Stupid White Men-- and Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation! - Michael Moore [8]
Gore knew this, and tried to make sure the ballots underwent maximum scrutiny before they could be counted. Sure, this ran contrary to the “let every vote be counted” plea he’d made when calling for recounts. But he also had Florida law, which is pretty clear about this, on his side. It states that overseas absentee ballots can only be counted if they were cast and signed on or before election day, and mailed and postmarked from another country by election day.
But while Jim Baker was chanting his mantra—“It is not fair to change the rules and standards governing the counting or recounting of votes after it appears that one side has concluded that is the only way to get the votes it needs”—he and his operatives were doing just that.
A July 2001 investigation by the New York Times showed that of the 2,490 overseas ballots that ended up being included in the certified election results, 680 were considered flawed and questionable. Bush got the overseas vote by a ratio, of 4 to 5. By that percentage, 544 of the votes that went to Bush should have been thrown out. Got the math? Suddenly Bush’s “winning margin” of 537 votes is down to a chilly negative 7.
So how did all these votes end up being counted for Bush? Within hours of the election, the Bush campaign had launched their attack. The first step was to make sure that as many ballots got in as possible. Republican operatives sent out frantic E-mails to navy ships asking them to dig up any ballots that might be hanging around. They even put in a call to Clinton Defense Secretary William S. Cohen (a Republican) to ask him to put pressure on the military outposts. He declined, but it didn’t matter: thousands of votes poured in—even some that were signed after election day.
Now all they had to do was make sure that as many of these votes as possible went to W And so the real thievery began.
According to the Times, Katherine Harris had planned to send out a memo to her canvassing boards clarifying the procedure for counting overseas ballots. Included in this memo was a reminder that state law required all ballots to have been “postmarked or signed and dated” by election day. When it was clear that George’s lead was rapidly shrinking, she decided not to send the memo. Instead she sent out a note that said ballots “are not required to be postmarked on or prior to” election day. Hmmm.
What caused her to change her mind—and the law? We may never know, since the computer records that showed what happened have been mysteriously erased—a possible violation of Florida’s Sunshine Laws. Now, long after the horse has left the barn, Harris has turned over her hard drives to the media for inspection—but only after her own computer consultant “looked them over.” This is a woman who is now planning to run for Congress. Can these people get any more shameless?
Armed with the blessing of the secretary of state, the Republicans launched an all-out campaign to make sure as broad a standard as possible was used in counting these absentee ballots. “Equal representation,” Florida style, meant that the rules governing acceptance or denial of your absentee ballot depended on what county you were from. Perhaps that would explain why in counties where Gore won, only 2 out of 10 absentee ballots with unclear postmarks were counted; in Bush counties, predictably, 6 out of 10 such ballots made it into the final tally.
When the Democrats complained that ballots that didn’t follow the rules shouldn’t be counted, the Republicans launched a fierce public relations campaign to make it look as if the Democrats were trying to screw the men and women who were risking their lives for our country. A Republican