By: Mary Mostert, Analyst, Original Sources (www.originalsources.com)
November 14, 2000
Yesterday Al Gore came out of the White House to announce: "It's very important that every vote is counted."
Really? Every vote HAS been counted. What we are arguing about at this point are people who apparently didn't vote properly, not people who were not ALLOWED to vote. In fact, I have before me the November 11th "results provided to the Division of Elections from the Supervisors of Elections in Florida. On November 11th, those numbers were "unofficial." The report states:
"These results are not official until all 67 counted have certified their results to the Division of Elections. In addition, overseas absentee ballots postmarked no later than November 7th and received within 10 days (November 17th) from the date of the election will also be counted and certified to the Division of Elections
Title IX on Electors and Elections in Florida law states:
102.112 Deadline for submission of county returns to the Department of State; penalties.--(1) The county canvassing board or a majority thereof shall file the county returns for the election of a federal or state officer with the Department of State immediately after certification of the election results. Returns must be filed by 5 p.m. on the 7th day following the first primary and general election and by 3 p.m. on the 3rd day following the second primary. If the returns are not received by the department by the time specified, such returns may be ignored and the results on file at that time may be certified by the department.
There is no provision in that law for the Secretary of State to change the deadline. There IS a provision that calls for the Department of State to:
"… fine each board member $200 for each day such returns are late, the fine to be paid only from the board member's personal funds. Such fines shall be deposited into the Election Campaign Financing Trust Fund, created by s. 106.32.(3) Members of the county canvassing board may appeal such fines to the Florida Elections Commission, which shall adopt rules for such appeals.
(Throughout the day yesterday one Democrat after another equated the continuation of the manual count in four predominately Democrat counties with Al Gore's statement that "It's very important that every vote is counted." Of course, the votes in Florida not only have been counted, but they have been counted twice. Not a single Democrat has suggested that the ballots in predominately Republican counties ALSO be given the same scrutiny the ballots in predominately Democrat counties.
We also heard, in effect, that it was Republican incompetence in not asking for hand-counting in Republican counties to ferret out those votes where voters had not punched the hole cleanly. Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher attacked the Secretary of State Katherine Harris and even Paula Zahn on Fox News repeated charges of Harris acting like a "Russian Commissar." Why? Because she has stated she will follow Florida State Law and the Gore camp is determined to ignore the law.
What we are seeing, as I have said before, is the 1960s tactics taught by Marxist activist Saul Alinsky. Name calling, i.e. "Russian Commissar," is supposed to stick in your mind and color your thinking about Katherine Harris. Of course, Florida law does provide for any candidate to protest the returns of the election. It does not, however, allow for endless mining of counted and recounted ballots in predominately Democrat precincts, while ignoring the Republican precincts, until enough votes are found or created through fraud until the Democrat has the most votes. The Law states:
Title IX - Electors and Elections - Chapter 102 - 102.166 - Protest of election returns; procedure(1) Any candidate for nomination or election, or any elector qualified to vote in the election related to such candidacy, shall have the right to protest the returns of the election as being erroneous by filing with the appropriate canvassing board a sworn, written protest.
(2) Such protest shall be filed with the canvassing board prior to the time the canvassing board certifies the results for the office being protested or within 5 days after midnight of the date the election is held, whichever occurs later.
(3) Before canvassing the returns of the election, the canvassing board shall:
(c) When electronic or electromechanical equipment is used, the canvassing board shall examine precinct records and election returns. If there is a clerical error, such error shall be corrected by the county canvassing board. If there is a discrepancy which could affect the outcome of an election, the canvassing board may recount the ballots on the automatic tabulating equipment.
(4)(a) Any candidate whose name appeared on the ballot, any political committee that supports or opposes an issue which appeared on the ballot, or any political party whose candidates' names appeared on the ballot may file a written request with the county canvassing board for a manual recount. The written request shall contain a statement of the reason the manual recount is being requested.
(b)Such request must be filed with the canvassing board prior to the time the canvassing board certifies the results for the office being protested or within 72 hours after midnight of the date the election was held, whichever occurs later.
We learn from reading the law that apparently the Bush camp could STILL challenge the vote in predominately Republican areas. Undoubtedly, that would bring in more Republican votes. However, it really won't be necessary if the Florida Department of State merely certifies the counts it has been sent by all 67 counties. There is only one county that states its machine Recount has not been completed - and that is Palm Beach. The report shows that Palm Beach's figures are those provided the state on November 8th. The other 66 counties have reported their recounted figures. This would leave Bush's lead at 961 votes, without the absentee ballots.
The law requires the following for a manual recount:
(c) The county canvassing board may authorize a manual recount. If a manual recount is authorized, the county canvassing board shall make a reasonable effort to notify each candidate whose race is being recounted of the time and place of such recount.(d) The manual recount must include at least three precincts and at least 1 percent of the total votes cast for such candidate or issue. In the event there are less than three precincts involved in the election, all precincts shall be counted. The person who requested the recount shall choose three precincts to be recounted, and, if other precincts are recounted, the county canvassing board shall select the additional precincts.
(5) If the manual recount indicates an error in the vote tabulation which could affect the outcome of the election, the county canvassing board shall:
(a) Correct the error and recount the remaining precincts with the vote tabulation system;
(b) Request the Department of State to verify the tabulation software; or
(c) Manually recount all ballots.
(6) Any manual recount shall be open to the public.
(7) Procedures for a manual recount are as follows:
(a) The county canvassing board shall appoint as many counting teams of at least two electors as is necessary to manually recount the ballots. A counting team must have, when possible, members of at least two political parties. A candidate involved in the race shall not be a member of the counting team.
(b) If a counting team is unable to determine a voter's intent in casting a ballot, the ballot shall be presented to the county canvassing board for it to determine the voter's intent.
(8) If the county canvassing board determines the need to verify the tabulation software, the county canvassing board shall request in writing that the Department of State verify the software.
(9) When the Department of State verifies such software, the department shall:
(a) Compare the software used to tabulate the votes with the software filed with the Department of State pursuant to s. 101.5607; and
(b) Check the election parameters.
(10) The Department of State shall respond to the county canvassing board within 3 working days.
The Democrats seem determined to stop the certification, as required by law, and are, in fact, attempting to trash the character and integrity of Katherine Harris, who plans to certify the election results today as the law clearly requires.
It seems that the Bush attorneys may have led the Gore attorneys into a trap. The Telegraph reported this conflict between the Gore camp legal team, led Harvard's constitutional lawyer Lawrence Tribe and the Bush attorneys as a battle "corporate America versus the liberal intelligentsia, and the intelligentsia won by defending the jurisdiction of the Florida Courts and the Florida Law."
Yet, in a matter of hours, the Gore attorneys were trying to trash Florida election law in order to force one of the counties into continuing the manual count. Today the same clever lawyers who were demanding that Florida law take precedent over Federal law are going to have to figure out how to trash Florida law in today's court hearings
To comment: mmostert@originalsources.com
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