1) Myth: Al Gore trails Bush by such a wide margin that a Bush victory is inevitable and Gore should concede.
Fact: A 557 vote margin out of 6 million votes cast in Florida is incredibly close! It is roughly equivalent to a 1-vote margin in a city with 30,000 people and 12,000 voters.
It is extremely rare for an election this close NOT to be contested for several weeks until a manual recount can take place, with observers from both sides taking part and inspecting ballots.
This kind of detailed recount has not yet taken place in Dade County after
protests organized by the Bush campaign succeeded in disrupting the recounts,
according to ABC News. Recount results in Palm Beach county were also rejected
by the State of Florida, after controversies regarding the counting method delayed
the start of the full recount. Including these already-counted ballots would
narrow the margin to 175 votes. Including the results of the machine recount
in Nassau county would narrow it further, to only 125 votes. Finally, there
are two legal
challenges pending that if successful would throw out thousands of fraudulent
absentee ballots, putting Gore ahead by 4,000 or more votes.
2) Myth: the number of "spoiled ballots" in Palm Beach County was
typical. In a press briefing televised live on all networks on 11/9/00, Karl
Rove of the Bush campaign compared the 14,872 invalidated ballots in the 1996
Presidential race to 19,120 ballots for President that were spoiled in the 2000
election.
Fact: he Bush campaign was comparing apples and oranges. There were actually 29,702 invalidated Presidential ballots this year in Palm Beach County, twice the number in 1996. The number 19,120 refers to ballots thrown out for voting for two Presidential candidates. The remaining 10,582 ballots had no choice recorded for President.
According to the Palm Beach County elections office (http://home1.gte.net/rad/13myths/www.pbcelections.org), voters this year were not confused at all by the rest of the ballot. For example, less than 1% of U.S. Senate votes were invalidated because of multiple punches, compared with over 4% in the Presidential contest.
3) Myth: The Palm beach ballot is definitely illegal due to the presence of
punch holes to the left of some of the candidates.
Fact: According to the Secretary of State's office, a section of Florida law may allow ballots used for voting machines to deviate from the rules governing paper ballots. This view has been contested by hundreds of Florida voters. The final decision on the legality of the ballot is likely to be made in court, and could affect the election.
It is possible that the ballot could be ruled illegal on other grounds, such as the Voting Accessibility for the Elderly and Handicapped Act or the Americans With Disabilities Act.
4) Myth: "The more often ballots are recounted, especially by hand, the
more likely it is that human errors, like lost ballots and other risks, will
be introduced. This frustrates the very reason why we have moved from hand counting
to machine counting." -- Former Sec. of State James Baker, speaking on
behalf of the Bush campaign at a press briefing
televised by all networks on 11/10/00.
Fact: In 1997, George W. Bush signed into law a bill endorsing the use of hand recounts in a closely contested elections in Texas. The bill, "HB 331", amended a law that mandates that representatives of all parties be present to prevent fraud.
Similar laws establishing rights and procedures for hand recounts also exist in Florida (see Title IX, Chapter 102). The Bush campaign did not complain when hand counting procedures were used to Bush's advantage in New Mexico. Nor has he objected to hand recounts from mostly Republican counties in Florida giving him at least 418 hand-recounted votes. In hundreds of close local and state elections across the U.S. every year, recount procedures such as this are followed.
Antiquated punch card systems are notoriously inaccurate. They were outlawed
in Massachusetts in 1997 by Secretary of State William Galvin after a Congressional
primary that was also "too close to call." When the
punched-out pieces of cardboard are not completely removed from the punch card,
they can obstruct the card reader and the votes will not be counted. A manual
recount of such cards can clearly reveal the voter's intentions.
5) Myth: Election officials are doing hand recounts only in liberal areas of Florida, where Gore stands to pick up the most votes. This is unfair.
Fact: Partial hand counting was used on 11/9 and 11/10 by Republicans officials
in Seminole County, where Bush led Gore, widening Bush's lead by 98 votes. Five
other conservative counties in Florida also employed hand counts in order to
produce the most accurate result. Only three of the more liberal counties had
sufficient time to manually recount ballots that could not be read by the machine.
Bush's lawyers argued before the Florida Supreme Court that denial of time for
recounting votes was justified in part on the basis that the law allowed for
Gore to "contest"
the election results AFTER certification. Now that certification has taken place,
the Bush campaign is making the exact opposite claim: that it is now too late
and inappropriate to contest the results.
The fairest solution, of course, would be a statewide recount. The Bush campaign has had every right to request one. It might appear that the campaign decided to forego a statewide recount for reasons of principle. Another possible reason is that voting equipment in Republican areas of the state is more up-to-date than the antiquated punch card systems used in many Democratic controlled areas, according to MSNBC (11/14/00). Since the rate of discarded ballots in these conservative areas is lower to begin with, the number of votes Bush could gain in a statewide recount is likely to be lower than for Gore.
Regarding the Gore campaign's choice of counties for a manual recount, these areas did have more voting irregularities on average than in the rest of the state, according to machine recount results.
6) Myth: "Palm Beach County is a Pat Buchanan stronghold and that's why
Pat Buchanan received 3407 votes there. According to the Florida Department
of State, 16,695 voters in Palm Beach County are registered to the Independent
Party, the Reform Party, or the American Reform Party, an increase of 110% since
the 1996 presidential election" -- Ari Fleischer of the Bush Campaign,
11/9/00. The 2,000+ votes received by the Reform party candidate for Congress
indicate that party's strength in Palm Beach County (James Baker on Meet the
Press, 11/12/00).
Fact: Of those 16,695 voters, only 337 (2 percent) are in the Reform Party according to Florida state records. Reform party candidate John McGuire is connected to a more centrist wing of the Reform Party, predating Buchanan's involvement. An analysis of his support indicates that it came largely from reform-minded Ralph Nader voters.
Regarding Buchanan's vote total, the Washington Post reported that his vote percentage in Palm Beach county was four times as high at the polls as in absentee voting. Even Buchanan himself admitted on 11/8/00 on the Today Show that many of his votes actually "belonged to Al Gore." So did his campaign manager, Bay Buchanan.
7) Myth: If Gore (or Bush) ends up winning the popular vote, he really should
win the election even if he loses Florida and other states.
Fact: This is not the way the U.S. Constitution is written. The Electoral College
decision, imperfect as it may be, is the only one that matters. It may be possible
to reform or eliminate the electoral college in the future, so that small states
would no longer receive extra electoral votes out of proportion to their population.
But until this change is
made by Constitutional amendment, the Electoral College is still the law of
the land.
8) Myth: The Cook County, Illinois ballot from the home district of Gore campaign
chair Bill Daley is just like the "butterfly" ballot used in Palm
Beach County (reported by Don Evans, 11/8/00)
Fact: According to the (Chicago) Daily Herald on 11/10/00, the ballots in Chicago which had "facing pages" were judicial retention questions which only had two punch holes, Yes and No.
9) Myth: If the Bush campaign wins the battle over recounts, George W. Bush
will definitely win the State of Florida.
Fact: Actually, the recount issue is only half the story. There is mounting evidence that the State of Florida and hundreds of local voting precincts restricted the ability of thousands of non-white voters to vote. Violations were so widespread that the Justice Department may investigate this case.
-Ballots ran out in certain precincts according to the LA Times on 11/10/00.
-Carpools of African-American voters were stopped by police, according to the Los Angeles Times (11/10/00). In some cases, officers demanded to see a "taxi license".
-Polls closed with people still in line in Tampa, according to the Associated Press.
-In Osceola County, ballots did not line up properly, possibly causing Gore voters to have their ballots cast for Harry Browne. Also, Hispanic voters were required to produce two forms of ID when only one is required. (source: Associated Press)
-Dozens, and possibly hundreds, of voters in Broward County were unable to vote because the Supervisor of Elections did not have enough staff to verify changes of address.
-Voters were mistakenly removed from voter rolls because their names were similar to those of ex-cons, according to Mother Jones magazine.
-According to Reuters news service (11/8/00), many voters received pencils rather than pens when they voted, in violation of state law.
-According to the Miami Herald, many Haitian-American voters were turned away from precincts where they were voting for the first time (11/10/00)
-According to Feed Magazine (www.feedmag.com), the mayoral candidate whose election in Miami was overturned due to voter fraud, Xavier Suarez, said he was involved in preparing absentee ballots for George W. Bush. (11/9/00)
-Dan Rather reported that in Volusia County, Socialist Workers Party candidate
James Harris won 9,888 votes possibly as the result of a computer error. He
only won 583 in the rest of the state (11/9/00).
County-level results for Florida are at cnn.com.
-Many African-American first-time voters who registered at motor vehicles offices or in campus voter registration drives did not appear on the voting rolls, according to a hearing conducted by the NAACP and televised on C-SPAN on 11/12/00.
10) Myth: "No evidence of vote fraud, either in the original vote or in
the recount, has been presented." -- James Baker, representing the Bush
campaign on 11/10/00, in a Florida briefing.
Fact: The election was held just last week, so of course many instances of fraud have not yet been substantiated. Even so, authorities have already uncovered clear evidence of voter fraud involving absentee ballots.
In Pensacola, Florida, Bush supporter Todd Vinson never received the absentee
ballot he requested. According to the Associated Press on 11/9/00, it was determined
after an investigation that this ballot was received by a third party, filled
out with a forged signature, and then sent in. Assistant State Attorney Russell
Edgar, when asked if other
absentee ballots might had been intercepted, said, "I agree there may well
be many more than just this one."
On 11/13/00 in The London Times and on 11/14/00 in the New York Times there
were reports of two different kinds of pro-Bush vote fraud schemes which are
currently under investigation by authorities.
Much media attention on the issue of voter fraud has been focused on Wisconsin
where cigarettes were offered to homeless people who were casting absentee ballots,
presumably for Gore. The Gore campaign claims the cigarettes were not used to
"buy" votes.
11) Myth: It is highly unusual for judges to intervene after an election. Since
the designer of a disputed ballot in Florida is a member of the party contesting
the election, a legal challenge is impossible.
Fact: A fundamental right of a democratic society is the right to vote, and to have one's vote correctly counted. The legal system exists to ensure that people's rights are not violated. Whether a violator is a Democrat or a Republican does not affect the right of victims to seek redress.
Elections are ultimately struggles for political power so it should not be surprising that disputes are often resolved in court. Of course judges can be biased. That is why they must explain their decisions and why bad arguments can be overturned on appeal.
In 1998, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that "substantial noncompliance"
with election laws and a "reasonable doubt" about whether results
"expressed the will of the voters" may allow a judge to "void
the contested election, even in the absence of fraud or intentional wrongdoing"
(Wall St. Journal, 10/10/00). However there is little legal
precedent for a revote in just one area of an election. It might be more likely
for a court to order a new election or to overturn the result.
Intervention has occurred in other states as well. In a Massachusetts Democratic primary in 1996 for the US House, the election was so close after recounts that a judge had to make the final decision after examining incompletely punched ballots, to determine the intention of the voter. The candidate who was initially behind, William Delahunt, went on to win the general election and now serves in Congress.
12) Myth: Richard Nixon's party in 1960 did the honorable thing in not contesting
the results of the election.
Fact: According to a column in the Los Angeles Times, 11/10/00, "on Nov. 11, three days after the election, Thurston B. Morton, a Kentucky senator and the Republican Party's national chairman, launched bids for recounts or investigations in not just Illinois and Texas but also Delaware, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania and South Carolina. A few days later, Robert H. Finch and Leonard W. Hall, two Nixon intimates, sent agents to conduct what they called "field checks" in eight of those 11 battlegrounds. In New Jersey, local Republicans obtained court orders for recounts; Texans brought suit in federal court. Illinois witnessed the most vigorous crusade. Nixon aide Peter Flanigan encouraged the creation of a Chicago-area Nixon Recount Committee. As late as Nov. 23, Republican National Committee general counsel H. Meade Alcorn Jr. was still predicting Nixon would take Illinois." Recounts continued into December, but did not succeed in overturning the result of the election.
13) Myth: "Tens of thousands of U.S. Military personnel around the world
were unable to cast ballots for the first time in US History because their Military
Absentee ballots 'got lost in the mail.' In past elections, the military voted
9:1 in favor of Republicans." -- Hal Turner Radio Show, 11/12/00.
Fact: It is true that some overseas military ballots may not have been delivered,
but no evidence has been presented to indicate that the situation is any different
from past elections. With respect to overseas military ballots arriving on time
but after election day, the total number in 1996 in Florida was actually only
about 1,500, based on 2,300
overseas absentee ballots overall, with roughly 60% of them coming from people
enlisted in the military.
Finally, Republican presidential candidates only received about 55% of military
absentee ballots in the 1992 and 1996 presidential elections. Gore is likely
to do better than Clinton, a draft evader who was running in 1996 against Dole,
a decorated military veteran.
In 2000 George W. Bush -- who avoided service in Vietnam and actually lost flying
privileges in the Texas Air National Guard -- is running against Al Gore, a
Vietnam veteran.
Gore campaign attorneys have questioned the last minute inclusion of absentee ballots which padded Bush's lead by 129 votes on 11/25 and 11/26/00. Many of these ballots, according to MSNBC (11/27), were counted without cameras present. Controversy over these ballots may have led some officials to abandon safeguards which normally prevent people from voting after the election.
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Myth 1: Time to Concede the Election
537 votes out of 6 million is 0.00895% of the vote.
1 vote out of 18 thousand is 0.00833% of the vote.
A margin of 0.500000% of the vote is the Florida recount threshold.
One
County Is Puzzling Over a Mystery Involving 218 Votes
Miami
Protesters Disrupt Ballot Count
Irregularities
in Seminole could cost GOP dearly
Myth 2: Number of Spoiled Ballots.
Article
giving counts for invalidated ballots in 2000:
Odd ballot prompts allegations of widespread mistaken voting
by MITCH LIPKA, Orlando Sun-Sentinel, 11/9/00.
See Also:
http://www.herald.com/thispage.htm?content/archive/news/yahoo/digdocs/058333
Myth 3: Ballot Definitely Illegal
Those
Florida Ballots Were Clearly Illegal
Some
Florida Ballots Illegal, Dems Say
Palm
Beach Ballot Illegal, Demo Lawyers Say
United Press International Story: Eye doctors say palm beach ballot
confused voters, 11/9/00, filed from Ft. Lauderdale at 4:11:44 PM EDT.
Access
to Voting for Disabled and Elderly Citizens
Myth 4: Hand Recounts Introduce Errors
Seminole
County delivers edge to Bush in recount
William Galvin, interviewed on CNN, 11/8/00.
Texas
State Law, HB 331 (also ¤ 212.005(d), Texas Election Code)
Hand
recounts used in New Mexico, overturn Gore lead
Bush
Signed Recount Rule in Texas
Myth 5: Selective Recounts are Unfair
Bush
Team Prepares 'Scorched-Earth Plan'
Volusia
Elections Votes for Manual Recount
Votes
may be missed in Broward County
Myth 6: Palm Beach a Pat Buchanan Stronghold
Numbers
Add Up to More Dispute
State
of Florida Party Registration
Buchanan
Says Disputed Florida Votes Are Gore's
Bay
Buchanan strongly denounced the Republican spin:
Precinct-level Correlations Between Reform Party Candidate for Congress
John McGuire and all presidential candidates, analysis by
rad [at] gte [dot] net based on Palm Beach County
data.
Myth 7: Candidate Should Win Without Electoral Majority
See the US Constitution.
Myth 8: Butterfly Ballots in Chicago Too
Cook
ballot designer says his ballots are not like Florida's
Myth 9: Florida Respects Voting Rights
Jesse
Jackson Questions Florida Voting
On Pencils Vs. Pens
NAACP
Alleges Voter Suppression in Florida, Reuters, Wednesday November 8
Broward County
Problems
at Polls Prevent Hundreds from Casting Votes (Miami Herald)
Ballots
Ran Out According to St. Petersburg Times
Voting
Scrutinized All Over Florida
Florida
Ballot Quirks Scrutinized
Florida
Cops Accused of Harassing Black Voters
Election
Day Allegations Could Form Basis for Legal Challenges, Experts Say
Many
Mistakenly Removed from Voter Rolls
Xavier
Suarez Involvement in Absentee Drive
Florida
Recount Continues As Lawsuit Threats Rise
NAACP
Says Fraudulent Calls Surface in Florida (before election)
NAACP
Alleges Voter Suppression in Florida
Voting Irregularities, Chaos Reported in Florida
http://cnews.tribune.com/news/story/0,1162,oso-nation-82375,00.html
http://cnews.tribune.com/news/story/0,1162,sunsentinel-elections2000-82375,00.html
Voters
Statewide Say They Had Poll Troubles
Widespread
Voting Irregularities Marred Presidential Results in S. Florida
After
Bizarre Vote, Experts Question Whether Election Process Is Fair
Dade's
Ballot System Delays Tally
New
York Times, "African Americans Demand Revote"
Registered
Voters' Names Failed to Appear on Voting Rolls
Myth 10: No Vote Fraud in Florida
Transcript: James
A. Baker III on Fla. Recount, Nov. 10, 2000
Associated Press story was available as of 11/9 at:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/vote2000/pensacola.htm
Wall St. Journal Article
http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB973813954697912953.htm
NAACP hears testimony of Florida voting irregularities
Breed, Allen G, Associated Press Wire, 11/11/00.
(Hearings Televised on CSPAN, 11/12/00)
Pensacola
Ballot Prompts Fraud Investigation
Cigarettes
Distributed for Gore Vote
GOP
Played Role in Absentee Vote
Myth 11: Judges Stay Out of Elections
PHIL KUNTZ and DAVID S. CLOUD, "Neverending Election Draws Questions
About Electoral Process, Constitution," WALL STREET JOURNAL, 10/11/00
http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB97386780919735330.htm
Yale
Law Students CAMPAIGN FOR A LEGAL ELECTION
Myth 12: Nixon Didn't Fight in 1960
It's
a Myth That Nixon Acquiesced in 1960
The
Fallacy of Nixon's Graceful Exit
Was
Nixon Robbed? (October 16 article)
Senate History Interview (1987): The
"Good Old Days" Were Not
Illinois Republicans Lose, New York Times, Dec. 13, 1960, p. 23.
Texas Recount Denied, New York Times, Dec. 13, 1960, p. 23.
Myth 13: Republican Absentee Advantage
Texas
Air National Guard
See also:
London Sunday Times, June 18, 2000, "Bush flies into an air force cocaine
cloud," online at http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/
Reported at Hal Turner Show web site, 11-12-00. Audio file available at:
http://www.halturnershow.com/11-13.ram
Emotional Appeals and Legal Pressure Gain More Than 100 Absentee Votes for Bush
CREDITS:
[This flyer was prepared with lots of help from Paul Rosenberg and Jules Siegel.
This is version "6". Thanks also to Dan Kohn, Mark Sobel, Marti Bombyk,
Mark Graffis, B.K. Delong, subscribers to the Red Rock Eater News
Service and the electronic mail discussion florida-recount-discuss [at] egroups [dot] com,
and the Yale Law School Student
Campaign for a Legal Election, 127 Wall Street New Haven, CT 06511, (203) 432-4888
-- spin [at] pantheon [dot] yale [dot] edu]
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