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5. By daybreak Bush's
"lead" was around 1725 out of 6 million cast, thus triggering
an automatic machine recount of the vote which reduces Bush's lead
to 327. A staggering number of ballots had been rejected by the
machines for over-voting or under-voting, especially in the urban
districts still serviced by obsolete Votomatics, With these 1960s
punch-card machines the rejection
rate was 3.9 percent as compared with the rejection rate of 1.4
percent in the 43 counties (typically Republican) that had spent
the money to upgrade to optical scanners. The "butterfly ballot"
caused 19,000 voters in Palm Beach County to vote for two candidates,
Gore and Buchanan. There were reports that the ballots in heavily
Jewish districts had been misprinted, so that the names did not
line up in the manner demonstrated on television by right-wing commentators
who seemed to deride the mental capabilities of these mostly elderly
voters. Buchanan received 3407 votes in Palm Beach as compared to
561 in Miami-Dade County. "I don't think we have 3000 Nazis
in Palm Beach County," said a county commissioner. "If
me and Pat Buchanan are winning precincts in my district, there
is something wrong," said Democratic Congressman Robert Wexler. The
conspiracy against democratic rights continues [10 November] 6. Teams of attorney
for both Bush and Gore converged on Florida. The Gore team wanted
a manual recount to determine "voter intent". (If the
Votomatic tray that receives the chads has not been cleaned out,
even the most vigorous punch will not dislodge the chad completely,
resulting in a "hanging chad" or a "pregnant chad"
which the machine will ignore, but which is quite obvious on manual
inspection.) The Bush team was determined that there not be a recount,
knowing that the results would not favor Bush. The Bush team maintained
that hand recounts are inaccurate. Yet Bush supported and signed
a Texas law that decrees that a hand recount is the "preferred
procedure" in the event of a contested election. The Bush team
asked for a hand recount in New Mexico and brother Governor Jeb
Bush has had hand recounts in previous elections in Florida. So
much for consistency. The Gore team asked for hand recounts in Palm Beach, Broward, Volusia and Miami-Dade Counties. After a partial recount in Palm Beach County produced a significant number of votes for Gore, the Bush campaign filed suit in federal court on November 11, seeking an injunction against these recounts. The county election officials voted 2-1 to continue with a full county recount.. Bush
seeks to block counting of Florida votes [13 November] 7. November 14:- Secretary
of State Harris, ignoring the hand recounts in progress in three
counties, certified that the vote for the 67 counties put Bush in
the lead by 306 votes. She said she will not accept the results
of hand recounts and will certify the final count after the deadline
for absentee ballots is passed on November 18. 8. November 15:- Gore made a public address in which he suggested that he and Bush agree to abide by the total of the votes so far certified plus the overseas votes plus any change that would occur as the result of the hand recounts then in progress. He indicated that he was also willing to accept the results of hand recounts in all 67 counties, if Bush would prefer that. If Bush would agree to this, he would agree to have no legal actions no matter how the vote came out. This proposed "deal", as Bush handlers quickly named it, was similar to proposals advanced by several leading newspapers to end the conflict and the escalating acrimony. |
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© Janette Rainwater 1997-2004 All rights reserved.
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