Note how Theresa has been brutally trashed -- without using her name??? /sarcasm
Posted on 09/02/2004 8:22:49 AM PDT by OESY
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla., Sept. 1 (AP) - Theresa LePore, the official whose confusing butterfly ballot design contributed to the turmoil of the 2000 presidential election and became the butt of jokes on late-night talk shows, lost her bid for re-election Tuesday.
With all 692 precincts reporting, a challenger for her post as Palm Beach County elections supervisor, Arthur Anderson, had 91,134 votes, or 52 percent, while Ms. LePore had 85,601, or 48 percent.
Ms. LePore declined to meet with reporters early Wednesday, but as the polls closed Tuesday she said she was too busy overseeing the counting of ballots to think about her own race. "I just want to win so I can continue doing the job I love," she said.
A spokesman for her, Marty Rogol, said a "media blitz" by Anderson supporters over the last week, including appearances by some prominent out-of-state Democrats, was partly responsible for her showing.
The current term of the 49-year-old Ms. LePore does not expire until Jan. 3, and so she will oversee the November election in Palm Beach County. She has worked in the elections office more than three decades, and in the top job since 1996. A Democrat when she ran unopposed in 2000, she was angered by party leaders' statements during the presidential-election recount and had since declared herself an independent.
Ms. LePore became a focus of national attention four years ago because of her ballot design, which listed the names of presidential candidates on opposing pages that were separated by a succession of holes, not neatly aligned, where voters were supposed to make their choices. Afterward, some of the county's voters complained that the design had led them by mistake to select Patrick J. Buchanan instead of Al Gore.
The design provided fodder for political cartoonists and late-night comedians, and Mr. Gore ultimately lost Florida by 537 votes.
Still reeling from that narrow defeat, Democrats rallied behind Mr. Anderson, a professor and former county school board member.
Speaking of a "continuous erosion" in confidence in the voting process, Mr. Anderson said he was running against Ms. LePore to protect "the right to have our votes count," and urged the addition of printers to voting machines to ensure a paper trail in case of a recount. Ms. LePore said she thought printers unnecessary.
Ms. LePore's supporters, meanwhile, pointed to history more recent than 2000. In the 2002 election for governor, she ran a smooth operation with new touch-screen voting machines, while voting problems met by her counterparts in Broward and Miami-Dade Counties again made Florida a punch line of national jokes.
Note how Theresa has been brutally trashed -- without using her name??? /sarcasm
ROTFL! Palm Beach Democrat voters have to be, colletively, some of the dumbest people on the planet.
Arthur Anderson? ARTHUR ANDERSON?!?!?!?
You have got to be kidding!
Truth really is stranger than fiction . . .
Palm beach voters are so stupid 48% still supported LaPore. Unbelievable.
It's all of the Depression Era geezers.
We'll be better off when they're dead and gone. They've never left the 20's/30's.
THERE'S a name you can trust when it comes to numbers...
MKM
I read there was a HUGH vote count mistake in her race, something about absentee ballots getting counted twice.
...In the opinion of most independent observers, this is the single most confusing, bewildering, incipherable document ever produced. To begin with, how do you know which side to vote on? [ holds it up on one side ] Is this right-side up? [ flips it over ] Or is this right-side up? The ballot doesn't say. And what's with all these confusing names? Bush. Gore. Buchanan. Nader. And confusing party affiliations. Democrat. Republican. Reform. Here's one called "Green". And here's more names. George. Patrick. Albert. John. John. There's two different Johns. I mean, who on earth could figure this out. But to really understand how confusing this ballot is, you have to take a closer look. Here it is. [ close-up is shown ] Now, for the love of God, what are all these dots? And these arrows? If you look closely, you will see that tips of the arrow points to a dot...but the shaft of the arrow points back to a name. So how do you vote? Do you circle a candidate's name? Do you underline it? Or do you write it on the arrow? Or underneath? Or maybe it's the dots. Do you write the candidate's name on the dots? They seem sort of small. Maybe just his initials. Or do you color in the dots? If so, in what color? Maybe you scratch the dots with the edge of a penny. Or lick the dots. Again, this ballot does not spell it out. I went to Harvard - I couldn't make heads or tails of this. [ puts ballot away ]Just imagine what it was like for the most vulnerable residents of Palm Beach. [ holds up photo ] This is Esther Rosenthal. Esther Rosenthal is age 92, a Democrat all her life.. Esther left her nursing home Tuesday morning intending to vote for me! Totally bewildered by this ballot, she ended up voting for the Libertarian candidate, and switching her long-distance service to Sprint. [ holds up next photo ] Okay.. Sidney and Reesa Mandel, age 87 and 85, ate their ballot! [ holds up next photo ] While Rachel Goldensten, age 96, mailed hers to Barbra Streisand...
Was and still is a Democrat.
Nope, no bias here.
If a voter can't follow those directions, they don't deserve to vote.
I'm by no means a member of Mensa...but a person has to be an absolute %#@*ing idiot not to be able to figure out that ballot.
Seriously, someone tell me.
Are the voters of Palm Beach County really this %#@*ing stupid?
Just Damn!!!!!
These are headed straight for the color printer!
"Palm beach voters are so stupid 48% still supported LaPore. Unbelievable.."
Nah- that 48% thought they were voting for the other candidate.
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