Nov 14, 2004
Florida Canvassing Board Quietly Signs off on 2004 Voting Results
By Brent Kallestad
Associated Press Writer
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - It was a wish come true Sunday for Florida's elections officials: no cameras, few questions and a clear decision.
Unlike four years ago, when scores of television satellite trucks and hundreds of reporters camped outside the Capitol, the state canvassing board quietly certified the results of the Nov. 2 general election, in which President Bush captured the state's 27 electoral votes by a comfortable margin.
"I think everyone is glad the election has come and gone," Secretary of State Glenda Hood said.
But referring to a handful of staffers and a couple of reporters observing the certification, she added, "It's a little lonesome."
Things were so routine Sunday that the canvassing board members who voted, Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher and Agriculture Commissioner Charlie Bronson, called in from home with their approval.
The third member, Attorney General Charlie Crist, didn't take part. Only two votes were needed.
When the canvassing board met in 2000, then-Secretary of State Katherine Harris prematurely declared Bush the winner. But it was a nearly a month later before the U.S. Supreme Court certified Bush's 537-vote victory margin over Democrat Al Gore in Florida to finally settle the outcome after weeks of recounts and legal wrangling.
This time Bush won Florida by nearly 381,000 votes over Sen. John Kerry.
AP-ES-11-14-04 1823EST
This story can be found at: http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGB2R96UJ1E.html
Full Version: Florida Canvassing Board Quietly Signs off on 2004
Common Ground Common Sense > Issues that Affect Our Lives > Civil Rights and Civil Liberties > Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Archive
wow
GOOD! This gives more time for recounts and court challenges. Remember, the sooner you fall behind, the more time you have to catch up!!!
Florida State Officials may be quietly signing off but Bev Harris is there right now.
I guess the AP reporter missed this little piece of news.
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/
BREAKING -- SATURDAY NOV 13 2004: Black Box Voting has launched a fraud audit into Florida. Three investigators (Bev Harris, Andy Stephenson, and Kathleen Wynne) are in Florida right now. We will initiate hand counts on selected counties that have not fully complied with our Nov. 2 Freedom of Information request by Monday (Diebold counties) or Tuesday (other counties).
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/
I guess the AP reporter missed this little piece of news.
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/
BREAKING -- SATURDAY NOV 13 2004: Black Box Voting has launched a fraud audit into Florida. Three investigators (Bev Harris, Andy Stephenson, and Kathleen Wynne) are in Florida right now. We will initiate hand counts on selected counties that have not fully complied with our Nov. 2 Freedom of Information request by Monday (Diebold counties) or Tuesday (other counties).
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/
Go ahead and sign off, and let the audits get ugly...
I hope the new word for the day
A U D I T
Kids can you say AUDIT
A U D I T
Kids can you say AUDIT
I thought the lack of receipts from Diebold voting machines were to make this a difficult if not impossible task?
My apologies to all...bush boy carried my county by 5000 votes.
Or did he?
I voted on paper. I voted early. (hernando county, fl)
I am in favor of pursuing Amendment XV.
I have written numerous emails.
I received a reply from David at Blackbox.com:
For me the problem with this analogy is that speech is an intangible.
A vote can be touched, handled, it has a concrete result.
If I order food at a restaurant and it comes to me inedible, I can send it back and have it redone correctly. If I come down with food poisoning from eating the food I ordered at the restaurant and can prove it...I have recourse.
A vote is a tangible product. A vote without being counted is not a vote--it is a vote that has been abridged. Therefore the vote count is a right that is covered under the XV Amendment.
My apologies to all...bush boy carried my county by 5000 votes.
Or did he? I voted on paper. I voted early. (hernando county, fl)
I am in favor of pursuing Amendment XV.
I have written numerous emails.
I received a reply from David at Blackbox.com:
QUOTE
Me:
I am certain the XV Amendment gives us grounds before Congress. What do
you think?
David:
Sadly, the courts have routinely ruled that while we have the right to vote, their is no gurantee in the Constitution that our vote will be counted or counted correctly. Such things, they tell us, are impractical.
And know, I don't agree, but as Dickens said, "the law is an ass".
-----------------------------end abreviated email 1---------------------------------
Me:
I beg to differ with the current rulings of the courts that you speak
of. Do you have any particular case law that comes immediately to
mind? Where would I look? I'm not a lawyer but I know how to do
research.
David:
My comments were based on a symposium I attended the end of October at the New England School of Law where I was speaking on e-voting. An earlier speaker was discussing the probelms with our electoral system and cited that as a problem. He did not cite case law, as the symposium was for layman and first years.
Section 1. of Article XV =The right of citizens of the United States
to vote shall not be denied or abridged (reduced in
scope--counted--or not counted is definately abridge)
Ah, but that is what you are reading into the law. I mayt agree with your view, but the law is, well run by lawyers. It is illegal to prevent you from voting or in some way abridge your vote. But once cast... nothing mentions they must be counted.
Another example, I have the right to say something, but not the right to make you listen.
Again, I agree with you, but law and justice are not always in accord.
-----------------------end abreviated email #2----------------------------------
I am certain the XV Amendment gives us grounds before Congress. What do
you think?
David:
Sadly, the courts have routinely ruled that while we have the right to vote, their is no gurantee in the Constitution that our vote will be counted or counted correctly. Such things, they tell us, are impractical.
And know, I don't agree, but as Dickens said, "the law is an ass".
-----------------------------end abreviated email 1---------------------------------
Me:
I beg to differ with the current rulings of the courts that you speak
of. Do you have any particular case law that comes immediately to
mind? Where would I look? I'm not a lawyer but I know how to do
research.
David:
My comments were based on a symposium I attended the end of October at the New England School of Law where I was speaking on e-voting. An earlier speaker was discussing the probelms with our electoral system and cited that as a problem. He did not cite case law, as the symposium was for layman and first years.
Section 1. of Article XV =The right of citizens of the United States
to vote shall not be denied or abridged (reduced in
scope--counted--or not counted is definately abridge)
Ah, but that is what you are reading into the law. I mayt agree with your view, but the law is, well run by lawyers. It is illegal to prevent you from voting or in some way abridge your vote. But once cast... nothing mentions they must be counted.
Another example, I have the right to say something, but not the right to make you listen.
Again, I agree with you, but law and justice are not always in accord.
-----------------------end abreviated email #2----------------------------------
For me the problem with this analogy is that speech is an intangible.
A vote can be touched, handled, it has a concrete result.
If I order food at a restaurant and it comes to me inedible, I can send it back and have it redone correctly. If I come down with food poisoning from eating the food I ordered at the restaurant and can prove it...I have recourse.
A vote is a tangible product. A vote without being counted is not a vote--it is a vote that has been abridged. Therefore the vote count is a right that is covered under the XV Amendment.
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