From Bush-Cheney 2000. Normally I wouldn't post political party blurbs as they are always biased in one particular party's favor. However, the statements below do nothing more that expose the Dems outright lies and blurring b/s. They will help you in arguing with the Gorons (I hear 'em parrot this crap on C-SPAN call-ins all day).
TALKING POINTS TO SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT
MYTH: There are more than 10,000 votes in Miami-Dade that have never been counted.
BOIES: "[T]here are over 10,000 ballots that have never been counted once for the presidency of the United States." [Today Show, 11/27/00]
FACT:
~ Every ballot in Miami-Dade was counted at least twice - once on election night and again during the automatic recount.
~ In every election, there are a significant number of ballots that are cast by voters without choosing a candidate in every race on the ballot, including races for President.
~ For example, in this election, 5% of the voters in Idaho,
3.9% of the voters in Illinois and 3.6% of the voters in
Wyoming cast a ballot without registering a vote for President.
~ The 10,000 votes (actually 9,000 according to their filing) about which the Gore campaign has been complaining constitute only 1.6% of the ballots cast in Miami-Dade. These ballots were counted - twice; they merely registered no vote for President.
~ This reality reflects common sense: a voter may want to vote for a candidate for the Senate, House or other office, but be undecided about the choice for President. In particular, a voter who usually votes for candidates from one party may vote for local or statewide candidates, but be uncomfortable with his or her party's choice for President and yet unwilling to vote for the other party's candidate. So he or she might cast a ballot without marking a choice for President.
MYTH: If you counted all the votes that already have been
counted in some of the recount, Gore would actually be ahead by 9 votes.
FACT:
~ Democrats get to this number by adding unreported and unofficial votes from the late manual recount in Palm Beach and from the partial manual recount from Miami-Dade, and by subtracting the valid military overseas ballots and some of the certified votes from Nassau County.
~ The Florida Supreme Court set a deadline of 5 p.m. on Sunday for completing manual recounts, almost tripling the statutory time period for counting mandated by Florida's Legislature.
~ Palm Beach did not complete its manual recount by the Supreme Court's deadline.
~ Miami-Dade returned to its original decision of not proceeding with a manual recount.
~ The 157 "interim gain" for Gore in Miami-Dade came from a selective recount of the most Democrat precincts. Gore won these selected precincts by approximately 75% to 25%, while Gore won the entire county only by 53% to 46%. It would be unfair to use this interim change without counting Republican precincts, too. Precincts in Miami-Dade, including those with predominantly Hispanic and Cuban American voters, favored Bush. The Gore approach would treat these minorities in a discriminatory fashion.
~ Military overseas ballots that were valid under Florida and federal law should be counted. Counties recognized this and counted them. Even Joe Lieberman said that such military ballots should not be rejected.
MYTH: Miami-Dade would have conducted a manual recount if not for the Republican "mob" that "intimidated" the canvassing board.
KLAIN: "We think already almost 160 votes were counted in Dade County before the mob stopped the count... But I think that to say that a mob can storm a counting facility, stop a count, and then that's going to provide the end because a partisan of the Bush campaign, Ms. Harris, refuses to accept returns and cuts off the counting, I don't think that's the kind of end that we have to American elections." [Good Morning America, ABC, 11/27/00]
FACT:
~ The record shows that the crowd was reacting to the Board's decision to move the recount behind closed doors, where it could not be observed by the public or the media, and to limit the recount to only a select set of the votes.
~ No Board member mentioned the protests as a factor in the decision, and Judge Leahy of the Board has already stated clearly that he was not intimidated by the crowd.
~ The police made no arrests, received no assault complaints, and did not even instruct the crowd to desist. The crowd was quieted promptly.
MYTH: In Nassau County, the board violated Florida law by
adding votes from earlier tabulations that had been rejected by the board as illegal.
FACT:
~ On election night, all the votes were counted, but during the machine recount, 218 ballots were accidentally separated from the rest, and not counted. As a result, Bush received 124 fewer votes and Gore received 73 fewer votes than on election night.
~ After the recount, the Nassau County Board supervisor discovered her mistake, and tried to correct it. Because the Supreme Court of Florida had held the date open for final certification until Sunday at 5:00 p.m., the Division of Elections informed the supervisor that she could revise the count to make it accurate.
~ The Board (2 Democrats and 1 Republican) voted unanimously to certify the original election night count - which included the 218 ballots - rather than the machine recount total (which mistakenly omitted those ballots).
TALKING POINTS TO SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT
MYTH: There are more than 10,000 votes in Miami-Dade that have never been counted.
BOIES: "[T]here are over 10,000 ballots that have never been counted once for the presidency of the United States." [Today Show, 11/27/00]
FACT:
~ Every ballot in Miami-Dade was counted at least twice - once on election night and again during the automatic recount.
~ In every election, there are a significant number of ballots that are cast by voters without choosing a candidate in every race on the ballot, including races for President.
~ For example, in this election, 5% of the voters in Idaho,
3.9% of the voters in Illinois and 3.6% of the voters in
Wyoming cast a ballot without registering a vote for President.
~ The 10,000 votes (actually 9,000 according to their filing) about which the Gore campaign has been complaining constitute only 1.6% of the ballots cast in Miami-Dade. These ballots were counted - twice; they merely registered no vote for President.
~ This reality reflects common sense: a voter may want to vote for a candidate for the Senate, House or other office, but be undecided about the choice for President. In particular, a voter who usually votes for candidates from one party may vote for local or statewide candidates, but be uncomfortable with his or her party's choice for President and yet unwilling to vote for the other party's candidate. So he or she might cast a ballot without marking a choice for President.
MYTH: If you counted all the votes that already have been
counted in some of the recount, Gore would actually be ahead by 9 votes.
FACT:
~ Democrats get to this number by adding unreported and unofficial votes from the late manual recount in Palm Beach and from the partial manual recount from Miami-Dade, and by subtracting the valid military overseas ballots and some of the certified votes from Nassau County.
~ The Florida Supreme Court set a deadline of 5 p.m. on Sunday for completing manual recounts, almost tripling the statutory time period for counting mandated by Florida's Legislature.
~ Palm Beach did not complete its manual recount by the Supreme Court's deadline.
~ Miami-Dade returned to its original decision of not proceeding with a manual recount.
~ The 157 "interim gain" for Gore in Miami-Dade came from a selective recount of the most Democrat precincts. Gore won these selected precincts by approximately 75% to 25%, while Gore won the entire county only by 53% to 46%. It would be unfair to use this interim change without counting Republican precincts, too. Precincts in Miami-Dade, including those with predominantly Hispanic and Cuban American voters, favored Bush. The Gore approach would treat these minorities in a discriminatory fashion.
~ Military overseas ballots that were valid under Florida and federal law should be counted. Counties recognized this and counted them. Even Joe Lieberman said that such military ballots should not be rejected.
MYTH: Miami-Dade would have conducted a manual recount if not for the Republican "mob" that "intimidated" the canvassing board.
KLAIN: "We think already almost 160 votes were counted in Dade County before the mob stopped the count... But I think that to say that a mob can storm a counting facility, stop a count, and then that's going to provide the end because a partisan of the Bush campaign, Ms. Harris, refuses to accept returns and cuts off the counting, I don't think that's the kind of end that we have to American elections." [Good Morning America, ABC, 11/27/00]
FACT:
~ The record shows that the crowd was reacting to the Board's decision to move the recount behind closed doors, where it could not be observed by the public or the media, and to limit the recount to only a select set of the votes.
~ No Board member mentioned the protests as a factor in the decision, and Judge Leahy of the Board has already stated clearly that he was not intimidated by the crowd.
~ The police made no arrests, received no assault complaints, and did not even instruct the crowd to desist. The crowd was quieted promptly.
MYTH: In Nassau County, the board violated Florida law by
adding votes from earlier tabulations that had been rejected by the board as illegal.
FACT:
~ On election night, all the votes were counted, but during the machine recount, 218 ballots were accidentally separated from the rest, and not counted. As a result, Bush received 124 fewer votes and Gore received 73 fewer votes than on election night.
~ After the recount, the Nassau County Board supervisor discovered her mistake, and tried to correct it. Because the Supreme Court of Florida had held the date open for final certification until Sunday at 5:00 p.m., the Division of Elections informed the supervisor that she could revise the count to make it accurate.
~ The Board (2 Democrats and 1 Republican) voted unanimously to certify the original election night count - which included the 218 ballots - rather than the machine recount total (which mistakenly omitted those ballots).