Newsclips on consortium election study

Bush's fifth ace: A crooked Panhandle -Plop some green eyeshades on blind Bob Butterworth

... In other words, ballots were destroyed because they were cast for Gore. The probability that Escambia's vote distribution occurred by chance is less than 1 in 10⁵⁶. One chance in ten raised to the power 56 means that the Escambia results are about as likely as Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy and the Loch Ness monster running into one another at a Shriner's convention.... More

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Florida's Hill Democrats still bruised over vote 

This was sent to Sierra Club from a reader in DC. This article ran in a "Hill" newspaper.

Rep. Robert Wexler knew something was wrong when his mother-in-law called him from Boca Raton, Fla., sounding upset, early on the morning of Election Day. "'You have to do something about this,'" she told her son-in-law. "It was a horrible ballot."

The three-term Florida Democrat first thought that maybe his mother-in-law had simply been confused. "It can't possibly be that bad, I figured," he said.

But the moment he saw the ballot himself, Wexler saw that she wasn't exaggerating. "I knew this was a major disaster."

Seven months after then-Vice President Al Gore conceded the election to Texas Gov. George W. Bush, three Florida Democrats still vividly remember the turmoil surrounding last November's election, and are still outraged about how the post-election period played out.

Wexler, Peter Deutsch and Corrine Brown all say they remain convinced Gore won the election. In interviews with The Hill, they recalled the tension of Election Night, the incredible controversy that ensued and the mistakes the Gore camp made.

Ask Wexler if Al Gore should be in the White House today and he responds, "Of course he should. The wrong man is sleeping in the White House." For Wexler, a 40-year-old with graying hair who hails from Boca Raton, the post-election period was the most "horrifying" public experience he has ever had. "It shook and turned upside down everything I believed in," he said. "For the first time in my life, I questioned everything I'd always believed in, in terms of what democracy was, your right to vote and to have your vote counted. The fact that we were talking about these things was an unfathomable idea."

What Wexler was referring to was an election that introduced words like butterfly ballots, overvotes and chads into the political lexicon. "But for the design of the butterfly ballot in Palm Beach County, Al Gore would be sleeping in the White House, that's for sure," said Wexler. The butterfly ballot was what stumped many of his constituents. Excited about voting for a Jewish candidate for vice president, they meant to punch their card for the Gore-Lieberman ticket but wound up casting a vote for Reform Party nominee Pat Buchanan. Proud of never missing an election and mindful that 2000 may have been one of their last chances to vote, many senior citizens didn't get to have their ballots count.

"This was an incredibly emotional experience for many of my constituents," said Wexler, who nearly shouts as he speaks. "To be foiled by a puzzle that should have been just a ballot was especially outrageous."

Adding to his frustration was that he had known Palm Beach County Elections Supervisor Theresa LePore for years and considered her a friend. To her credit, she responded to criticism that the printing on the 1996 ballot was too small, said Wexler. But the butterfly ballot she approved brought its own problems.

By the time LePore's office warned voters about the confusing ballot at 3 p.m. on Election Day, it was too late, said Wexler.

Still, when his aides started panicking about the ballots later that day, Wexler told them not to worry.

"I remember saying, 'Relax. Think about this now. For any of this to be relevant, Florida has to be the deciding state. OK, that wasn't that big of a longshot. And the margin in Florida has to be less than 30,000. Six million people are casting their ballots in Florida today. Think about this. It's a one in a billion shot. Relax. This is a terrible thing that's happening but no way is it going to be relevant.'"

Wexler felt even more confident when the TV networks called Florida for Gore shortly before 8 p.m. But, as the evening wore on, he said, "it obviously became quite relevant."

"As much as people say that they were prepared for a recount vote, they were not," said Rep. Peter Deutsch (D-Fla.). In the first few days, he said, "No one really knew what was going on."

Deutsch spent Election Night in Nashville, Tenn., where the Gore campaign was headquartered. After the networks called the election for Bush shortly before 2:30 a.m., he assumed the race was over. But then Bush's margin of victory began to shrink.

The next morning, Deutsch flew to Baltimore-Washington Airport. But realizing that he should be in Florida instead, he took the next flight there. Deutsch returned to Washington a few days later for a long-planned getaway with his family to New Jersey. It didn't last long. On Saturday, he got a call saying that the recount process would begin Monday morning in Broward County. Democrats wanted his help. He left for Washington Saturday night and flew to Florida Sunday morning.

For the next few weeks, "I lived the Broward County recount," said Deutsch, who, like Wexler, believes that if an accurate standard had been used in his district, Al Gore would be president. He also defends the process against GOP criticism that it was a "sham."

He said manual recounts were necessary because they were more accurate. "People figured out that computers really can't read partially detached chads," said Deutsch. "The only way to ascertain the intention of the voter was actually by looking at it.

"People didn't have these theoretical, theological debates when they looked at the ballots," some of which had what came to known as dimpled, pregnant and hanging chads. Instead, there was a debate over what standard to use, with different counties using different standards.

Deutsch believes the U.S. Supreme Court's 5-4 decision in December will come to be viewed as negatively as the 1857 Dred Scott decision.

"It does not stand up to the test of intellectual honesty," he said. "They had decided how they were going to vote, and they were looking for a rationale, but the rationale for their decision does not work. No matter whether Florida had a standard or if Florida didn't have a standard, it was going to be found unconstitutional."

Rep. Corrine Brown (D-Fla.) has equally strong words about Election 2000, which she calls an "American coup d'etat."

She talked about overvotes; thousands of mostly Democratic ballots that were never counted; and confusing instructions on ballots. She also spoke about voters, often African-Americans, who had registered and showed up at the polls only to be told that for one reason or another they were ineligible to vote.

"I know who won and I know who lost and the American people lost in this election," said Brown.

The media were right on Election Night when they first predicted Gore's victory in Florida, she said. "They were reporting what people were telling them. They did not know the system had collapsed. There is no question in my mind that Al Gore won not only the country but in Florida."

And she said it's up to Congress to make sure that future elections don't end up in the Supreme Court "selecting" a president.

"Whatever else we're doing is secondary. This is the most important thing because the people in this country got shafted in this election."

At the minimum, Congress should pass a voters' bill of rights, partner with state and local governments to update equipment, and address issues like voter education and provisional ballots, she said.

"We have lost our credibility around the world and certainly in Florida - people feel it. If you talk to people in Florida, they expect us to do something. We haven't done a thing up here."

In addition to various kinds of chads, butterfly ballots and votes that went uncounted or were discarded, there were the overseas ballots that Democrats believe would have secured Gore's victory.

Deutsch said he wasn't surprised about the recent New York Times report showing that Republicans pressed to have their overseas ballots counted and to have Democratic ballots discarded. "Those of us who were there knew what was going on," he said.

"What the Times story made clear is they accepted a large number of ballots that literally were illegal under any standard," such as ballots postmarked from the United States, postmarked after the election or two ballots from the same person. "There's no rational basis to accept these."

But Deutsch was surprised to learn was that one of his colleagues, Rep. Steve Buyer (R-Ind.), who chaired the Armed Services Military Personnel Subcommittee, had asked the Pentagon for phone numbers and e-mails of servicemen and -women abroad. Deustch filed an ethics complaint against Buyer - which the ethics committee dismissed last week.

Democrats deny GOP charges that Gore-Lieberman didn't want military votes counted, and asked why exceptions should have been made for military personnel overseas who didn't follow proper voting procedures.

"Why is the vote of a serviceman or -woman now more important than a paratrooper who landed in Normandy 50 years ago?" said Wexler.

The three Democrats also believe that Gore should have demanded a statewide recount, not just a manual recount in four counties.

And they still believe Bush has not adequately addressed the "extraordinary circumstances" by which he became president.

"It is absolutely clear that it wasn't 500 or it wasn't 5,000. It was probably closer to 50,000 more people thought they were voting for Al Gore for president of the United States on Election Day in Florida than votes were counted," said Deutsch.

Still, he concedes that, "If God wanted Al Gore to win, he would have won." Wexler still hears from people outside of Florida about the butterfly ballot and how their relatives who meant to vote for Gore made a mistake that has left them confused and angry.

Asked whether Gore should try again in 2004, Wexler, Deutsch and Brown agree the decision is one only Gore can make. But Wexler said he would "highly encourage" Gore to run.

"Any candidate who wins the popular vote for president certainly has the moral right to say, 'Yeah, I'm a legitimate candidate to run again'," he said. 
...By Mary Lynn F. Jones  - .... LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG, 8/11/01  IVB

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