[EM] Ok, it was Gore, not Kerry in 2000.

[Paul Kislanko]

 Shut up already. 

WHO could possibly have "requested the networks" to do ANYTHING?

Your "FYI" does not fit the facts. It is true that the panhandle is
overwhelmingly Republican, but it is also just as true that the population
of Florida in the Central Time Zone is a very small fraction of the state's
as a whole.

Enough already with the "what ifs" from 2000. And by the way, your statement
that "Gore voters couldn't figure out the butterfly ballots" is an
acknowledgement that the election was rigged by the panhandle folks (who,
from my personal experience, couldn't have figured 'em out either).

Anyway, this is too far off topic to have been posted on this list, so
apologies for replying to the monarchist.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: election-methods-electorama.com-bounces at electorama.com 
> [mailto:election-methods-electorama.com-bounces at electorama.com
> ] On Behalf Of Russ Paielli
> Sent: Saturday, March 05, 2005 7:13 PM
> To: election-methods at electorama.com
> Subject: Re: [EM] Ok, it was Gore, not Kerry in 2000.
> 
> FYI, had the major networks not "called" Florida an hour or so before 
> the polls closed, Bush would probably have won handily due to the 
> overwhelmingly conservative vote in the Florida panhandle, 
> which happens 
> to be in a different time zone than the rest of the state. I believe 
> this would have overwhelmed all the other "discrepencies" combined.
> 
> You might be interested to know that the networks were explicitly 
> requested to delay their projections for Florida to prevent 
> this sort of 
> thing from happening. Normally they wait until the polls close in a 
> particular state before they "call" the state. But they 
> didn't care in 
> this case, probably because it was an opportunity to damage Bush.
> 
> I also find it interesting that so many Gore voters couldn't 
> figure out 
> how to vote for their candidate. As far as I know, very few if any 
> Republicans had any such problem. Does that say something? Oh, and by 
> the way, I believe the infamous "buterfly" ballot was designed and 
> approved by Democrats in Democrat-controlled counties.
> 
> [more below]
> 
> James Green-Armytage jarmyta-at-antioch-college.edu |EMlist| wrote:
> >>I want to make that correction before someone else does; 
> I´d said that
> >>Kerry 
> >>nearly lost the presidential election because he nearly 
> lost in Florida. 
> >>Actually, of course, it was Gore who barely won the 
> presidency in 2000.
> > 
> > 
> > It depends how you count it, right? As I understand, Gore 
> won if you count
> > overvotes, but otherwise Bush was still slightly ahead. 
> Overvotes are when
> > a voter fills in the oval for Gore, but then also writes 
> his name where it
> > says "write in". Personally, I think that overvotes should 
> count, so I
> > think that Gore was the legitimate winner of Florida in 2000.
> > 
> > http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12623-2001Nov11.html
> > 
> > Of course, that doesn't take into account the butterfly 
> ballots or the
> > GOP-friendly voter roll purges; had these things not 
> occurred, I expect
> > Gore would have won by at least a couple thousand votes.
> > 
> > Anyway, I think that was a rather dark chapter in American 
> history. It's a
> > scary time when political candidates openly and 
> aggressively campaign
> > against recounting the votes when the original count is 
> suspect; it shows
> > a blatant disrespect for the will of the people. Although 
> perhaps openly
> 
> I hope you are aware that Gore didn't want a complete recount. I hope 
> you are also aware that recounts procedures are prescribed in 
> detail by 
> law. The Florida Supreme Court decided to blatantly thumb its nose at 
> the law and essentially write their own law after the fact by 
> arbitrarily changing deadlines and procedures. The US Supreme Court 
> rightly stopped such nonsense.
> 
> > campaigning against verifiability for voting machines is 
> scarier still.
> 
> I'm all for paper ballots. I even wrote an article about it at 
> ElectionMethods.org long before the general public became 
> aware of the 
> issue.
> 
> --Russ
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