You'd have to live in a shoebox not to have heard what's going on down in Florida. What's going on is the loss of America's innocence. The belief that we were superior, that our electoral process was sacrosanct, that fraud in the ballot booth could not be perpetrated on the American people. Well, we were wrong.
Every other segment of American life is tainted by corruption--business, medical treatment, the legislative processes. American military "advisors" and diplomats supervise elections in hundreds of other nations. Apparently, we need to have our own elections supervised.
Granted, if all of Florida's voters had carefully perused the ballot form, they would have punched the proper hole. But no one can deny that the form's design was, at the very least, confusing. I mean, on the left side of the form were several inches of white space. Why, then, did Buchanan's name appear on the other side of the "butterfly, and between the names Bush and Gore?" Why did the two sides of the ballot not line up?--all the rest of the names lined up perfectly with their punch holes. Why?
Clearly, the layout of that ballot was designed to defraud the voters. To confuse. To cause mistakes. To benefit Bush by dividing Gore's votes.
The networks did not predict the outcome of Florida's vote too early: they relied on the exit polls, which clearly indicated that Gore would win the battle by thousands of votes. But nearly 20,000 people who thought they had voted for Al Gore were disqualified. They committed the unpardonable sin of punching the holes of two candidates.
Can you not understand why they made this "stupid" error?
This was a presidential election, meaning that each vote was for two people, a president and a vice president. Both names were printed on the ballot, so he/she might easily assume that both of the two holes within Gore's bordered text block had to be punched; the voters had stood outside in a line for up to three hours, making thousands of Floridians late for work that Tuesday; taped above the booth was a printed sign that read, "5 minutes permitted in voting booth if others are waiting"; and a large percentage of these fine folks were first-time voters, nervous and slightly embarassed and afraid that they would be considered too stupid to vote if they asked for explanations. The election monitors in that county were well aware that they had a problem; that people were confused by the layout of that ballot.
Yeah, respondants to this post will be certain to point out that in 1996, this county disqualified 16,000 ballots due to double voting. Then why didn't they fix the damn thing? In four years Jeb's secretary of state couldn't design a more error-proof form?
Also, I'd like to know whether the election four years ago was decided by the disqualification of those 16,000 votes. Bet it benefited a Republican.
Bush shouts from podiums all over this nation that he trusts the people. He ought to put up or shut up. He should demand a revote (not recount) in at least that one county. Hell, if he were the man he claims to be, no matter the outcome of the electoral count he'd step aside, and permit the winner of the popular vote to assume the office that is rightly his. Instead, Bush smugly plots the physical ascencion to the presidency.
This man is unprincipled. He's going to pull the nation together????
I forgave Bush for the larceny he and his buddies were convicted of when he was a young adult (rich boys, they stole a decorated Christmas tree as a prank). Although just last year my granddaughter was killed by a drunkened car thief, I forgave Junior for driving intoxicated into a tree. I forgave him for lying/exaggerating wildly during the presidential debates. Lie # 1: that HE signed into law a Texas patients bill of rights (it passed into law but over George's veto). Stupidity #1: that Reagan was right to send American troops into Lebanon (about 200 were killed in a terrorist attack, after which Reagan tucked tail and ran). Ignorant statement #1: that if he were elected president he'd bring Am. troops home from Haiti (all *34* of them?!!?).
Dangerous misstatement of fact #1: that the Europeans ought to assume more of the peacekeeping duties in Kosovo (85% of the UN peacekeepers are European, and the Europeans themselves provide 90% of the funding). I forgave George W. Bush (Jr.) for all this and more.
But I will not forgive this unethical, pouty little boy for destroying my belief in the inviolability of the American electoral process. I now know that our elections are no safer from election fraud than are those in hundreds of Third World countries. For this, George, damn you. Damn you to hell.
Every other segment of American life is tainted by corruption--business, medical treatment, the legislative processes. American military "advisors" and diplomats supervise elections in hundreds of other nations. Apparently, we need to have our own elections supervised.
Granted, if all of Florida's voters had carefully perused the ballot form, they would have punched the proper hole. But no one can deny that the form's design was, at the very least, confusing. I mean, on the left side of the form were several inches of white space. Why, then, did Buchanan's name appear on the other side of the "butterfly, and between the names Bush and Gore?" Why did the two sides of the ballot not line up?--all the rest of the names lined up perfectly with their punch holes. Why?
Clearly, the layout of that ballot was designed to defraud the voters. To confuse. To cause mistakes. To benefit Bush by dividing Gore's votes.
The networks did not predict the outcome of Florida's vote too early: they relied on the exit polls, which clearly indicated that Gore would win the battle by thousands of votes. But nearly 20,000 people who thought they had voted for Al Gore were disqualified. They committed the unpardonable sin of punching the holes of two candidates.
Can you not understand why they made this "stupid" error?
This was a presidential election, meaning that each vote was for two people, a president and a vice president. Both names were printed on the ballot, so he/she might easily assume that both of the two holes within Gore's bordered text block had to be punched; the voters had stood outside in a line for up to three hours, making thousands of Floridians late for work that Tuesday; taped above the booth was a printed sign that read, "5 minutes permitted in voting booth if others are waiting"; and a large percentage of these fine folks were first-time voters, nervous and slightly embarassed and afraid that they would be considered too stupid to vote if they asked for explanations. The election monitors in that county were well aware that they had a problem; that people were confused by the layout of that ballot.
Yeah, respondants to this post will be certain to point out that in 1996, this county disqualified 16,000 ballots due to double voting. Then why didn't they fix the damn thing? In four years Jeb's secretary of state couldn't design a more error-proof form?
Also, I'd like to know whether the election four years ago was decided by the disqualification of those 16,000 votes. Bet it benefited a Republican.
Bush shouts from podiums all over this nation that he trusts the people. He ought to put up or shut up. He should demand a revote (not recount) in at least that one county. Hell, if he were the man he claims to be, no matter the outcome of the electoral count he'd step aside, and permit the winner of the popular vote to assume the office that is rightly his. Instead, Bush smugly plots the physical ascencion to the presidency.
This man is unprincipled. He's going to pull the nation together????
I forgave Bush for the larceny he and his buddies were convicted of when he was a young adult (rich boys, they stole a decorated Christmas tree as a prank). Although just last year my granddaughter was killed by a drunkened car thief, I forgave Junior for driving intoxicated into a tree. I forgave him for lying/exaggerating wildly during the presidential debates. Lie # 1: that HE signed into law a Texas patients bill of rights (it passed into law but over George's veto). Stupidity #1: that Reagan was right to send American troops into Lebanon (about 200 were killed in a terrorist attack, after which Reagan tucked tail and ran). Ignorant statement #1: that if he were elected president he'd bring Am. troops home from Haiti (all *34* of them?!!?).
Dangerous misstatement of fact #1: that the Europeans ought to assume more of the peacekeeping duties in Kosovo (85% of the UN peacekeepers are European, and the Europeans themselves provide 90% of the funding). I forgave George W. Bush (Jr.) for all this and more.
But I will not forgive this unethical, pouty little boy for destroying my belief in the inviolability of the American electoral process. I now know that our elections are no safer from election fraud than are those in hundreds of Third World countries. For this, George, damn you. Damn you to hell.
