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Katherine Harris' Computer Data
Permanently Erased

Florida's Democratic Party Chair Calls on Her to Resign

Oral Majority Demands the Secretary of State be Jailed

Compiled By GayToday

Katherine Harris: Not just playing Solitaire on her work computer

Tallahassee, Florida-It has been found that Katherine Harris, Florida's Secretary of State, intentionally misled Floridians about the illegal use of her office for the Bush campaign, according to Florida Democratic Party Chair Bob Poe, who called for her resignation on Wednesday.

Yesterday's New York Times also reported that an examination of Harris' office computers by a group of news organizations had shown that data had been permanently erased when computer hard drives were replaced in January.

"If there's any one place in state government that needs to be free and clear of any hint of partisan politics, it's the Division of Elections in the Secretary of State's office," the Florida Democratic chair said.

"Secretary Harris illegally used her office to benefit the Bush campaign and to call the race for George W. Bush long before she knew results of the Palm Beach County recount."

"Katherine Harris has violated the public trust with the Florida voters and proven she is not capable of being an impartial Secretary of State. It's time for her to end the charade and the nightmare of her tenure and simply resign."

Harris has spent the past few weeks hiding the conduct of her office, saying she created a firewall to prevent politics from taking place in her office.

"Katherine Harris either lied about that firewall or it never existed," charged the Democratic chair.

"There is too much at stake in the next election for Florida to rely on someone with her dismal track record."

Bob Kunst, a Florida gubernatorial candidate and chair of the Oral Majority, told GayToday he was not satisfied by the Democratic chair's obvious timidity confronting Harris.

"What about investigating Election 2000?" asked Kunst. "Does Poe really think that Florida's Democrats will forget what happened? She broke Florida law and she'll never resign! Katherine Harris should be arrested and jailed!

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"And Florida's Democratic leadership should take a leaf from Oregon's Democratic Party, which has properly called for the impeachment of the 'Gang of Five' on the U.S. Supreme Court because the GOP justices illegally appointed Bush president."

Problems and inconsistencies surround Katherine Harris's behavior:

Faced with evidence of illegally using her office for the Bush campaign's purposes, Harris spokesman lies and says the materials were sent to Harris' computer. (Former Harris spokesman Donald Tighe says he wrote the material on the computer.)

Deciding the outcome of the Palm Beach County recount hours in advance.

Admitting and later denying (after newspaper inquiries) that her office had deleted files from computer hard drives.

Harris's office deleted files by placing new operating systems on computers.

Broke Florida's public records law by withholding documents from journalists.

Floridians may never know what's missing from these hard drives because Katherine Harris allowed them to be reviewed by her handpicked "expert" out of the view of the public for three days.

Florida Democratic Party Not Doing Enough

Activist Bob Kunst is making a run for the Florida governor's chair

Criticizing both Katherine Harris and Florida's Democratic Party chair, Bob Poe,for doing nothing more than asking her to resign, the Oral Majority's chair said:

"What Poe has done is to outline a tip of the iceberg of this stolen election."

Kunst is also demanding a federal investigation of Florida's Election 2000 fraud.

Poe, however, continues to refuse to acknowledge that the veteran activist is a legitimate gubernatorial candidate, although Kunst has been registered as legitimate by Katherine Harris' office itself. Kunst has been the only Florida candidate to talk about the blatant theft of electoral votes by Bush operatives, including Harris.

"Poe and the UnDemocratic Party," he says, " have done everything possible to ignore and remain silent about this stolen election."

Both Kunst and members of his Oral Majority nationwide have conducted 153 protests since November 7, appearing in 30 cities and garnering mentions in over 650 media outlets. Oral Majority has flown its "Bush Stole the Election" banner planes over the Super Bowl, The Kentucky Derby, the Oscars, the Daytona 500, and the South Florida Air and Sea Show.

A news reports issued on Wednesday detailed Katherine Harris' apparent misdeeds, Bob Kunst simultaneously confronted former Attorney General Janet Reno at a political meeting in Daytona Beach. Reno has recently hinted that she too may enter Florida's gubernatorial race Current polls project her loss, however, to incumbent Governor Jeb Bush.

"Reno once had the power to investigate this stolen election and she failed us," Kunst argues publicly, " She shamelessly avoids even talking about the stealing of the election. She's a very boring speaker. She can't win. She inspires nobody. I saw total boredom on the faces of those who'd listened to her today. The Election 2000 theft is the only gut issue that really appeals to the Florida electorate. Janet's so terribly cautious with her words that she fails to be even remotely interesting."

Florida's Attorney General Bob Butterworth, Gore's campaign chair in the state, has thus far received 2,600 voter fraud complaints. Disenfranchised Election 2000 voters say he continues to ignore them.