands of people\r\nwho lived through that horror, escaped the ovens, and are now living\r\nout their final years in South Florida. None of us can imagine what\r\nthey went through; first to survive, and then to somehow make it to a\r\ncountry where they believed they would be free and their voice would\r\nbe heard. These immigrants worked hard to raise families in America,\r\ncontribute to our society, and make this country a better place for\r\nall of us. They took their citizenship duties very seriously, to the\r\npoint where many of us have probably rolled our eyes a time or two\r\nover their extreme patriotism and love of America. Silly old people!<\/p>
\r\n\r\nNow they are being told to take a hike. I could understand the\r\nderision if it were 50 spoiled ballots, or 500 spoiled ballots.\r\nBut 19,000???<\/p>
\r\n\r\n19,000!!!<\/p>
\r\n\r\nAre we going to just discard these senior citizens with a big shrug\r\nand a laugh? They were already discarded once in their lives. Being\r\nstripped of their vote is not the same as being stripped of their\r\nlife, but then why are we remembering our veterans on this Veteran's\r\nDay if not for the fact that they risked THEIR lives so that people\r\nlike these survivors could have the right to vote? Are we really going\r\nto do this to them?<\/p>
\r\n\r\nWhen Al Gore named Joe Lieberman as his running mate -- the first\r\nJew to run on a national ticket for a major party -- it created a\r\nwonderful rush of pride within the Jewish community. If there had\r\nbeen any doubt that they, as Jewish Americans, were not fully welcomed\r\nat the table, this one act on Gore's part made that doubt virtually\r\ndisappear. I remember watching on the news that day a story about\r\nLieberman's wife, Hadassah. She is the child of two Holocaust\r\nsurvivors -- her father, an inmate in a Nazi slave labor camp, and her\r\nmother, who miraculously survived Auschwitz.<\/p>
\r\n\r\nAs I watched Hadassah's story, I paused to think of those in her\r\nfamily who did not survive the camps to live to see this momentous\r\nday. I thought, if only it had been possible, in the final moments\r\nbefore their deaths, for someone to whisper to them that this madness\r\nwill indeed end, that the Jewish people will not only survive but see\r\nthe day when a child of theirs is married to the man running for vice\r\npresident of the United States! Whatever small comfort that could\r\nhave given them to alleviate their pain and suffering before their\r\nlives were exterminated, I wish... I wish... they just could have\r\nknown that their death was not in vain.<\/p>
\r\n\r\nThese elderly survivors and relatives of survivors in Palm Beach\r\nCounty deserve our fight for their voice to be heard. This is a\r\nnational shame and dishonor. Everyone knows the truth here: 19,000\r\npeople could not read the ballot. I don't care that the local\r\nDemocrats had approved the ballot. Like most Democratic party hacks,\r\nthey blew it. So what. Does that mean these elderly have to pay the\r\nprice? The Republicans have now resorted to spewing incredible lies,\r\nsuch as the \"same number of ballots were spoiled in the 1996\". That\r\nis a bald face lie. The number of spoiled ballots was HALF what it\r\nwas this year, and I have been told that voters in the '96 election\r\nDID complain but no one listened because the spoiled ballots did not\r\neffect the outcome.<\/p>
\r\n\r\nLook, I personally did not vote for either Gore or Bush. I think\r\nLieberman's politics and campaign contributions are appalling. But\r\nI and others have made these points throughout the election -- and\r\nthe majority of Americans have chosen to dismiss them for now. That\r\nis their right. But if the campaign for Ralph Nader was nothing, it\r\nwas, at its very core, about trying to stop the disenfranchisement\r\nof the American people. For us not to speak up now -- even though\r\nOUR will did not prevail -- would make everything we stand for lack\r\ncredibility.<\/p>
\r\n\r\nI am asking all who read this -- Nader supporters, Gore voters,\r\nRepublicans with a conscience -- to stand up and resist this theft of\r\nour election. Someone has set up a website calling for spontaneous\r\ndemonstrations in numerous cities at 1pm tomorrow, Saturday, November\r\n11 (click here for the list: http:\/\/geocities.com\/countercoup\/). Take\r\none hour, just one hour, of your time tomorrow and go down to where\r\nthe rally is happening in your town. Do not listen to those who are\r\nsaying we have to put this behind us and get on with it. Get on with\r\nwhat? A democracy that does not respect its most basic and cherished\r\nright, the right to have your vote counted?<\/p>
\r\n\r\nIf the person who got fewer votes is installed as president, it will\r\ninspire so much cynicism amongst the citizenry that I fear even MORE\r\npeople than the 100 million who chose not to vote will sit out the\r\nnext election. They will just say, \"What's the use? It's all rigged!\"\r\nProgressives and Greens and everyone must understand this danger --\r\nand how much more difficult it will be to organize if more of our\r\nfellow Americans just give up.<\/p>
\r\n\r\nPlease, do this for the sake of our country. Do it because it is\r\nright. Do it because those senior citizens in Florida deserve our\r\nrespect and our help in their time of need.<\/p>
\r\n\r\nSixty-two years ago tonight, the Holocaust began in full force on\r\nwhat was called Kristallnacht. The German government sent goon squads\r\nthroughout the country to trash and burn the homes, stores and temples\r\nof its Jewish citizens. Seven years and 6 million slaughtered lives\r\nlater, the Jewish people of Europe were virtually extinct. A few\r\nsurvived. I will not allow those who survived to come here to this\r\n\"land of the free\" be abused again. They are our fellow citizens in\r\nour great democracy, and their voice, if I have anything to say about\r\nit, will never be snuffed out.<\/p>
\r\n\r\nYours,<\/p>
\r\n\r\nMichael Moore
\r\nmmflint@aol.com
\r\nwww.michaelmoore.com<\/p>
\r\n\r\n<\/p>
\r\n\r\nBy now, it has been widely reported that Gore picked up about 1400\r\nvotes in the Florida recount, reducing the margin to a bit over 300.\r\nHowever, there is a very strange pattern to the results which has not\r\nbeen widely reported.<\/p>
\r\n\r\nMost of Gore's pickup is from a very few counties --- the majority, in\r\nfact, from Palm Beach and Pinellas:<\/p>
\r\n\r\nThere's no obvious pattern among these; they don't all favor Gore\r\n(Duval went roughly 3:2 against him, as did Polk, by a lesser margin),\r\nnor are they all large (Gadsden had 14,502 votes *total* after the\r\nrecount). Also, Gore picked up very few votes in Miami-Dade, a large\r\nurban area which, IIRC, uses punched card voting, so that doesn't seem\r\nto be the controlling factor.<\/p>
\r\n\r\nPopulation, in particular, does not seem to be a great influence; the\r\nvote total changed by 26 in Miami-Dade, by 19 in Hillsboro, and by one\r\nin Broward, to cite three fairly populous counties.<\/p>
\r\n\r\nFWIW, there are two counties where Bush picked up roughly 100 votes,\r\nMartin, where he picked up 105, and Seminole (IIRC, the last to\r\nreport), where he gained 98. Everything else is pretty much in the\r\nnoise --- the seven counties with more than 100-vote shifts account\r\nfor 1368 net votes gained by Gore; the rest of the state as a whole,\r\nonly 89 more.<\/p>
\r\n\r\nIt is difficult to see how random statistical fluctuations could give\r\nrise to this pattern --- a small number of counties with unusually\r\nlarge shifts in votes (I can find only two with net changes between 50\r\nand 97 --- Nassau and Orange), with the largest tending consistently\r\nin the same direction.<\/p>
\r\n\r\nThis, in turn, raises the troubling question of whether there was\r\ndiscrimination against Democrats in the initial count, and if so,\r\nwhether it was completely wrung out in the recount.<\/p>
\r\n\r\nrst<\/p>
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/p>\n","contact":"","link":"http:\/\/dlis.gseis.ucla.edu\/people\/pagre\/florida.html","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/html","summary":"Three messages about the Florida recount. First from is someone who says his mom was a Palm Beach County precinct clerk, second is from Michael Moore about the elderly Jewish voters in Palm Beach County upset at having accidentily voted for Pat Buchanan, third is a provisional analysis of the patterns in the Florida vote recount. Also more links.","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/2000\/11\/rre_f6.htm","filesize":"22.8 kibibytes","article_url":"\/news\/2000\/11\/4529.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[]}