Hey Everyone,
I just heard a reporter from Palm County, Florida discussing some interesting figures. First of all, Buchanan got 3400 votes (which is why people are saying they accidentally voted for him instead of Gore), but - in 1996, Buchanan received 8000 votes in the same county...which makes one wonder if the vote was really all that inaccurate. Second, these 19,000 votes that are invalid because they are double punched...in 1996, 15,000 were double punched as well - so again, it puts these seemingly outrageous numbers in perspective. Another note, again, the Elections Board rep that designed the punch ballot is a democrat, and she and her crew have stated that the ballot was specially designed to have large print for the seniors to see easier. The ballot was printed in the newspapers, mailed to every registered voter, and was on display according to law at the voting locations. Furthermore, there is a section at the very end where the voter must punch the hole to certify that this is how their ballot should be cast, and that if there are any questions/concerns to ask for assistance. If you had made any mistakes, they were there to hand out additional ballots (which several people did take advantage of). I spoke earlier about the problem I had with the computer voting, and I just asked for assistance to correct the problem.
It is not fair to have people re-vote. Just recount the ballots and determine who carried the state. I do not believe in the Electoral College, but, I also do not believe in changing the rules in the middle of the game. Weeks and months ago when the prediction was the opposite (Gore winning EC and Bush winning popular vote) there was not a peep from the Gore camp about abolishing the EC. However, if you will look into the Bush campaign from the very start, he was the only one that stated he was against the EC and wanted to amend the constitution if he got into office. So again, Bush has been consistent, whereas Gore has only felt the need to jump in when it will best serve him. I believe that Gore is afraid because of those 10,000 outstanding absentee ballots, because the majority of them are military personnel, and do tend to vote Republican (especially when the funding has been so drastically cut, and the morale at an all time low for the past 8 years)....but this is a big "if" and we remember what Dan says about "ifs"
I just wanted to throw some current #'s out to show that its not like Buchanan has never had a vote in this county.