People who hate Bush hate him because...

[Mr. P]

I hate Bush because he made torture government policy.

That policy must be written then, lets see it.

[Baron Von Esslingen]

It's written in the court documents of the people convicted of torture at Abu Ghraib.

It's written in Alberto Gonzales' AG opinion that the Geneva Conventions do not cover these sorts of detainees and how those accords are "Quaint."

It's written in the CIA handbook that gives them the authority to conduct interrogations and run secret prisons.

And here's your link.

[Mr. P]

It's written in the court documents of the people convicted of torture at Abu Ghraib.

It's written in Alberto Gonzales' AG opinion that the Geneva Conventions do not cover these sorts of detainees and how those accords are "Quaint."

It's written in the CIA handbook that gives them the authority to conduct interrogations and run secret prisons.

And here's your link.

Yeah I like the first sentence where it says "suggest that the president".

What's his name claims it's policy..I guess you agree. Go fish it ain't policy.

[loosecannon]

That is a bunch of bull crap and you know it. The Supreme Court stopped the Third recount. Its documented fact. The First and second recounts were done well before the day Katherine Harris was required to certify. It was after the first THREE counts came out for Bush that Al Gore proposed his very liberal hand recount of Democrat counties where he would use completely unorthodox methods of counting. And he even lost that one!

http://www.rinr.fsu.edu/winter2005/f...ttlefield.html

Al Gore really did beat George W. Bush in 2000. Six years on, this is still a problem?

One of the most interesting points you make in the book is that the focus on undervotes (ballots containing no vote for president)—the hanging, dimpled and otherwise pregnant chads—was misplaced. Instead, you explain that a study by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, which looked at all the ballots that were initially rejected on election night 2000, revealed a surprise: most of these uncounted votes were in fact discarded because they were over-votes, instances of two votes for president on one ballot. What do you think the NORC study tells us about the election?

LdHS: It’s an embarrassing outcome for George Bush because it showed that Gore had gotten more votes. Everybody had thought that the chads were where all the bad ballots were, but it turned out that the ones that were the most decisive were write-in ballots where people would check Gore and write Gore in, and the machine kicked those out. There were 175,000 votes overall that were so-called “spoiled ballots.” About two-thirds of the spoiled ballots were over-votes; many or most of them would have been write-in over-votes, where people had punched and written in a candidate’s name. And nobody looked at this, not even the Florida Supreme Court in the last decision it made requiring a statewide recount. Nobody had thought about it except Judge Terry Lewis, who was overseeing the statewide recount when it was halted by the U.S. Supreme Court. The write-in over-votes have really not gotten much attention. Those votes are not ambiguous. When you see Gore picked and then Gore written in, there’s not a question in your mind who this person was voting for. When you go through those, they’re unambiguous: Bush got some of those votes, but they were overwhelmingly for Gore. For example, in an analysis of the 2.7 million votes that had been cast in Florida’s eight largest counties, The Washington Post found that Gore’s name was punched on 46,000 of the over-vote ballots it, while Bush’s name was marked on only 17,000.

One of the things I found that hadn’t been reported anywhere is, if you look at where those votes occurred, they were in predominantly black precincts. And (when you look at) the history of black voting in Florida, these are people that have been disenfranchised, intimidated. In the history of the early 20th century, black votes would be thrown out on technicalities, like they would use an X instead of a check mark.

So you can understand why African Americans would be so careful, checking off Gore’s name on the list of candidates and also writing Gore’s name in the space for write-in votes. But because of the way the vote-counting machines work, this had the opposite effect: the machines threw out their ballots.

you repeat that Florida’s election law—especially the rule that no vote “shall be declared invalid or void if there is a clear indication of the intent of the vote”—is in fact much more straightforward than was made out during the controversy. So then, who do you fault the most for making it all seem so murky?

LdHS: I would say [then-Secretary of State] Katherine Harris in terms of murky—in terms of what the law intended and what it meant. There was a contradiction in the law. What it said was you have to get the recount done within a very short time, and it just wasn’t possible. But that’s not uncommon. You just have to interpret it with common sense.

Part of what was going on was the stakes were really high; the people involved were very inexperienced; Harris didn’t know [Attorney General Bob] Butterworth; they were not cordial. But if it had been a group of leaders who had been around for a while, they would have sat down and easily said, “Well, here’s a way to resolve this problem.” But that wasn’t the aim of the people involved. The aim was from the beginning to stop the recount.

[manu1959]

if you are winning but quit do you still win?

[avatar4321]

It's written in the court documents of the people convicted of torture at Abu Ghraib.

It's written in Alberto Gonzales' AG opinion that the Geneva Conventions do not cover these sorts of detainees and how those accords are "Quaint."

It's written in the CIA handbook that gives them the authority to conduct interrogations and run secret prisons.

And here's your link.

Your assertions are completely ludicrous. If the administrations policy included torture why did people get convicted of torture at Abu Ghraib? And more to the point, why does anything those people did qualify as torture?

so interrogating prisoners is torture now? Not announcing where they are placed is torture now?

And Gonzales is right, the Geneva conventions dont cover these detainees. That suddenly means the President is engaged in a policy of torture?

Not a single point you just made in anyway supports your conclusion of a policy of torture. Quite the opposite.

[avatar4321]

http://www.rinr.fsu.edu/winter2005/f...ttlefield.html

Al Gore really did beat George W. Bush in 2000. Six years on, this is still a problem?

One of the most interesting points you make in the book is that the focus on undervotes (ballots containing no vote for president)—the hanging, dimpled and otherwise pregnant chads—was misplaced. Instead, you explain that a study by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, which looked at all the ballots that were initially rejected on election night 2000, revealed a surprise: most of these uncounted votes were in fact discarded because they were over-votes, instances of two votes for president on one ballot. What do you think the NORC study tells us about the election?

LdHS: It’s an embarrassing outcome for George Bush because it showed that Gore had gotten more votes. Everybody had thought that the chads were where all the bad ballots were, but it turned out that the ones that were the most decisive were write-in ballots where people would check Gore and write Gore in, and the machine kicked those out. There were 175,000 votes overall that were so-called “spoiled ballots.” About two-thirds of the spoiled ballots were over-votes; many or most of them would have been write-in over-votes, where people had punched and written in a candidate’s name. And nobody looked at this, not even the Florida Supreme Court in the last decision it made requiring a statewide recount. Nobody had thought about it except Judge Terry Lewis, who was overseeing the statewide recount when it was halted by the U.S. Supreme Court. The write-in over-votes have really not gotten much attention. Those votes are not ambiguous. When you see Gore picked and then Gore written in, there’s not a question in your mind who this person was voting for. When you go through those, they’re unambiguous: Bush got some of those votes, but they were overwhelmingly for Gore. For example, in an analysis of the 2.7 million votes that had been cast in Florida’s eight largest counties, The Washington Post found that Gore’s name was punched on 46,000 of the over-vote ballots it, while Bush’s name was marked on only 17,000.

One of the things I found that hadn’t been reported anywhere is, if you look at where those votes occurred, they were in predominantly black precincts. And (when you look at) the history of black voting in Florida, these are people that have been disenfranchised, intimidated. In the history of the early 20th century, black votes would be thrown out on technicalities, like they would use an X instead of a check mark.

So you can understand why African Americans would be so careful, checking off Gore’s name on the list of candidates and also writing Gore’s name in the space for write-in votes. But because of the way the vote-counting machines work, this had the opposite effect: the machines threw out their ballots.

you repeat that Florida’s election law—especially the rule that no vote “shall be declared invalid or void if there is a clear indication of the intent of the vote”—is in fact much more straightforward than was made out during the controversy. So then, who do you fault the most for making it all seem so murky?

LdHS: I would say [then-Secretary of State] Katherine Harris in terms of murky—in terms of what the law intended and what it meant. There was a contradiction in the law. What it said was you have to get the recount done within a very short time, and it just wasn’t possible. But that’s not uncommon. You just have to interpret it with common sense.

Part of what was going on was the stakes were really high; the people involved were very inexperienced; Harris didn’t know [Attorney General Bob] Butterworth; they were not cordial. But if it had been a group of leaders who had been around for a while, they would have sat down and easily said, “Well, here’s a way to resolve this problem.” But that wasn’t the aim of the people involved. The aim was from the beginning to stop the recount.

And you seem to think this source is at credible why? Because it supports your absurd conclusions?

Hello?! We all lived through the 2000 election. We watched the news. Bush won the first three counts of the votes. The fourth one was stopped. Al Gore did not win a single count. Not even the ones the media did using his liberal counting standards after the fact.

Katherine Harris had a legal responsibility to certify the result of the first three counts by date required by the law. Apparently counting the vote 3 times wasnt enough because Al Gore didn't win, so he sued to recount again and to throw out the military vote.

You can pretend otherwise, but we all lived through it and you honestly think you can post cites with absolutely no credibility and which makes no real attempt to back up their statements and can change history?

[OCA]

I hate Bush because he made torture government policy.

ROTFLMFAO!

[OCA]

It's written in the court documents of the people convicted of torture at Abu Ghraib.

It's written in Alberto Gonzales' AG opinion that the Geneva Conventions do not cover these sorts of detainees and how those accords are "Quaint."

It's written in the CIA handbook that gives them the authority to conduct interrogations and run secret prisons.

And here's your link.

The people at Abu Ghraib did a hell of a job, God bless them.

If you were imprisoned at Abu Ghraib you were an insurgent or had insurgent ties, plain and simple, at least we didn't cut heads off.

To libs terrorists and insurgents deserve more leeway than American soldiers.

[Abbey Marie]

The fact that President Bush beat Gore after three counts is the real inconvenient truth.

[MtnBiker]

[OCA]

You will notice that in this study the only way Gore could have won was by counting disqualified ballots, is it our fault y'all can't punch a chad or that Blacks punched a chad and also wrote in the name of the person in the write-in section? Dems run all of these precincts yet blame everyone else for their fuck up. All official recounts using legitimate ballots were won by George W Bush, suck on that libs!

The Florida election recount of 2000 was a period of vote re-counting that occurred following the unclear results of the 2000 US presidential election, specifically the Florida results.

The National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, sponsored by a consortium of major U.S. news organizations, conducted a Florida Ballot Project comprehensive review of all ballots uncounted (by machine) in the Florida 2000 presidential election, both undervotes and overvotes, with the main research aim being to report how different ballot layouts correlate with voter mistakes.

The media companies involved were:

Associated Press
The New York Times
The Wall Street Journal
CNN
St. Petersburg Times
The Palm Beach Post
The Washington Post
Tribune Company
Los Angeles Times
Chicago Tribune
Orlando Sentinel
The Baltimore Sun
Although the NORC study was not primarily intended as a determination of which candidate "really won", analysis of the results, given the hand counting of machine-uncountable ballots due to various types of voter error, indicated that they would lead to differing results, reported in the newspapers which funded the recount, such as The Miami Herald (The Miami Herald Report: Democracy Held Hostage) or the Washington Post [1].

The findings were reported by the media during the week after November 12, 2001.

All of the various county-by-county recounts had been requested by Gore or Bush. Neither Candidate had formally requested a total statewide recount.

The recount also showed that the only way that Al Gore could have tallied more votes was by using counting methods that were never requested, but that may have been applied if the USSC-mandated standards had been implemented, and which included "overvotes" — spoiled ballots containing more than one vote for an office. This means that, based on the recount, it appears highly likely that more people voted for Al Gore than for George Bush in Florida. While some of these ballots recorded votes for two separate candidates, a significant number (20% in Lake County, for example) were cases of a voter voting for a candidate and then also writing in that same candidate's name on the write-in line. A judge supervising the recount told the Orlando Sentinel that he had been open to the idea of examining the overvotes, and had been planning to discuss the matter at a hearing when the US Supreme Court stopped the recount. [2]

Candidate Outcomes Based on Potential Recounts in Florida Presidential Election 2000
(outcome of one particular study)
Review Method Winner
Review of All Ballots Statewide (never undertaken)
• Standard as set by each county Canvassing Board during their survey Gore by 171
• Fully punched chads and limited marks on optical ballots Gore by 115
• Any dimples or optical mark Gore by 107
• One corner of chad detached or optical mark Gore by 60
Review of Limited Sets of Ballots (initiated but not completed)
• Gore request for recounts of all ballots in Broward, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, and Volusia counties Bush by 225
• Florida Supreme Court of all undervotes statewide Bush by 430
• Florida Supreme Court as being implemented by the counties, some of whom refused and some counted overvotes as well as undervotes Bush by 493
Unofficial recount totals
• Incomplete result when the Supreme Court stayed the recount (December 9, 2000) Bush by 154
Certified Result (official final count)
• Recounts included from Volusia and Broward only Bush by 537


According to the NY Times, the Palm Beach County Butterfly ballot cost Gore a net 6286 votes, and the Duval County 2 page ballot cost him a net 1999 votes, each of which would have made the difference by itself [3].

[OCA]

You will notice that Al Gore initiated the chaos that was Florida 2000


The postelection events day by day

SUNDAY, NOV. 12


2 a.m. Chaos. A sample recount turns up 19 more votes for Gore. The Palm Beach County Canvassing Board votes 2 to 1 for a full recount of all 460,000 ballots. A manual recount of all ballots, says County Commissioner Carol Roberts, “clearly would affect the results of the national election.”

10:06 a.m. Volusia County officials begin a manual recount of all 184,018 ballots. County lawyers move quickly to fight a 5 p.m. Tuesday deadline.

MONDAY, NOV. 13


9 a.m. Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris orders all counties to finish their recounts by the 5 p.m. Tuesday deadline.

10 a.m. Volusia County sues to extend certification deadline. Lawyers for Palm Beach County, Gore campaign join suit. Bush lawyers join Florida to block extension.

1 p.m. U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks in Miami rejects Bush’s attempt to stop manual recounts in Florida.

2-3 p.m. Harris issues legal opinion on Palm Beach recount conflicting with one Tuesday by Attorney General Butterworth.

4 p.m. Gore appears on television, says it’s important to “spend the days necessary” to determine the winner.

7-8 p.m. A hand recount of 4,000 ballots in Broward County finds no big problems. County rejects full recount. Dem ocrats vow to appeal.

TUESDAY, NOV. 14


8:15 a.m. Palm Beach County votes 2 to 1 to suspend its hand recount of all ballots after conflicting legal opinions.

11 a.m. James Baker proposes that Democrats drop their lawsuits and accept the state tally as of 5 p.m., including any hand counts in by then, and await the overseas absentee ballots. Warren Christopher declines: “That’s like offering you the sleeves from your vest.”

11:30 a.m. Miami election officials decide to hand count a sample of precincts, later deciding against a full recount.

1 p.m. In Tallahassee, Judge Terry Lewis says the 5 p.m. deadline for certifying vote totals should stand but says counties can file supplemental or corrected totals later. Harris can ignore these, Lewis orders, only if she uses “proper exercise of discretion.” Officials in Volusia Countyjoined later by Broward and Palm Beach counties move to appeal Lewis’s ruling.

3:30 p.m. Broward Circuit Judge John Miller allows the county to go ahead with a manual recount of all ballots cast throughout the county.

4:30 p.m. Palm Beach decides to submit its machine-counted results to the state and to proceed with a manual recount of all ballots Wednesday.

5 p.m. The deadline arrives for counties to certify and report their election returns to the secretary of state’s office.

7:37 p.m. Harris issues vote totals as of 5 p.m. Bush holds a 300-vote margin, which is considerably less than the 1,784-vote margin he had immediately after the election. Harris says she will comply with Judge Lewis’s order to consider late returns. She gives two heavily Democratic counties until 2 p.m. Wednesday to explain, in writing, why they want to add hand recounts after the 5 p.m. deadline.

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 15


8 a.m. Harris asks the Florida Supreme Court to make counties stop hand-counting ballots “pending resolution as to whether any basis exists to modify the certified results” after Tuesday’s deadline. She seeks consolidation of all election lawsuits in Tallahassee.

10-11 a.m. The Florida Supreme Court accepts a request from Palm Beach County to rule on whether it can continue to hand count ballots despite conflicting legal opinions.

11:30 a.m. Palm Beach Circuit Judge Jorge Labarga rules that county election officials can’t discard ballots with “dimpled chads,” ballots indented but not perforated. Democrats had challenged policy of discarding such ballots.

2 p.m. Harris receives letters from the three counties still hand-counting ballots, explaining reasons for delay. In Atlanta, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals agrees to hear Bush appeal of a suit to halt manual recounts.

3:40 p.m. Broward County officials begin counting nearly 600,000 ballots by hand.

5 p.m. The Florida Supreme Court denies Harris’s petition to stop hand counts and orders further testimony from Palm Beach lawyers Thursday morning.

6:36 p.m. Gore proposes completion of hand counts in Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties and asks that those results and the overseas absentees be added to the election tally. If that is done, he vows, he will not challenge the results in court. He also suggests a manual recount of all 67 Florida counties and proposes that he and Bush meet.

9:14 p.m. Harris says she has reviewed letters from the hand-counting counties and found their reasons for delay insufficient. She will not include their manual tallies in her final election results.

10:25 p.m. Bush rejects Gore’s offer. “The outcome of this election,” he says, “will not be the result of deals or efforts to mold public opinion.”

THURSDAY, NOV. 16


Early morning. Bush lawyers file papers with the federal appeals court in Atlanta, arguing that hand recounts are unconstitutional.

12:45 p.m. Gore lawyers ask Judge Lewis to require Harris to include ballots being hand-counted after the Tuesday deadline. Harris acted arbitrarily, the lawyers argue, when she refused to include them. Gore lawyer Dexter Douglass: “She says, ‘You can only have a hand count in case of mechanical failure or hurricane.’ And the attorney general said that’s a bunch of bunk.”

3 p.m. The Florida Supreme Court rules unanimously: Counties still conducting manual recounts of ballots may continue. The one-paragraph order does not say if those votes can be added to Florida’s final tally. Palm Beach County resumes hand counting ballots. Broward elections officials follow suit.

FRIDAY, NOV. 17


8 a.m. Amid disputes, hand counting resumes in Palm Beach and Broward counties.

9:30 a.m. In the case of the fateful Palm Beach “butterfly” ballot, Judge Labarga agonizes over whether if he determines it is illegal, he could actually call for a revote. He says he’ll rule Monday.

10:04 a.m. Leon County Judge Lewis rules that Florida law gives Harris “broad discretionary authority to accept or reject late-filed returns.” Harris then issues a statement hinting she is poised to certify the election when the absentee ballots are in by noon Saturday.

11:04 a.m. Baker issues a terse statement, saying he has spoken to Bush and running mate Dick Cheney: “They are understandably pleased. The rule of law has prevailed.”

12:45 p.m. Gore lawyers Christopher and David Boies caution against premature “partying” and say they’re taking Lewis’s ruling to the Florida Supreme Court.

2 p.m. Absentee ballots trickle in, adding to Bush’s total.

5 p.m. In a major blow to Bush, the high court halts Harris from certifying the vote and says pointedly “it is NOT the intent of this order to stop the counting.”

6:08 p.m. The federal appeals court in Atlanta denies for now Bush’s plea that manual recounts are unconstitutional.

SUNDAY, NOV. 19



Before 10 a.m. A court ruling kicks off the week. Republicans wanted to halt Miami-Dade's recount. They argue that sorting by machine to find questionable ballots would damage them (presumably in Al Gore's favor). A judge disagrees. Sorting begins.


10:30 a.m. Joe Lieberman tells Face the Nation that every last dimple should be counted or millions will say, "We were robbed."


12:36 p.m. All absentee ballots are in, say George Bush's attorneys, who ask Florida's Supreme Court to instruct the state to just name a winner.


MONDAY, NOV. 20



8 a.m. Miami-Dade County begins its (short-lived) manual recount. Broward and Palm Beach counties continue theirs.


10:46 a.m. Palm Beach Circuit Court Judge Jorge Labarga rejects a Democratic petition asking for a county re-vote because its "butterfly" ballot was baffling. Labarga says he "lacks authority" under the U.S. Constitution to call a new election.


2 p.m. Bush and Gore lawyers head to the Florida Supreme Court. At issue: Should election results have been certified on November 14?


3:30 p.m. Democratic state attorney general, Robert Butterworth, says that overseas ballots, running roughly 2 to 1 for Bush, should count even if they bear no postmark.


5 p.m. The Florida farrago is too much for Jane Carroll, Broward County's sole Republican election supervisor. "It's like having Election Day for 10 days in a row," she says. "I need to get out of here." She resigns.


TUESDAY, NOV. 21



8 a.m. Another day of counting in Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, and Broward (where Circuit Court Judge Robert Rosenberg replaces Jane Carroll on the canvassing board).


10:15 a.m. "I'm not going to manage the minutiae of each ballot being counted," decides Florida Circuit Judge David Tobin. He refuses Republican requests to set "an objective" standard for ballot review and to authorize a garbage-can search for missing chads.


2:05 p.m. The war over absentee ballots rages on. The Republicans deputize WW II veteran Bob Dole to demand inclusion. The Democrats' military man is Sen. Bob Kerrey, a Vietnam vet. He flies to Florida to preach the Gore gospel, though he concedes, "[Gore] understands that he may be the loser in Florida."


Afternoon Bush attorneys file a legal brief with Florida's Supreme Court, arguing that the justices are "without power" to figure out which ballots should or should not be tallied.


9:45 p.m. The manual recount must count. That's the word from the Florida Supreme Court. The justices give the three counties until 5 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 26, to send in the amended results. The ruling catches Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris by surprise (her staff gets the 42-page decision off the Internet) and blocks her from certifying the election for Bush.


11:02 p.m. Gore welcomes Florida Supreme Court ruling, saying that he and Bush should both "focus on the transition," in case a winner is declared.


WEDNESDAY, NOV. 22



3:30 a.m. Chest pains awaken Dick Cheney, who heads to the hospital. Heart attack? Doctors say no, then revise their diagnosis to a "very slight" one.


9 a.m. Sunday counting deadline looms. Miami-Dade election officials vote to recount only 10,750 "undervotes"–ballots missing a presidential choice.


11:30 a.m. Bush goes to court to force inclusion of hundreds of overseas ballots that lacked proper postmark or signature.


1 p.m. Gore loses a 157-vote gain when Miami-Dade opts to quit counting.


2:45 p.m. Bush OKs appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, charging Florida judges didn't have the right to order Harris to consider hand-counted votes.


4:33 p.m. Palm Beach opts to examine "dimpled" ballots.


6 p.m. Florida State Appeals Court denies Dem bid to force Miami to start counting again.


THURSDAY, NOV. 23



9 a.m. Broward County election officials forgo or delay their holiday dinners to count ballots. Upset by reports of allegedly lax standards in deeming a dimple a vote, Broward GOP chairman Ed Pozzuoli says: "Someone is trying to steal my Thanksgiving turkey."


10:15 a.m. "Voters had their votes inexplicably erased," say Gore lawyers, who file emergency petition with the Florida Supreme Court to reverse Miami-Dade's decision to halt the recount.


Morning. Lieberman speaks to a hospitalized Cheney, wishing him a speedy recovery.


Mealtime. The Bushes dine at the home of unidentified friends. Laura Bush brings green salad with apples and walnuts, gravy, and a roasted turkey breast. Tipper Gore cooks dinner, served at the vice presidential residence. Broward County's stalwart vote counters settle for carryout pizza.


2:45 p.m. A setback for Gore. The seven judges on Florida's Supreme Court, scattered for the holiday, confer via fax and conference call and unanimously agree: Miami-Dade need not resume the recount.


Evening. The tug of war over the hand count goes on. Team Gore asks the U.S. Supreme Court to deny an earlier request from Team Bush to bar hand-counted presidential election ballots. Gore lawyers call Bush's request a "bald attempt to federalize a state court dispute."


FRIDAY, NOV. 24



8 a.m. Broward County, where Gore has picked up 245 votes so far, begins recording dimpled chads, following Palm Beach's lead.


Throughout the day Congressional Democrats are miffed by "Sore Loserman" signs brandished by Republican demonstrators outside canvassing boards. One Gore ally needs guards to exit the Broward County courthouse. Charging that the protests disrupt the recount effort, the Dems send a letter to the U.S. Justice Department asking for an investigation.


10: 50 a.m. Cheney comes home; promises doctors not to work all weekend.


3:10 p.m. The U.S. Supreme Court agrees to hear an appeal from Bush on contested hand recount. Arguments are set for December 1 at 10 a.m.


5:10 p.m. Republican leaders of the Florida Legislature join the Bush legal team's hand-recount lawsuit.


SATURDAY, NOV. 25



3:20 p.m. CNN says it will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to let TV cameras in for the Bush appeal since Americans are "eager to follow" the issue.


Afternoon. In warm, sunny Crawford, Texas, Bush relaxes at his ranch. In cold, rainy Washington, Bush backers demonstrate on the street across from Gore's residence. Summoned by E-mail, they outnumber pro-Gore group. Gore goes out for ice cream.


7 p.m. Bushites drop plans to call for a statewide review of questionable military ballots. Instead they sue for a re-evaluation in four Florida counties.


11:52 p.m. Broward finishes its count. Gore's net gain: 567 votes. Bush's statewide lead slips to 465.


SUNDAY, NOV. 26



4 a.m. Palm Beach's count-a-thon halts as Republican lawyers dispute the order in which precincts are evaluated. Dems dispute the GOP disputation. At 5 a.m., counting resumes.


9 a.m. Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota says he "truly" believes Gore won Florida. "I've talked with most of my colleagues . . .," says the Senate's leading Democrat on NBC's Meet the Press, "and there isn't any interest in conceding anything at this point."


Midmorning. Bush and Gore each go to church. Bush waves to reporters, says nothing. Gore sound bite: "Good morning."


11:30 a.m. "If George Bush is certified the winner at 5 or 6 o'clock tonight, I think the great majority of the American people will say, 'Enough is enough,' " predicts Bob Dole on ABC's This Week.


2:45 p.m. Palm Beach needs more time to count fewer than 2,000 questionable ballots; faxes request to Secretary of State Harris's office for extension to 9 a.m. Monday, instead of 5 p.m. Sunday. Harris says no.


7:30 p.m. Two and a half hours past the deadline, Harris officially certifies the count; the tally shows Bush ahead by 537 votes: 2,912,790 to 2,912,253.

MONDAY, NOV. 27



12:15 p.m. Like so much about the election, the week begins with the unprecedented: The Gore campaign files the first formal contest in the history of a presidential election, seeking to reverse the certified outcome of the Florida vote for George W. Bush. Gore attorneys challenge vote totals in three counties and ask a state judge in Tallahassee to order a hand count of some 13,000 ballots in Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties that showed no votes for president during prior machine recounts. Simultaneously, the Gore legal team files an emergency motion to accelerate the contest proceedings.


12:52 p.m. In a show of Democratic support, Sen. Tom Daschle and Rep. Dick Gephardt hold a televised conference call with Gore and Joe Lieberman.


4:02 p.m. After the General Services Administration rebuffs Bush's attempt to take hold of the official presidential transition offices, Dick Cheney holds a press conference to announce that he and Bush will establish a privately funded office for transition planning.


8:55 p.m. Five minutes before the start of Monday Night Football, amid the flash of photographers' strobes, Gore delivers a nationally televised address defending his decision to contest the election. "Our Constitution matters more than convenience," he declares. All he is seeking, Gore says, is "a complete count of all the votes cast in Florida," noting that "many thousands of votes . . . have not yet been counted at all, not once."


TUESDAY, NOV. 28


11:27 a.m. The Groundhog Day election battle continues: Bush's lawyers file a motion objecting to Gore's request for an expedited trial.

1 p.m. A Republican-dominated committee hears testimony on whether the Florida Legislature should call a special session to appoint its own slate of electors. The Republicans fear that Gore, with help from Florida courts, might block Bush from winning Florida's electoral votes.

2:04 p.m. Gore strides out of the vice-presidential mansion and asks Bush not to"run out the clock" on further recounts. "This is not a time," Gore says, "for . . . procedural roadblocks."

10 p.m. In a blow to Gore's quick-count strategy, Leon County Circuit Judge N. Sanders Sauls rejects Gore's request to begin a recount of 14,000 undervotes the next day. Sauls puts off a hearing on the proposed recounts until Saturday.

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 29


4:45 p.m. Judge Sauls hinders Gore's quest for a new tally by December 12; Sauls rules all 1.1 million Miami-Dade and Palm Beach ballots must reach Tallahassee before Saturday, not just the 14,000 undervotes.

4:46 p.m. Leon County Circuit Judge Nikki Ann Clark rejects a Republican request that she recuse herself from a suit brought by Orlando-area Democrat Harry Jacobs. He seeks to toss out all 15,000 absentee ballots in the Bush stronghold of Seminole County, claiming that county officials improperly allowed GOP operatives to add missing voter ID numbers on 2,100 Republican absentee ballot applications. Clark has set a December 6 trial date.

THURSDAY, NOV. 30


7:45 a.m. The spectacle continues. A banana-yellow Ryder rental truck, loaded with 462,000 ballots, commences its televised journey from West Palm Beach to Tallahassee. It's no white Ford Bronco, but . . . no matter.

9 a.m. The Gore camp asks the Florida Supreme Court for an immediate hand count of 14,000 disputed ballots. Delay, they say, will make it a "virtual impossibility" to resolve Gore's contest by the December 12 deadline.

11:45 a.m. A Republican-controlled Florida legislative panel votes to recommend convening a special session of the Florida Legislature to designate the state's 25 electors. The vote comes a day after Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's comment that it would be an "act of courage" to call a special session.

1:10 p.m. Joe Lieberman asks Jeb Bush and Florida lawmakers to reconsider their desire to appoint a substitute set of electors. "It threatens to put us into a constitutional crisis," Lieberman warns.

1:30 p.m. After three days without public comment, George W. Bush takes questions with Colin Powell and Dick Cheney outside his Crawford, Texas, ranch. Bush scoffs at the suggestion that he seems out of touch and says, "One of our strategies is to get this election ratified, and the sooner the better for the good of the country."

FRIDAY, DEC. 1


6 a.m. The ballot brigade resumes, with two rental vans containing 654,000 Miami-Dade punch card ballots setting off from Miami for a Tallahassee courthouse.

8:32 a.m. Inflaming the absentee ballot controversy, Democratic voters file suit to throw out 9,773 votes in Martin County, two thirds of which went to Bush. GOP officials there, like their counterparts in Seminole County, were allowed to add voter ID numbers to some Republican applications for absentee ballots. Judge Terry Lewis sets a trial for December 6, the same date as the Seminole County case.

10 a.m. As throngs of protesters gather outside, the U.S. Supreme Court convenes to hear Bush's historic challenge to the court-ordered hand recounts in Florida. The justices' questions suggest they are divided about the legality of the Florida Supreme Court's intervention. A few justices hint the case should be resolved in state court. "We're looking for a federal issue," says Justice Anthony Kennedy. Asks Justice Stephen Breyer: "What's the consequence of our going one way or the other now in this case?"

Around 1:45 p.m. Republican John McKay, president of the Florida Senate, hedges on calling a special session to pick the state's electors. He opts to mull the matter over the weekend.

4:40 p.m. In another setback for Gore, the Florida Supreme Court dismisses a petition to immediately start recounting more than 12,000 undervotes from Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties. Less than an hour later, Gore receives another hit when the state Supreme Court rules that Palm Beach County's "butterfly" ballot was legal.

Around 5:45 p.m. A federal appeals court says it will hear a case brought by Florida voters and the Bush campaign challenging the constitutionality of selected hand recounts. It schedules a hearing for December 5.


MONDAY, DEC. 4



11:42 a.m. The week begins inauspiciously for Al Gore: In a unanimous order, the U.S. Supreme Court sets aside the vice president's critical win in the Florida Supreme Court. The state court ruling had extended the deadline for verifying the Florida vote, enabling Gore to narrow Bush's lead by adding hand-recounted ballots to his tally. In an unsigned opinion, the justices in Washington remand the case to their Florida brethren, admonishing them that there is "considerable uncertainty" as to the precise grounds for their ruling.


4:15 p.m. George W. Bush says he is pleased that "the Supreme Court is going to make sure that the outcome of this election is fair." Bush declines to second Dick Cheney's call for Gore to concede.


4:43 p.m. Gore suffers a double judicial whammy. Leon County Circuit Court Judge N. Sanders Sauls rejects all of Gore's arguments in contesting the election results and his request for a count of more than 12,000 ballots in Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties that registered no vote for president in machine recounts. Sauls declares from the bench that there is "no credible statistical evidence and no other competent substantial evidence" to establish a reasonable probability that Gore might win if granted a hand recount of the undervotes.


5:42 p.m. Gore's lead attorney, David Boies, announces he has appealed Sauls's ruling to the Florida Supreme Court. "What has happened today," Boies tells reporters, "is that we have moved one step closer to having this finally resolved." But in a momentary loss of spin control, Boies concedes, "They won, we lost."


TUESDAY, DEC. 5



12:32 p.m. If this is Tuesday, it must be . . . a Tallahassee courthouse. Spokesman Craig Waters announces that the Florida Supreme Court will hear Gore's appeal of Judge Sauls's ruling on Thursday.


2:52 p.m. As workers erect risers on nearby Pennsylvania Avenue for the inaugural, Gore declares from the White House driveway that he doesn't "feel anything other than optimistic" about his chances to win it all. Gore, who has declined to join lawsuits in Seminole and Martin counties, adds that it "doesn't seem fair to me" that GOP but not Democratic operatives in those counties were allowed to add and correct voter ID numbers on absentee ballot applications.


Around 7:30 p.m. Leon County Circuit Court Judge Nikki Clark denies a motion by the Bush camp to dismiss the Seminole County lawsuit. A Democratic activist there seeks to throw out 15,000 absentee ballots, most of them Bush votes, after a GOP aide filled in voter ID numbers on about 2,000 ballot applications.


WEDNESDAY, DEC. 6



7:00 a.m. Leon County Circuit Court Judge Terry Lewis convenes a hearing in the Martin County lawsuit–in the courtroom next door to the Seminole County trial. Demo-crats in Martin County seek to invalidate 9,773 absentee ballots; as one trial recesses and the other begins, Bush lawyers shuttle back and forth between the two hearings. If the 25,000 absentee ballots in the two counties are thrown out, Bush loses more than 7,000 net votes–and the election.


11:00 a.m. After meeting with foreign-policy adviser Condoleezza Rice, George W. Bush says he has "pretty well made up my mind" on whom to name to his White House staff. His transition team's slogan: "Bringing America Together."


2:22 p.m. MSNBC reports a federal appeals court in Atlanta has turned down Bush attorneys' request to throw out manual recounts in three Florida counties, saying they failed to show the selective recounts harmed Bush.


5:16 p.m. Florida Senate President John McKay and House Speaker Tom Feeney announce a special session of the Florida Legislature. It will convene Friday, they say, to consider designating its own slate of electors should the results of the Florida vote remain tied up in the courts. The last time a legislature chose electors was 1876. House Dem-ocratic Minority Leader Lois Frankel fumes that "it is just plain wrong for the Florida Legislature to elect the next president of the United States."


THURSDAY, DEC. 7



10 a.m. In the vice president's mansion, Al Gore and Joe Lieberman watch the Florida Supreme Court hearing on their appeal of Judge Sauls's ruling. In Austin, Texas, George W. Bush meets with lawmakers, and James Baker fills him in on the hearing afterward. Bush lawyer Barry Richard argues that there is no "evidence to show that any voter was denied the right to vote." He calls Gore's contest "a garden-variety appeal." Gore lawyer David Boies contends that while time is running out, "the ballots can be counted" before the December 12 deadline for naming electors.


12:26 p.m. Circuit Judge Terry Lewis says he will consult with fellow Leon County Judge Nikki Clark–and then rule by noon Friday in the Martin County absentee ballot case.


1 p.m. A federal court rules that Dick Cheney is a Wyoming resident–not a Texan–clearing the way for him to serve as Bush's vice president. The 12th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution bars electors from voting for two residents of their own state; Cheney owned a Dallas home from 1993 until last month.


7 p.m. The Gores and Liebermans double-date at a movie. The title: You Can Count on Me.


FRIDAY, DEC. 8



10:45 a.m. Bush says this may be the day "we'll finally see finality." But if the Florida Supreme Court rules against him, he will "take our case back to the [U.S.] Supreme Court."


Noon. The GOP-controlled Florida House and Senate convene a special session to ready their own slate of electors.


2:22 p.m. Judges Lewis and Clark reject the efforts of Democratic voters to throw out 25,000 absentee ballots in Seminole and Martin counties. News commentators begin discussing a Gore concession.


4:01 p.m. The Florida Supreme Court stuns observers, reversing Judge Sauls in a 4-3 decision. The justices go well beyond ordering recounts of 12,300 undervotes in Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties sought by Gore, directing instead that a manual recount of undervotes begin immediately in all counties where a hand count has not already occurred. The court also directs the lower court to add to Gore's tally 168 votes in Miami-Dade and 215 in Palm Beach from earlier hand counts excluded from the certified count. The added votes narrow Bush's statewide lead from 537 votes to just 154. Perhaps 45,000 undervotes statewide will have to be counted.


6:19 p.m. Bush adviser James Baker laments the Florida ruling, warning it could "disenfranchise Florida's votes in the Electoral College."


9:18 p.m. Bush's attorneys ask the U.S. Supreme Court for an emergency stay of the Florida decision.


11:35 p.m. Judge Lewis directs that Florida counties complete their manual recounts by Sunday at 2 p.m. The Election 2000 roller coaster roars on.

MONDAY, DEC. 11


11:00 a.m. After stopping the Florida recount two days earlier, the U.S. Supreme Court convenes to hear oral arguments on whether the Florida Supreme Court overstepped its bounds in ordering a statewide recount of undervotes.

12:46 p.m. Audiotapes of the historic Supreme Court argument air nationally. The long wait for the decisive decision begins.

3:39 p.m. A committee of the Florida House votes 5 to 2 to approve a resolution to name presidential electors for George W. Bush. A half-hour later, a Florida Senate committee approves a similar resolution by a 4-to-3 vote.

TUESDAY, DEC. 12


3:34 p.m. The Associated Press reports that the Florida House has voted to approve 25 electors for George Bush. Just two Democrats join the 79-to-41 vote.

4:31 p.m. As expected, the Florida Supreme Court upholds lower court rulings in the absentee-ballot application cases in Seminole and Martin counties. Meanwhile, there is no word from the U.S. Supreme Court. For hours, the all-news cable news networks have run scrolls on the bottom of the television screen declaring that a ruling is expected any minute.

9:54 p.m. The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-to-4 ruling split along ideological lines, steps in to end the election and Al Gore's quest for a final recount. It reverses the Florida Supreme Court decision ordering a statewide recount of undervotes, stating, in the per curiam section of its opinion, that differing vote-counting standards from county to county and the lack of a single judicial officer to oversee the recount violated the equal-protection clause of the Constitution. The majority opinion effectively precludes Gore from attempting to seek any other recounts on the grounds that a recount could not be completed by December 12, in time to certify a conclusive slate of electors. Several justices issue bitter dissents. "One thing ... is certain," Justice John Paul Stevens argues. "Although we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year's presidential election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear. It is the nation's confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law." Justice Stephen G. Breyer adds that "in this highly politicized matter, the appearance of a split decision runs the risk of undermining the public's confidence in the court itself."

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 13


10:10 a.m. It's D-Day for Al Gore. Gore directs his Florida recount committee to suspend its activities. Gore campaign chair William Daley says Gore will give a nationally televised address in the evening.

Around 1:45 p.m. Based on Al Gore's anticipated concession speech, the Florida Senate votes to recess and scrap its plan to name electors for George Bush.

8:56 p.m. Al Gore calls Bush to concede the presidential race.

9:00 p.m. In a nationally televised address, as Gore's family and Joe and Hadassah Lieberman stand solemnly nearby, Al Gore concedes he has lost his bid for the presidency. He asks his supporters to support George Bush, declaring, "This is America, and we put country before party." As to what he'll do next, Gore says, "I don't know the answer to that one yet."

10:03 p.m. Following an introduction from the Democratic speaker of the Texas House of Representatives, President-elect Bush tells the Democratic-controlled chamber that "our nation must rise above a house divided." Bush thanks Gore for his gracious phone call earlier that evening and says he is eager to move forward on Social Security, Medicare, and tax relief. In his sober victory speech, Bush repeatedly reaches across party lines, declaring that "the president of the United States is the president of every single American, of every race and every background." Thirty-six tumultuous days after the voters went to the polls, the presidential election is over at last.

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/el...agtimeline.htm

[loosecannon]

You will notice that in this study the only way Gore could have won was by counting disqualified ballots, is it our fault y'all can't punch a chad or that Blacks punched a chad and also wrote in the name of the person in the write-in section? Dems run all of these precincts yet blame everyone else for their fuck up. All official recounts using legitimate ballots were won by George W Bush, suck on that libs!

The Florida election recount of 2000 was a period of vote re-counting that occurred following the unclear results of the 2000 US presidential election, specifically the Florida results.

The National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, sponsored by a consortium of major U.S. news organizations, conducted a Florida Ballot Project comprehensive review of all ballots uncounted (by machine) in the Florida 2000 presidential election, both undervotes and overvotes, with the main research aim being to report how different ballot layouts correlate with voter mistakes.

The media companies involved were:

Associated Press
The New York Times
The Wall Street Journal
CNN
St. Petersburg Times
The Palm Beach Post
The Washington Post
Tribune Company
Los Angeles Times
Chicago Tribune
Orlando Sentinel
The Baltimore Sun
Although the NORC study was not primarily intended as a determination of which candidate "really won", analysis of the results, given the hand counting of machine-uncountable ballots due to various types of voter error, indicated that they would lead to differing results, reported in the newspapers which funded the recount, such as The Miami Herald (The Miami Herald Report: Democracy Held Hostage) or the Washington Post [1].

The findings were reported by the media during the week after November 12, 2001.

All of the various county-by-county recounts had been requested by Gore or Bush. Neither Candidate had formally requested a total statewide recount.

The recount also showed that the only way that Al Gore could have tallied more votes was by using counting methods that were never requested, but that may have been applied if the USSC-mandated standards had been implemented, and which included "overvotes" — spoiled ballots containing more than one vote for an office. This means that, based on the recount, it appears highly likely that more people voted for Al Gore than for George Bush in Florida. While some of these ballots recorded votes for two separate candidates, a significant number (20% in Lake County, for example) were cases of a voter voting for a candidate and then also writing in that same candidate's name on the write-in line. A judge supervising the recount told the Orlando Sentinel that he had been open to the idea of examining the overvotes, and had been planning to discuss the matter at a hearing when the US Supreme Court stopped the recount. [2]

Candidate Outcomes Based on Potential Recounts in Florida Presidential Election 2000
(outcome of one particular study)
Review Method Winner
Review of All Ballots Statewide (never undertaken)
• Standard as set by each county Canvassing Board during their survey Gore by 171
• Fully punched chads and limited marks on optical ballots Gore by 115
• Any dimples or optical mark Gore by 107
• One corner of chad detached or optical mark Gore by 60
Review of Limited Sets of Ballots (initiated but not completed)
• Gore request for recounts of all ballots in Broward, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, and Volusia counties Bush by 225
• Florida Supreme Court of all undervotes statewide Bush by 430
• Florida Supreme Court as being implemented by the counties, some of whom refused and some counted overvotes as well as undervotes Bush by 493
Unofficial recount totals
• Incomplete result when the Supreme Court stayed the recount (December 9, 2000) Bush by 154
Certified Result (official final count)
• Recounts included from Volusia and Broward only Bush by 537


According to the NY Times, the Palm Beach County Butterfly ballot cost Gore a net 6286 votes, and the Duval County 2 page ballot cost him a net 1999 votes, each of which would have made the difference by itself [3].

iow Gore got more votes in FL 2000.

[OCA]

iow Gore got more votes in FL 2000.

Not from OFFICIAL RECOUNTS, need me to explain the word official to you? He would've needed the votes of hanging chads, Blacks who weren't smart enough to know they didn't need to write his name in also, butterflys and the votes sent through a psychic of deceased citizens to come out on top.

Clearly you didn't read any of those posts because they OWNNNNNNNNNN YOUUUUUUUUUUUU!

Gore's message got out and was rejected.