 |
|
|
Florida's Stolen Votes |
|
By Bob Fertik www.Democrats.Com
Unfortunately, almost none of these details have been provided to the American public by the mainstream American media. Instead, outraged Americans have been forced to rely on web sites like Democrats.com, The Nation, Salon, Online Journal, and the U.K. Guardian in order to learn these facts. On March 28, ABC's Nightline broke the media's deafening silence by examining some of the questions raised by black voters in Jacksonville, where 27,000 votes were declared void--the highest number of any Florida county. What happened in Duval County is important, but it is also just the tip of the iceberg. Here are some of the many crucial questions we believe the media needs to ask about the Florida election. We welcome your suggestions for other questions about the Florida election. The Republican Conspiracy Did the Bush campaign and the Republican Party of Florida plan and carry out illegal activities to steal the election?
In 1998, the Supreme Court of Florida (Beckstrom v. Volusia County Canvassing Board) declared that ALL ballots that were incapable of being read by machines were "defective" pursuant to Florida statute 101.5614 (canvass of returns). In the same case, the Court said that following the statutory procedures was MANDATORY for all election officials. Was this ever communicated to the county supervisors by the Division of Elections? If not, why not? If so, then why were no efforts made to enforce the court ruling in the Nov. 2000 election? Which top Republicans - including Todd Schnick, political director of the Florida Republicans - ordered Republican election supervisors in Seminole and Martin counties to allow Republican operatives to illegally alter absentee ballot applications? Why have no criminal charges been filed against any of these officials? Did Republican election officials deliberately ignore "motor voter" registration forms, especially those coming from black colleges, as charged by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights? Did Republican election officials deliberately fail to provide heavily Democratic precincts with adequate voting machines, adequately trained poll workers, and adequate backup systems to deal with heavy turnout from new voters, as charged by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights? Were polling places in Democratic precincts moved without notice or blocked by construction, as asserted by witnesses in the preliminary Civil Rights Commission Report? Why were there so many overvotes (ballots invalidated for double-punching) in the heavily Democratic counties of Duval, Palm Beach, Miami-Dade and others? Were these 80,000 spoiled ballots all the result of voter errors, or were ballots altered by Republican officials before or after they were handled by voters, as suggested by Sharman Braff? Did Republican election officials illegally send absentee ballots to overseas troops after Election Day, as suggested by Jake Tapper in Salon? How many invalid absentee military ballots were illegally counted by county election supervisors under pressure from Bush lawyers and a cynical public relations campaign to whip up anger among service members, their families, and veterans? Why did the Katherine Harris not fulfill her statutory duties to ensure that ALL votes are counted equally when some counties included votes that were manually counted after being rejected by machine, and other counties ignored such votes? Why was no effort made to ensure that counties complied with the law concerning the counting of "write in" votes, as revealed by Paul Lukasiak and Maia Cowan? At least 942 legal votes were never counted in nine heavily Republican counties according to the Orlando Sentinel, with Gore having a net gain of 194 votes from those counties alone. Did Katherine Harris commit a crime when she certified that a legally-mandated machine recount had occurred, when 20 counties did not perform such a recount? The U.S. Supreme Court Coup d'etat Was there no valid basis in law for the U.S. Supreme Court to grant an emergency injunction stopping the vote count, as charged by 673 law professors?
Was there extra-judicial contact between the Bush campaign and the Republican majority on the court? Media Co-conspiracy
Why did the media champion the position of the Bush campaign that "finality" was more important than counting every vote, as the Gore campaign wanted? Why have protests of the election been so carefully edited out? On Inauguration Day, protesters outnumbered Bush supporters in Washington DC alone--not counting all of the protests across the country--but received practically no coverage. The same is true every time Bush or Republican members of the Supreme Court make an appearance outside Washington. Why has the national media widely reported (and misreported) stories that support the story line that Bush won (such as the Miami recount) and NOT reported stories that support the notion that Gore won (like the Palm Beach and Lake County recounts)? Specifically, why has the national media failed to cover the fraudulent voter purge story exposed by Gregory Palast in The Nation, Salon, the U.K. Guardian, and the BBC? Why was the preliminary report of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission ignored? As the only serious investigation of civil and voting rights violations in the most controversial Presidential election in modern U.S. history, doesn't it deserve headline coverage? Why does the media continue to refer to material before the Civil Rights Commission as "anecdotal," when in fact it is sworn and cross-examined testimony? Political and Legal Coverup Why has there been no investigation of fraud in Florida by the U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, or Attorney General John Ashcroft? Did the Republican protestors (mostly Congressional staffers) who intimidated vote counters in Miami-Dade County break any laws, including rioting, trespassing, vandalism, interfering with voting rights, and obstruction of justice? If so, why have they not been prosecuted? Katherine Harris was a co-chair of George W. Bush's presidential campaign. Did her rulings and other actions that ensured George W. Bush would get Florida's electoral votes violate Florida statute 104.31, which prohibits a state official from using "his or her official authority or influence for the purpose of interfering with an election ... or affecting the result thereof"? |
The Time cover we'll never see 
Bush Brother Jeb and co-conspirator Katherine Harris 
State's rights advocates like Justice Scalia did an about-face when it came to stepping into Florida's election business and giving the White House to Mr. Bush 
© 1997-2002 BEI