HBO Film About 2000 Recount Draws Protests From Democrats

Source: NYT

Wounds from the Florida recount, still healing for many Democrats, are being ripped open again for some prominent former advisers to Al Gore. They say that a coming HBO film dramatizing the ballot battle after the 2000 election unfairly blames them for the Democrats’ failure to secure the White House.

Warren Christopher, the former secretary of state who served as the public face of the Gore team in the early days of the recount effort, said this week that he believed the film, “Recount,” was “pure fiction” in its portrayal of him as a weak strategist unprepared to stand up to the aggressive tactics of James A. Baker III, the former secretary of state who was the chief Republican adviser.

William M. Daley, Mr. Gore’s campaign chairman, who helped to lead the Democratic recount team in Florida, said the film created misperceptions about the Gore team’s decision-making process. Mr. Gore, who oversaw the team from Washington, is largely absent from the film.

Even Mr. Baker questioned the portrayal of Mr. Christopher. “I don’t think I was as ruthless as the movie portrays me, and I know he was not as wimpish as it makes him appear,” Mr. Baker said.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/14/arts/television/14reco.html?_r=1&8dpc&oref=slogin

to allow an eight-year nightmare to ensue. I'd say it's a little pointless to grouse about it now, Warren.

Gore called the West Palm Beach/? demonstrations off --- sent Jesse Jackson home.
That was a huge mistake.

Gore's monied backers, his own elite connections, seem to be telling him that he had
to step down --- he seemed to be taking orders rather than making up his own mind about
what was going on ---

And --- in fact, until very recently --- probably after 2000, people began talking about
"fascism." Did Gore actually know what he was dealing with in the Bush/Cheney camp?
I'm not sure that he did understand the level of criminality.
But I think there is a lot that Gore was and experienced that he didn't really want to see
over the decades --- in fact, Gore also had oil industry backers -- lifelong.

As for the lawyers . . . they were naive, at best.

But who among us really expected the level of criminality that we clearly understand now???

And a way out political undertaking/decision by the Supreme Gang of 5--????

I knew if the rabid right got a toehold in power we could kiss out civil liberties goodbye. I didn't know how they would do it but I knew our liberties would be in jeopardy. I was dismayed that the Democrats weren't screaming . After the SCOTUS decision, I just felt betrayed by the party. I don't fault Gore, but I do fault the dlc and its, then, control of the DNC.

If he Was President he wouldn't have been around long

Lieberman would be President

now think about how UGLY that would have been

The Democrat party was riddled with NWO agents

So in the Long run Bush was and the Republican Party destroyed this country

and as a result he destroyed the republican party

He showed all of us how they steal kill and promote their propoganda machine

many have awakened to the fact that this government is not for the people its against it

The People elected Gore but thats not what happened

We had the Presidency stolen from the people by the Supreme Court

darkest day for this country

The guy from Nevada who gives Cheney's corporations billions of tax dollars to waste in Iraq-Nam

You can hardly blame them for their not supporting the guy.

We've got friends coming over to watch it with us on May 25th. I've been wanting to see this ever since I saw they were doing it.

Good. Both sides need to have a little bit of light shed on their own shenanigans in that whole debacle.

Hope people decide to go looking into it on their own.

He was naive enough to believe that the Mob would play fair.

Of course, he probably didn't realize he was dealing with the Mob until it was too late.

Kerry, on the other hand, had no excuse -- unless, of course, he was on the take or afraid of Fredo.

"There's an old saying in Tennessee -- I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee -- that says, fool me once, shame on -- shame on you. Fool me -- you can't get fooled again."

As much as everyone likes to beat him up about it. After Bush v Gore, states had to approve a recount, and GOP Ohio was not going to. Many of the voters who got disenfranchised were purged or prevented by long lines. The votes shifts nationally could not be verified, and most of what we've learned was long after the fact, and not enough to change the argument to an outcome altering degree.

The 2000 was very much a Bush creation, complete with bad punch card paper provided by Bush ally, Jefferson Smurfit. Just for Miami-Palm Beach area. Corroborated claims made by quality control in CA, and an effort, it seems, to jump start the electronic voting machine industry. Remember throughout, everyone, GW, talking about the need for computers? Then came HAVA.

To make speeches about not giving up until every vote was counted? He had a fire in his belly the day after the eelction, and for me, he was the only bright spot in the entire debacle.

And why did Hillary Clinton call Edwards on the phone and reprimand him, telling him to quit "grandstanding?"

You are saying the sort of thing that the DLC says to keep control.

There were those of us who wanted two things the day after the election of 2004:
1) that the Presidential candidate set the precedent of not bowing to pressure to concede prematurely - in this case, Kerry was conceding way too soon. His concession owed way too
much to the media's willingness to appoint itself the authority on calling an election and to the collusion between Blackewell and The WH. The salient point of the media awarding itself the authority to call an election will come into play again this year. I have already heard Sacramento CA talking heads telling the audience that it is their right to have instantaneous results. That is the last thing we want, in this the era of stolen elections.

2) For Kerry to make enough of a protest that the American public would become educated as to what was and is really going on in terms of the machinery. If he was exhausted etc from the labors of the campaign, than he should have already had his appointed spokepeople to make the points for him.

The true voting activists involved in 2004 know that there were 250,000 ballots (at least) that were uncounted in Ohio and they are sick to their stomachs over the Kerry concession.

Kerry's cave in is a matter of some debate. There are two issues.

1) It was not his election to concede, it was the peoples. The people of Ohio, in particular, were put through the meat grinder. He could have challenged Ohio, raised consciousness exponentially on election fraud, voter suppression, etc. and then conceded. He didn't. He put expediency and his own future ahead of the obligation to the people (as we speak, I'm wearing my retro Kerry for President tee-shirt;)

2) Actually, there were numbers there to show likely fraud.

Did you know Bush won the election in the "big cities" (pop. over 500,000)?
Did you know Bush got 4.0 million new white voters in "big cities" (of 15 million total)?
Did you know that the "big cities" showed a 66% increase in turnout over 2000 resulting
in a massive improvement in the Bush vote compared to 2000?

Figure 5. Unprecedented! That’s the only word necessary to show the dichotomy
of 2004 – Bush losing actual votes in his base, rural America, while gaining an
exponential increase in big cities.

It's all here - URBAN LEGEND: THE 2004 ELECTION
Also, see http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0708/S00284.htm">Notes from the Underground: Why 2004 Election Matters More than Ever

Of course, the above is all total nonsense. It's what the Network Election Pool pollsters had to
do to justify the final official NEP exit poll showing a 3% Bush victory.

That poll also showed the rural segment down to 16% of the electorate from 23% in 2000 and 2.0
million less votes in the rural segment.

Thus, Bush lost his base, in a huge way, and won the election by increased performance, hugely increased, in the "big cities."

The real big city turnout was 16% from actual data available the day after the election at the latest.

The national exit poll was never altered and no mistake was ever admitted.

This would have been a huge clue had Kerry challenged Ohio, --HUGE-- , but he didn't and that's that.

He should have respected his voters. It would have been ground breaking and he would have had time
to spot the dead give away for fraud I just discussed.

Of 2004, that credit is given to the growth of the voters' numbers in rural areas.

So not only do they lie through their teeth - they don't even rememebr their lies.

My father was one of the last honest men. I remember as a teenage being totally upset with my "square" old dad - what was the harm in telling a lie if it got you a benefit that was desirable?
And surely people as smart as he and I could cover our tracks...

"The problem with lying is that most people can't remember what the facts of the lie consisted of a day or two later," was his response. (Of course his real concern was the morality of lying - but that is a tale for another day.)

The vote villains don't even lie for a cause, it's for their own greed and power.

It's amazing how sloppy we are with our elections. Data is all over the place but not readily
available. There should not even be a need for an exit poll with accurate, precinct level reporting
aggregated in one source, data that can be checked. Then there are the fourth rate computer devices
called "voting" machines that don't meet the standards for the real market. Nobody would buy
a computing device that lousy for other applications.

The fact that it isn't fixed now shows that those with power don't really care or want it done.

While your second graf, concerning Florida's 2000 abortion of democracy is largely accurate, the first graf, apologizing for Kerry having rolled over is simply nonsense.

He could have fought to ensure that every ballot (at least those which were allowed to be cast) were actually counted, and counted accurately.

He may or may not have won that fight (as Gore was unable to do in FL 2000), both in Ohio and elsewhere, but he certainly could have tried. He didn't, however. He chose not to.

Any attempts at historical revisionism, such as the one you undertake in your first graf above, deserve to be countered with the <i>facts</i>, as uncomfortable as they may be to many.

And as hard as Gore fought -- even with the failures of him, his team, and the undermining courtesy of Lieberman who allowed the counting of illegal military ballots which never should have been counted -- he did so without knowing precisely what would lie ahead in a Bush "presidency".

Kerry has no such excuse. He knew exactly the horrors that would be wrought by a President George W. Bush, and he chose to not fight anyway. I will make no excuses for that. Neither should you.

the Clinton Administration do battle with those thugs for 8 years. If he had not come to the realization that they don't play fair by the time the election rolled around, he probably had no business in the White House anyway. JMO

and strengthened the party infrastructures in those states where they had been collapsed in the 90s, giving the RNC all the room it needed to gain control of the election process at every level where the votes are allowed, cast and counted.

... it's kind of hard for the rest of us to put up a fight. I agree that party infrastructure would've helped, but I wish Kerry had cried foul at least. If he had jump-started the protest, the rest of us would've taken it from there.

on election night, he thought he was 50,000 votes behind - He unconceded when he the numbers changed. Kerry conceded the next morning when he was 137,000 votes behind. Do you think Gore conceding when he believed himself to be 50,000 votes behind was folding like a cheap card table? I don't - the Democratic election legal team and number crunchers are supposed to stay on top of the math for the candidates so they can make their best decision.

BTW - It was Terry McAuliffe's DNC that for four years made sure Ohio and many other crucial states went unsecured - and he also made it clear that the DNC would NOT back up any fight.

And it was Carville that sabotaged Ohio Dem voters on election night. Maybe TeamClinton wasn't working for the Dem party, at all, in 2000, 2002, and 2004.

People like John Conyers tried to resurrect investigations into what went seriously wrong in Ohio (and perhaps in other states as well), but by then it was too late. America had moved on to more important topics, like Britney Spears.

in hand on the provisional ballots was due to Carville's sabotage when the numbers dropped from 250,000 to 150,000. That number was controlled by the SOS.

The Ohio Dem PARTY did not have any say in how the votes were counted or recounted in the 4 years they should have been working to secure that process for their voters. The national party did nothing to assist the states in that process for the four years after 2000s theft.

Because people put all the blame ONTO Kerry, you assured that the DNC, party infrastructures, and the security of the election process would not get closer scrutiny.

You see what Clintons are doing openly now to undermine Obama - you didn't see that they were undermining Kerry every step of the way throughout 2003-4, too.

:hi: Happy every day! Just one little point, since we were both on the Kerry team in 2004.

There was evidence, the day after the election. It was hard evidence, right there if those tasked
had looked or if they'd acted on what they found: right here.

That would have been so powerful. Had I known then, I'd have told them. But my interestin election
fraud was revivified by 2004 (the fraud was so apparent it was unbearable in 2000).

Everything you're saying here is accurate.

I tend to see it as discretion being the better part of valor. Kerry was looking at a rigged court
system and a corporate media representing its corporate owners. MSM was only slightly less obnoxious
about Kerry than it was about Gore and they gave * another free ride. It would have taken a Thomas
Paine or Patrick Henry to stand up to that. I think investigating BCCI might have opened his eyes
too much to the full potential of The Money Party.

Just a thought.

One in particular is David Bois.

I watched the fiasco during the hearings and Bois had no business representing Gore in Florida.

Bois does not practice election law. His expertise lies elsewhere. Definitely not election law based on what I saw.

And he hasn't had enough practice to learn what is needed. If someone is going to become an expert in election law they need to be involved in elections from the grassroots level on up.

What in his years in the Senate and eight years as Vice President to Bill Clinton would have lead Al Gore to believe that they would play by the political Marquis of Queensbury rules. If he actually believed that they would play fair, I would have serious doubts about his ability to be President. JMO.

"Kerry, on the other hand, had no excuse -- unless, of course, he was on the take or afraid of Fredo."

Nope, Kerry was Skull and Bones along with Bush and they can not cross another S&B member. When it appeared Bush had won, Kerry had to back off.

I guess it's a real good thing Kerry totally backs Obama.

I'll take my tin foil hat off now.

Frankly, these accusations get quite old and are not funny. As Marjorie G said Kerry did NOT have a case to make. You can't claim votes never cast - which were the bulk of "votes" estimated in the RFKjr analysis.

If there were anything to the S&B nonsense, wouldn't Bush have stopped the despicable smearing done to Kerry and his wife - especially if he knew he was going to win regardless.

of BushInc and his powerful cronies than John Kerry has.

There isn't a Dem in DC who helped protect BushInc and his powerful cronies more than Bill Clinton has.

Not all S&B are in the same circle - and not all those in the circle of powerful elite covering for each other are S&B.

It's lazyminded thinking that covers for ongoing deceits in DC.

Everybody has their part to play even in S&K. So, I would think Kerry would get a lot done in his neck of the woods. And no, I really, really, don't think Kerry conceded because he is a member of that illustrious weirdo club. But they have more power than you could ever imagine. That doesn't take a tin foil hat to figure out. Just check their membership and how successful they have all helped each other become.

Bill Clinton and Dick Cheney have done more to protect those thugs - and neither were S&B.

S&B scum circle were those who would never serve their country honestly. And there are many nonS&Bs who join them in their fascist agenda.

He knew that and bowed out. I live in Wisconsin and if a few thousand people had switched votes, Bush would have won the state. Kerry needed to shift more than 50,000. He couldnt do it and did the right thing.

Gore on the other hand had a real chance of winning. He can at least hold his head up and claim he won the popular vote. I thought Gore put up a good fight. Cant really fault him for anything.

and the evidence for this is overwhelming.

if you don't believe kerry won, you probably believe that the sun is cold and water is not wet.

which is the only votes that really count in electing a President, according to the Constitution.

Kerry *would* have won the ElectoRAL College, were not the state of Ohio (and probably FL) stolen from him.

And I really doubt anyone around here needs a lesson on how our Presidential election process is supposed to work.

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2002/080502a.html

Bush's Conspiracy to Riot

By Robert Parry

August 5, 2002

snip


After the Miami “Brooks Brothers Riot” – named after the protesters’ preppie clothing – no government action was taken beyond the police rescuing several Democrats who were surrounded and roughed up by the rioters. While no legal charges were filed against the Republicans, newly released documents show that at least a half dozen of the publicly identified rioters were paid by Bush’s recount committee.

snip

The payments to the Republican activists are documented in hundreds of pages of Bush committee records – released grudgingly to the Internal Revenue Service last month, 19 months after the 36-day recount battle ended. Overall, the records provide a road map of how the Bush recount team brought its operatives across state lines to stop then-Vice President Al Gore’s recount efforts.

snip

The Miami protesters who were paid by Bush recount committee were: Matt Schlapp, a Bush staffer who was based in Austin and received $4,276.09; Thomas Pyle, a staff aide to House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, $456; Michael Murphy, a DeLay fund-raiser, $935.12; Garry Malphrus, House majority chief counsel to the House Judiciary subcommittee on criminal justice, $330; Charles Royal, a legislative aide to Rep. Jim DeMint, R-S.C. $391.80; and Kevin Smith, a former GOP House staffer, $373.23.
Three of the Miami protesters are now members of Bush’s White House staff, the Miami Herald reported last month. They include Schlapp, who is now a special assistant to the president; Malphrus, who is now deputy director of the president’s Domestic Policy Council; and Joel Kaplan, another special assistant to the president.

snip

The Brooks Brothers Riot – carried live on CNN and other networks – marked a turning point in the recount battle. At the time, Bush clung to a lead that had dwindled to several hundred votes and Gore was pressing for recounts. The riot in Miami and the prospects of spreading violence were among the arguments later cited by defenders of the 5-to-4 U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Dec. 12, 2000, that stopped a statewide Florida recount and handed Bush the presidency.

Plenty more here and a nice comparison to the Chicago Seven prosecutions and lots of info from Bush's campaign financing of the "quiet coup" of 2000....

I was gonna go look for it myself. All out of state cronies, just look at those assholes! Many's been the time I have wished I could have been there myself.

there instead of being placated by Peter Jennings saying "the American people are patiently waiting" bullshit

white house?

Constitutional crisis, which they didn't expect, weren't prepared for and didn't have the courage and/or the honesty to acknowledge publicly. A leader of historical dimension would have made some speech..!

I think it will be worth it just to see Laura Dern do Katherine Harris.

They didn't show any clips, but they did show a pic of her as Katherine Harris. Needless to say, I'm guessing many DUers will chuckle at the depiction. She looked downright evil.

She was very funny, and pretty dead-on with the mannerisms and flakiness.

One of the characters saying something like "Those corrupt Democrats will stop at nothing to lie, cheat and steal the election!" Of course, the Republicans in the promos are just shown as being "concerned." I've had a bad feeling about this since I first saw the commercials.

.

The silence and absence of outrage from early reports of 'voting irregularities' in Jacksonville, Florida stating 27,000 ballots were literally 'lost' between the precincts and the Duval County Election Board.

Yet, America's first expression of outrage was about 'voting irregularities' in Palm Beach.

If there was ONLY a difference of 500+ votes, why did everyone IGNORE the 27,000 lost ballots in Jacksonville?

no outcry so far from this democrat

On DU that I've gone back and searched for but have never been able to find. The gist was: if we have to tear the country apart to put Bush in the White House, we will.

I don't remember hearing him weigh in during those days.

is accurately portrayed.

Truth is, James Baker will tear your head off without ever losing his composure, and be looking for ways to get your arms and legs, too.

If the Democratic Party had half as many people half as ruthless as Baker in getting their jobs done, this country would not be in the mess it's in and continues to be in.

When those events were unfolding live, and I saw Baker live and on the ground in Florida, my exact thought was, "Satan is there in full view, and no holy water in sight." We never had any big hitters on the ground there, and the whole response was weak, just as it is today. How is it possible to hold a majority of both houses, with a President whose approval is lower than Nixon's, and we cannot stop the war, cannot balance a budget, cannot provide healthcare for every American?

I'm a lifelong party member, as were my parents and grandparents, but I have little hope for the 20 or so years I've got left, and nearly none for my children and grandchildren.

Until we take the personal enrichment out of politics, chairs will change and little else.

Brought back the question... "What if???????"

But now we are plunging into a future and, guess what? Florida is at the center of another controversy!

OMFG!

In fact, Gore was 'present' in several telephone conversations and a couple scenes where they showed his back (Tipper too). So he got MORE coverage in the film than Bush did.

It was a GREAT film. It did far more damage to the repukes than to the Dems. We should be grateful the story is out there.

No wonder HRC won't drop out. She has to show these lame ass Democrats what it is like to have some balls.

Not.

I'm no longer a fan of hers, but she is fighting

The one who is mathematically able to win.

Like a RABID DOG!

(now I am simply quoting Catch 22 )

Here's another quote, from inside the
Clintonian perspective:

"What's good for M & M Enterprises will be good for the country. "

and she is fighting US.

They share much of the blame.

Published on Monday, November 13, 2000
COMMON DREAMS

13 Myths About The Results Of The 2000 Election
http://electionfraudnews.com/archive/News/13Myths2000.htm

by Rich Cowan

In the next week, millions of dollars will be spent in a public relations war in an attempt to determine the next president of the United States. Will the outcome of the election be determined by ratings in the polls? Will the present standoff be resolved by escalation and threats? Or will the intention of the voters on election day, and the responsibility of the states to count their ballots, actually be taken into account?

Our involvement in the next few weeks is essential to assert democratic control over the election process. The price of liberty is eternal vigilance. This flyer is a collaboration of over a dozen people who have been researching and documenting the truth. It provides a point by point analysis of some key myths. Please read, copy, and forward to friends, relatives and colleagues!

1) Myth: Al Gore has a responsibility to concede the election.

Fact: A 330 vote margin out of 6 million votes cast in Florida is incredibly close! It is roughly equivalent to a 1-vote margin in a city with 40,000 people and 18,000 voters.

It is extremely rare for an election this close NOT to be contested for several weeks until a manual recount can take place, with observers from both sides taking part and inspecting ballots. This kind of detailed recount has not yet taken place.

According to the US Constitution and the Laws of Florida, it is the responsibility of officials in Florida to certify the election results. November 17 is the deadline for absentee ballots sent from overseas to arrive. Since the election is close enough in Florida, Oregon, and New Mexico to be affected by absentee ballots, the results in those states cannot be certified before that date.

2) Myth: the number of "spoiled ballots" in Palm Beach County was typical. In a press briefing televised live on all networks on 11/9/00, Karl Rove of the Bush campaign compared the 14,872 invalidated ballots in the 1996 Presidential race to 19,120 ballots for President that were spoiled in this election.

Fact: the Bush campaign was comparing apples and oranges. There were actually 29,702 invalidated ballots this year in Palm Beach County. This is almost twice the number in 1996. The number 19,120 refers to the ballots that were thrown out for voting for two Presidential candidates. The remaining 10,582 ballots had no choice recorded for President.

According to the Palm Beach County elections office (www.pbcelections.org), voters this year were not confused at all by the rest of the ballot. For example, less than 1% of U.S. Senate votes were invalidated because of multiple punches, compared with over 4% in the Presidential contest.

3) Myth: The Palm beach ballot is definitely illegal due to the presence of punch holes to the left of some of the candidates.

Fact: According to the Secretary of State's office, there is a loophole in Florida law that may allow ballots used for voting machines to deviate from the rules governing paper ballots. This view has been contested by hundreds of Florida voters. The final decision on the legality of the ballot is likely to be made in court, as long as this issue could have an effect on the election.

It is possible that the ballot could be ruled illegal on other grounds, such as the Voting Accessibility for the Elderly and Handicapped Act or the Americans With Disabilities Act.

4) Myth: "The more often ballots are recounted, especially by hand, the more likely it is that human errors, like lost ballots and other risks, will be introduced. This frustrates the very reason why we have moved from hand counting to machine counting." -- Former Sec. of State James Baker, speaking on behalf of the Bush campaign at a press briefing televised by all networks on 11/10/00.

Fact: In 1997, George W. Bush signed into law a bill stating that hand recounts were the preferred method in a close election in Texas. The bill, "HB 330", mandated that representatives of all parties be present to prevent fraud.

Laws establishing rights and procedures for hand recounts also exist in Florida (see Title IX, Chapter 102). In fact, the Orlando Sentinel, (orlandosentinel.com) reported that a partial hand count of Presidential ballots this year was ordered by Republicans in Seminole County, where Bush led Gore. This count took place on 11/9 and 11/10, widening Bush's lead by 98 votes. The Bush campaign did not complain about this hand count; nor did it complain about the hand count on 11/11/00 which put Bush slightly ahead of Gore in New Mexico.

There do exist machine voting systems which are fairly accurate, but antiquated punch card systems are notoriously inaccurate. They were outlawed in Massachusetts in 1997 by Secretary of State William Galvin after a Congressional primary that was also "too close to call." The problem is that if the punched-out pieces of cardboard are not completely removed from the punch card, they can obstruct the card reader and the votes will not be counted. A manual recount of such cards can clearly reveal the voter's intentions.

5) Myth: The process is unfair because hand recounts were held only in liberal areas of Florida, where Gore stands to pick up the most votes.

Fact: It is true that a statewide recount would be more fair, and the Bush campaign has every right to request one. According to Florida law, hand recount requests must come from the campaigns, not from the state. To fail to request what is commonly referred to as a "defensive recount" in conservative areas of Florida, they may be making a tactical blunder that will cost them the election.

It is also true that there were voting irregularities in the counties where the Gore campaign requested recounts.

6) Myth: "Palm Beach County is a Pat Buchanan stronghold and that's why Pat Buchanan received 3407 votes there. According to the Florida Department of State, 16,695 voters in Palm Beach County are registered to the Independent Party, the Reform Party, or the American Reform Party, an increase of 110% since the 1996 presidential election" -- Ari Fleischer of the Bush Campaign, 11/9/00. The 2,000 votes received by the Reform party candidate for Congress indicate that party's strength in Palm Beach County (James Baker on Meet the Press, 11/12/00).

Fact: Of those 16,695 voters, only 337 (2 percent) are in the Reform Party according to Florida state records. The Reform party candidate for Congress, John McGuire, is connected to a more centrist wing of the Reform Party, predating Buchanan's involvement. An analysis of his support indicates that it came largely from reform-minded Ralph Nader voters.

Regarding Buchanan's vote total, the Washington Post reported that his vote percentage in Palm Beach county was four times as high at the polls as in absentee voting. Even Buchanan himself admitted on 11/8/00 on the Today Show that many of his votes actually "belonged to Al Gore." So did his campaign manager, Bay Buchanan.

7) Myth: If Gore (or Bush) ends up winning the popular vote, he really should win the election even if he loses Florida and other states.

Fact: This is not the way the U.S. Constitution is written. The Electoral College decision, imperfect as it may be, is the only one that matters. It may be possible to reform or eliminate the electoral college in the future, so that small states would no longer receive extra electoral votes out of proportion to their population. But until this change is made by Constitutional amendment, the Electoral College is still the law of the land.

8) Myth: The Cook County, Illinois ballot from the home district of Gore campaign chair Bill Daley is just like the "butterfly" ballot used in Palm Beach County (reported by Don Evans, 11/8/00)

Fact: According to the Chicago Daily Herald on 11/10/00, the ballots in Chicago which had "facing pages" were judicial retention questions which only had two punch holes, Yes and No.

9) Myth: The election process in Florida outside of Palm Beach County was fair.

Fact: Actually, thousands of irregularities in over a half-dozen categories have already been reported:

-Ballots ran out in certain precincts according to the LA Times on 11/10/00.

-Carpools of African-American voters were stopped by police, according to the Los Angeles Times (11/10/00). In some cases, officers demanded to see a "taxi license".

-Polls closed with people still in line in Tampa, according to the Associated Press.

-In Osceola County, ballots did not line up properly, possibly causing Gore voters to have their ballots cast for Harry Browne. Also, Hispanic voters were required to produce two forms of ID when only one is required. (source: Associated Press)

-Dozens, and possibly hundreds, of voters in Broward County were unable to vote because the Supervisor of Elections did not have enough staff to verify changes of address.

-Voters were mistakenly removed from voter rolls because their names were similar to those of ex-cons. (source: Mother Jones magazine, http://www.motherjones.com/news_wire/floridavote.html)

-According to Reuters news service (11/8/00), many voters received pencils rather than pens when they voted, in violation of state law.

-According to the Miami Herald, many Haitian-American voters were turned away from precincts where they were voting for the first time (11/10/00)

-According to Feed Magazine (www.feedmag.com), the mayoral candidate whose election in Miami was overturned due to voter fraud, Xavier Suarez, said he was involved in preparing absentee ballots for George W. Bush. (11/9/00, reported at http://www.feedmag.com/templates/daily.php3?a_id=1389)

-According to tompaine.com, CBS's Dan Rather reported a possible computer error in Volusia County, Florida, where James Harris, a Socialist Workers Party candidate, won 9,888 votes. He won 583 in the rest of the state. <11/9/00> County-level results for Florida are available at cnn.com.

-Many African-American first-time voters who registered at motor vehicles offices or in campus voter registration drives did not appear on the voting rolls, according to a hearing conducted by the NAACP and televised on C-SPAN on 11/12/00.

10) Myth: "No evidence of vote fraud, either in the original vote or in the recount, has been presented." -- James Baker, representing the Bush campaign on 11/10/00, in a Florida briefing.

Fact: The election was held just last week, so of course many instances of fraud have not yet been substantiated. Even so, authorities have already uncovered clear evidence of voter fraud involving absentee ballots.

In Pensacola, Florida, Bush supporter Todd Vinson never received the absentee ballot he requested. According to the Associated Press on 11/9/00, it was determined after an investigation that this ballot was received by a third party, filled out with a forged signature, and then sent in. Assistant State Attorney Russell Edgar, when asked if other absentee ballots might had been intercepted, said, "I agree there may well be many more than just this one."

Much media attention on the issue of voter fraud has been focused on Wisconsin where cigarettes were offered to homeless people who were casting absentee ballots, presumably for Gore. The Gore campaign claims the cigarettes were not used to "buy" votes. The London Times has reported a suspected pro-Bush vote fraud operation in Miami involving over thousands of ballots (11/13/00).

11) Myth: It is highly unusual for judges to intervene after an election. Since the designer of a disputed ballot in Florida is a member of the party contesting the election, a legal challenge is impossible.

Fact: The most fundamental right of a democratic society is the the right to vote, and to have one's vote correctly counted. The legal system exists to ensure that people's rights are not violated. Whether the person committing a violation is a Democrat or a Republican does not affect how that violation should be treated.

Elections are ultimately struggles for political power so it should not be surprising that disputes are often resolved in court. Of course judges can be biased. That is why they must explain their decisions and why bad arguments can be overturned on appeal.

The Florida Supreme Court ruled in 1998, in connection with a disputed Volusia County election, that if there is "substantial noncompliance" with election laws and a "reasonable doubt" about whether election results "expressed the will of the voters" then a judge must "void the contested election, even in the absence of fraud or intentional wrongdoing." (source: Wall St. Journal, 10/10/00). The Journal indicated that there was little legal precedent for revoting in just one area where an election occured. It would be more likely for a court to order a new election or to overturn the result.

These issues have arisen in other states as well. In a Massachusetts Democratic primary in 1996 for the US House, the election was so close after recounts that a judge had to make the final decision after examining some of the ballots that were incompletely punched, to determine the intention of the voter. The law clearly dictated that it was the will of the voter that mattered, and the candidate who was behind, William Delahunt, went on to win the final election. Call the Capitol Switchboard if you have any doubts at 202-225-3121.

12) Myth: Richard Nixon's party in 1960 did the honorable thing in not contesting the results of the election.

Fact: According to a column in the Los Angeles Times, 11/10/00, "on Nov. 11, three days after the election, Thruston B. Morton, a Kentucky senator and the Republican Party's national chairman, launched bids for recounts or investigations in not just Illinois and Texas but also Delaware, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania and South Carolina. A few days later, Robert H. Finch and Leonard W. Hall, two Nixon intimates, sent agents to conduct what they called "field checks" in eight of those 11 battlegrounds. In New Jersey, local Republicans obtained court orders for recounts; Texans brought suit in federal court. Illinois witnessed the most vigorous crusade. Nixon aide Peter Flanigan encouraged the creation of a Chicago-area Nixon Recount Committee. As late as Nov. 23, Republican National Committee general counsel H. Meade Alcorn Jr. was still predicting Nixon would take Illinois." Recounts continued into December, but did not succeed in overturning the result of the election.

13) Myth: "Governor Bush is still the winner, subject only to counting the overseas ballots, which traditionally have favored the Republican candidates" -- James Baker, Press Briefing, 11/10/00

Fact: The number of yet-to-be-counted overseas military ballots is likely to be in the range of 500 to 2000, based on the 1996 election in which there were 2,300 oversees absentee ballots overall, with roughly 60% of them coming from people enlisted in the military. According to CNN <11/10/00>, the military overseas ballots that arrived before the election were already counted.

The biggest difference from 1996 is that Clinton -- who avoided the draft -- was running against Dole, a decorated military veteran.

In 2000 George W. Bush -- who avoided service in Vietnam and actually lost flying privileges in the Texas Air National Guard -- is running against Al Gore, a veteran who served in Vietnam.

It is just as possible that Gore will gain a few hundred votes from veterans as the other way around. It is also possible that the Gore ticket will pick up votes from Democratic diplomatic appointees, or temporary residents and dual citizens of Israel.

Rich Cowan was the founder of the Center for Campus Organizing from 1991 to 1996 and is currently the chair of the Organizers' Collaborative - http://www.organizenow.net/

### (Sources at http://electionfraudnews.com/archive/News/13Myths2000.htm)

We should known after that horrible women in Fla. did it in 2000.
We have more rigged machine now then then.
Do we never learn?
Republicans will cheat if we let them.
I don't get HBO but will get it from Netflixs when available.

Florida was Jeb's job. Katherine Harris was his appointee as Sec. of State. I don't have HBO, but haven't seen a reference to Jeb in posted reviews.

Faux News-and Bush's cousin-were the ones that called Florida for Bush. They also left out the voter intimidation, ballot theft and law enforcement shenanigans that many of us witnessed http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3342792 . And most importantly: THEY LEFT OUT THE FACT THAT ONCE THE RECOUNTS WERE DONE GORE WON BY A SIGNIFICANT MARGIN!

My thoughts:

(a) James Baker WAS and IS every bit as ruthless as he was portrayed (and no, there's no relation even though we share the same last name, dammit, so stop saying that!).

(b) Ben Ginsburg is an even more ruthless, bigger dick than Baker. It disturbs me that he continues to take up our oxygen.

(c) Warren Christopher may not have been as total a wimp as portrayed, but I recall at the time (, i.e., November 2000) thinking he was a wimp and overmatched by Baker.

(d) The Republicans have no right to complain about the film. It portrays them AS THEY ARE - power-hungry, do-anything-to-win, amoral, unethcial, don't-give-a-damn-about-the-voters, etc. The past eight years have demonstrated that with utter clarity.

The main person, so I've read, who was upset about her portrayal in the film was Katherine Harris. I'm not upset about her portrayal; I'm upset about her ACTIONS in the whole fiasco.

And by the way, yes, Florida was totally fucked up, from the ballot design (by a Democrat, Theresa LaPore) to the Secretary of State, to the corrup Jeb, etc. etc.

Good film, even if it does take some liberties with actual events.

Bake