CDR: Florida absentee ballots

George at Orwellian.Org George at Orwellian.Org
Thu Nov 16 04:16:35 PST 2000


    http://www.tvdance.com/bush-gore/

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Overseas absentee ballots, as opposed to in-state...

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0046/elect4.shtml

WASHINGTON, NOVEMBER 15-With the presidential election supposedly 
hanging on Friday's count of absentee ballots from overseas, 
observers caution this potential bomb may turn out to be a dud. 
So far only 447 military ballots have been received by the postal 
authorities. At that rate, The Washington Post calculates, the 
amount of military ballots would end up at an underwhelming 750-a 
far cry from the originally projected 2300. Military votes were 
projected to make up the bulk of overseas ballots, which are 
set to be tallied on Friday, November 17.

As the Voice reported last week, Monte Friedkin, chairman of 
the Palm Beach County Democratic Party, said state elections 
officials had not picked up at least 500 absentee ballots from 
the post office on Election Day, raising the possibility that 
someone is tampering with the absentee vote.

In theory, absentee ballots from the armed forces would help 
Republican George W. Bush, who clings to a slender 300-vote 
margin. In 1996, Republican Bob Dole received most of those votes. 
But Pentagon observers caution this may not be the case. While 
there is no love lost for Clinton-Gore among the military 
branches, it's not a done deal by any means. Soldiers and sailors 
vote along class lines, with the brass going for Bush. But the 
enlisted soldiers, especially black men and women, could just 
as easily turn out for Gore.

Florida beefed up its laws governing absentee ballots after a 
Miami election was overturned due to fraud. But Democrats question 
whether the statutes are working, because they claim Republic
an-controlled county elections officials violated the law by 
sending out absentee ballots to people who didn't ask for them. 
State law stipulates voters must request absentee ballots.

Perhaps the small number of absentee ballots can be explained 
by the following: WorldNetDaily reported yesterday that a source 
on the USS Tarawa, a U.S. assault ship near Yemen, said that 
"thousands" of ballots were languishing onboard.

The Pentagon, which first denied this report, now says, according 
to the New York Post, that the ballots of some 3000 sailors and 
marines on the USS Tarawa, USS Duluth, and USS Anchorage would 
be flown back to the United States "expeditiously."

Capt. Van P. Brinson, who says he did not receive his absentee 
ballot, told WorldNetDaily he penned a November 8 e-mail in which 
he wrote: "I cannot speak for the remainder of the crew of the 
Tarawa, but I do know that the majority of the Marines and sailors 
that I have spoken with are in the same boat. What is distressing 
about the situation is that a majority of the pilots aboard are 
registered voters in Florida." Stripped of confusing press 
reporting and legalistic mumbo jumbo, the results of the endless 
Florida recount so far amount to next to nothing. According to 
Sam Smith?s Prorev.com afternoon tally, after a week of 
recounting, the change in the vote "finally certified by the 
state for Palm Beach County represented two-tenths of 1 percent." 
As reported previously, Gore carried Palm Beach County by 140,000 
votes, collecting 24 percent of the total vote.





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