History Interrupted
The world is on the precipice of massive change. Whether it's the rapid changes occurring to Earth's climate, or the disastrous course in the middle east that America has been trapped into by the most myopic and dishonest administration in the history of the United States.
America did not choose this direction, it was forced upon America. It was forced upon America by a tiny, grotesquely wealthy minority that thinks it knows better. A minority that bent, warped, massaged, twisted and squeezed public opinion until the public ceded to the will of this zealous minority.
The beginning, middle, end or turning point of this story can be found at many points. This diary presents one of many key junctures that have occurred over the past six years. What happened in Seminole county Forida?
In the year 2000, conservatives, although in the majority in congress and many state legislatures, were still denied many of their key legislative priorities. Securing the presidency would lift the barriers to dramatic changes to domestic and foreign policy that conservatives craved. No one will forget how long and hard, both the Bush and Gore camps fought for the presidency of the United States. Although, both candidates were considered bland and hapless, the stakes were deadly serious, as it turns out, literally. There were many ups and downs during the campaign and election day, November 7th, 2000, proved to be no exception. As the results trickled in, it became clear that a winner would not be declared until well into the next morning, if at all. Florida proved critical. Voting irregularities had swamped Florida election workers throughout the day. By the next morning, the results were so close that an automatic recount of the Florida election was required by law. The re-count proved to be exceptional by many standards. However, with Bush's margin shrinking rapidly as the hours passed, the scrutiny and veracity of the battling camps intensified. After, three days of recounting, only one county was left, Seminole county Florida. The count stood at 2,909,814 votes for Bush and 2,909,505 votes for Gore. A difference of 229 net votes for Bush. Gore had net gained 1,832 votes statewide and Bush had net gained 277 votes statewide.
The nation waited as Seminole county waited to report. Bush had won Seminole county decisively, 75,293 votes for Bush to 58,888 votes for Gore, so it stood to reason that Bush might get favorable news from Seminole county. Gore gained 286 votes, enough to erase Bush's lead, lead Florida by 57 votes and radically change the dynamics of the re-count. However, Bush got better news than anyone could have expected. Bush gained an astounding 384 votes in Seminole county. More votes than Bush had netted in all the other Florida counties combined and more than triple the next highest total of 108 votes Bush received in Palm Beach county (of all places). Seminole county was a republican "stronghold" so the results were never questioned.
We can all recall the tensions of November 2000.
Gap narrows, tensions rise
TIMES
POLITICAL
EDITOR
By TIM NICKENS, DIANE RADO and THOMAS C. TOBIN
© St. Petersburg Times, published November 10, 2000
"By Thursday night Gore had cut Bush's lead to 229 votes with 66 of 67 counties recounted, according to an unofficial tally by the Associated Press. Seminole County had about 20 precincts still to count late Thursday night. The state Division of Elections lagged far behind in its accounting. County officials have until Tuesday to formally report their results to the state.
The spotlight shined brightest on Palm Beach County.
Democrats contend that a confusing ballot led thousands of Gore supporters to cast ballots for both the vice president and Reform Party candidate Patrick Buchanan. Elections officials threw out 19,120 ballots that were marked twice, although it was impossible to calculate how many of those were intended to be votes for Gore. "
ONLY 229 APART 6,686 BROWARD VOTES IN DOUBT; DEMOCRATS VOW COURT FIGHT; PROTESTERS TAKE TO THE STREETS; [METRO Edition]
Michael Griffin, Sentinel Political Editor. Orlando Sentinel. Orlando, Fla.: Nov 10, 2000. pg. A.1
"It was another twist in what has become a chaotic aftermath to Tuesday's election that showed Bush had edged Gore in Florida by 1,784 votes -- capturing the state's 25 electoral votes and thereby the White House. A mandatory vote review was ordered, and tensions rose faster than Bush's vote tally shrank.
In a day of confusion, rhetoric and legal maneuvering:
An unofficial tally of the recount showed Bush's lead shrinking, with 66 counties reporting and Seminole County recounting 137,350 ballots at midnight."
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/politics/AP-Recount-Seminole.html
http://orlandosentinel.com/...
According to the above articles from the NYTimes and Orlando Sentinel:
"Seminole's lengthy recount differed from most of state's other counties."
"Instead of a ballot-by-ballot recount, most Seminole county canvassing boards examined results from each precinct looking for anything unusual and comparing the number of votes cast in each precinct with the number reported Tuesday night."
The reason for Seminole County's delay is that they voluntarily provided the complete recount, including rejected ballots, sought in Palm Beach, etc. Yesterday afternoon local TV news carried pictures and an interview with a member of the Seminole county election board and local Republican congressman John Mica who was present and interviewed.
(They) were running each individual ballot through the voting machines. Any ballot the machine rejected was then examined by hand, and if the "will of the voter" could be determined, they prepared a new ballot to replace the original rejected ballot and added this newly created ballot to the count. Naturally in a county Bush carried almost 2-1 this resulted in a net increase of Bush votes. Now in the Republican Seminole County, under the leadership of congressman John Mica (R-FLA) acting on behalf of Bush. The rejected votes were examined and added to the official totals. If the Bush camp thinks that it is proper to examine by hand the rejected votes in Republican Seminole County, and to substitute new ballots for those rejected how can this possibly be proper when done in Seminole County and then be improper when done in Palm Beach County, etc?
However, a close inspection of the results precinct by precinct tells a different story.
The precinct results of the 2000 general election results can be downloaded from the Seminole county website.
http://www.semcoelections.org/...
This is the printout of the first and last page of the 2000 presidential results in Seminole county:
This is the printout of the first and last page of the 2000 Florida Senate results in Seminole county:
Recall Bush had gained 384 votes in Seminole county and Gore had gained 286 votes in Seminole county. A net gain of 98 votes for Bush and a total increase of 670 votes for both candidates. Looking closer at the results by precinct, one finds that the T/O (total votes cast) did not vary widely from precinct to precinct. However, in a few precincts, and three in particular, 28, 36 and 98, the votes cast total increased dramatically, by 429, 78 and 43 votes respectively.
The total presidential votes on November 8th added up to 137033 votes, the total votes cast were 137350. , After the recount on November 10th, the total presidential votes increased to 137703 votes, the total votes cast from the summary increased to 137970.
If the total votes cast were recounted manually, why did the total vote cast increase by 670votes? Where did these ballots come from? The ballots not counted by the machine amounted to only 317votes? The machine still rejected 267 votes after the recount, why? Why did Bush receive more votes (384 votes) in the last county counted than he netted in all of the other 66 counties in Florida? Why wasn't the pdf file of the Seminole precinct data printed until December 12th, 2000? Why did one precinct increase its total votes cast by nearly 50%?
Why, because Bush needed the votes. Because a tiny, grotesquely wealthy minority that thinks it knows better needed Bush to be President. A minority that bent, warped, massaged, twisted and squeezed public opinion until the public ceded to the will of this zealous minority. So, under no circumstances was Gore to ever gain a lead during the recount. Even though it was statistically obvious that the recount should not have varied by more than a few dozen votes. The large shift in votes especially in Gore's favor made it obvious that nefarious forces were at work to rig the election. To force an outcome that was not determined by the electorate. To interrupt history. From Palm Beach to Broward county, from all corners of the state of Florida forces were at work to win this thing for Bush and the conservatives. And make no mistake that had things fallen apart in Florida for Bush, the conservatives would have taken their fight to Oregon, New Mexico and Wisconsin where the results were also very close. But it was never up to the conservatives, the American people spoke and the conservatives didn't like what they had to say.
Now America can't stand what Bush and the conservatives have to say.
So when President Bush gives his speech tonight, it is at a time when America has come to finally realize that no one person can know everything. Even the president's power is limited. He'll never admit he was wrong about Iraq, hell, he may even double down and attack Iran because he thinks he knows best. The conservatives may have laughed at us back in 2000 for pulling off the most naked power grab in US History. But Bush is foolish to believe history will ever vindicate him. The facts I've just presented are cold hard facts. History will record that the presidency was stolen in November of 2000. History will not vindicate Bush's actions in Iraq. History will not be kind to Mr. Bush because tiny details like the one I have presented are littered throughout Florida and the nation. Cold, hard, naked truths that can not be altered or blurred by time. The conservatives argue that this type of post is meant to embarrass and weaken the President. The conservatives are wrong. It is President Bush and conservative ideolgy that has weakened America.
History was interrupted in November of 2000. Now it's time to interrupt the Bush disaster. The tiny, grotesquely wealthy minority that thinks it knows better must be interrupted and stopped.