By: Mary Mostert, Analyst, Original Sources (www.originalsources.com)
November 22, 2000
Well, the all Democrat Florida Supreme Court has ruled that its OK for the State to continue to search for, or create, new "votes" for Al Gore until Sunday. And, the Democrats have also concluded that in order to give Gore the best hope for beating George W. Bush they will ignore the Democrat Attorney General of Florida and continue to not count military ballots which arrived from overseas before the deadline of November 14th.
Apparently, only votes in heavily Democrat areas will be counted between now and Sunday.
I have word that one area where this has caused an uproar is in the halls of Veterans Hospitals. This has REALLY angered men who have sacrificed limbs and health and a normal life after having been badly wounded in action in defense of Freedom to find that their brothers in arms in Bosnia and Kosovo and on warships at sea are being denied their right to vote while, in violation of clear rules at the voting machines, others, under highly questionable circumstances, are having their "intent to vote" count as a valid vote.
The decision to not count military ballots from overseas service personnel was made by Gore campaign attorney Mark Herron who circulated a five-page memo encouraging volunteers to look for errors in the military ballots that would disqualify them.
The memo provided a sample protest form for overseas ballots that listed 11 reasons for rejections, including late postmarks, domestic postmarks "(including Puerto Rico, Guam, etc.)," or no postmarks.
Not surprisingly, in the midst of sanctimonious statements made by Gore and his lawyers that the only real "goal" was to make sure "every vote was counted" the wide publication of that memo on the Internet was a bit of an embarrassment over the week-end. Several Gore supporters, including running mate Joe Lieberman count and Florida Attorney General and Gore campaigner Butterworth, said that the military vote should count.
"Let me just say that Vice President Gore and I would never authorize, and not tolerate, a strategy that was aimed at disqualifying military ballots," Lieberman told FOX News. Bob Butterworth, who is also Gore's Florida campaign chairman, agreed.
"No man or woman in military service to this nation should have his or her vote r ejected solely due to the absences of a postmark, particularly when military officials have publicly stated that the postmarking of military mail is not always possible under sea or field conditions."
This statement appears to have been totally for media spin. The Bush campaign called it an "empty gesture because he merely suggested that local election officials reconsider their decision and did not order them to do so.
"This is a belated attempt at damage control by Al Gore's supporters who have already inflicted damage on America's military men and women," said Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer.
"After successfully knocking out as many military votes as they could find, the Democrats don't like the criticism they are receiving, so they've issued a political press release that has no legal impact," Fleischer added. "They accomplished their mission, and now they're running for cover."
Rep. John Sweeney, R-NY, said Tuesday:
"We have government officials trying to divine intent on ballots of voters from Florida who may or may not have intended to vote for one candidate or the other. At the same time, we have the Gore campaign actively, directly attempting to take away from, to disenfranchise the very men and women who are defending freedom.
"I propose to you that it would be very difficult to serve as a commander-in-chief when you try to disenfranchise those very defenders of freedom," Sweeney added. "It's a sad day for America."
Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb, totally ignoring the uproar this situation is causing in military bases and veterans hospitals, criticized Sweeney's and other similar comments as "an attempt to stir up resentment in the ranks for Gore to make it more difficult for him to command troops if he becomes president.
"They will make it difficult, if it is the vice president who emerges the winner in Florida," added Kerrey, "for him, as the 43rd president of the United States, to do his job."
WHO is making it difficult for Gore to command troops if Gore becomes president? It isn't Sweeney. Military men and women are not robots. They are real people. They sure don't need anyone telling them how they should feel when a GORE campaign lawyer tells those counting votes how to eliminate their ballots. Herron is certainly being paid by the Gore campaign and he certainly knows that there are no US post offices in many places where the Clinton-Gore administration has the US military stationed. He also knows that of the 3,733 overseas votes sent to Florida, only 2,206 were included in the final count and that local elections officials rejected 1,527 because they were not postmarked by Election Day. The majority of those 1,527 votes are believed to be from military personnel abroad.
George W. Bush won the overseas ballots by 1,380-750, winning about 300 votes per thousand more than Al Gore. It is obvious that those overseas military ballots are probably the margin of victory for George W. Bush. Based on the count announced so far he might possibly still win in Florida in spite of the voter fraud being committed before our very eyes on nationwide TV as Democrats squint at tiny holes in punched ballots that were designed to be counted by machine, not by hand.
However, it would probably be extremely close, or Gore would win, if the Democrats are permitted to eliminated the military ballots and hand count only the Democrat precincts without allowing the same level of inaccurate and subjective vote-counting in Republican areas of Florida.
Of course, the Florida Supreme Court is not the final arbiter of the validity of the Electoral college. The Congress is, as outlined in the Amendment XII of the U.S. Constitution which reads:
[Article. XII.] - [Proposed 1803; Ratified 1804]The Electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate;
-The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted;
-The person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President.-The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.
If Florida fails to choose electors, or as happened once before, Florida chooses two sets of electors, the decision will go to the Congress. If, as that situation would demand, a majority of the STATES should choose the next president, it obviously will be George W. Bush since an overwhelming majority of the States chose electors for Bush.
If, as it appears, Gore manages to get electors friendly to him to be appointed by hook or by crook in Florida, and he becomes president under such circumstances as depriving the military of their voting rights, it is not very likely he will be able to get many of his new entitlement programs passed in a hostile, Republican Congress in a nation of angry voters.
To comment: mmostert@originalsources.com
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