Study of Disputed Florida Ballots Finds Justices Did Not Cast the Deciding Vote [Bush v Gore]

New York Times ^ | November 12, 2001 | FORD FESSENDEN and JOHN M. BRODER

[grundle]

A comprehensive review of the uncounted Florida ballots from last year's presidential election reveals that George W. Bush would have won even if the United States Supreme Court had allowed the statewide manual recount of the votes that the Florida Supreme Court had ordered to go forward.

Contrary to what many partisans of former Vice President Al Gore have charged, the United States Supreme Court did not award an election to Mr. Bush that otherwise would have been won by Mr. Gore. A close examination of the ballots found that Mr. Bush would have retained a slender margin over Mr. Gore if the Florida court's order to recount more than 43,000 ballots had not been reversed by the United States Supreme Court.

Even under the strategy that Mr. Gore pursued at the beginning of the Florida standoff -- filing suit to force hand recounts in four predominantly Democratic counties -- Mr. Bush would have kept his lead, according to the ballot review conducted for a consortium of news organizations.

[Paladin2]

Ballots of such dubious provenance?

NO WAY to trust any of that “evidence”

[humblegunner]

Thanks for not sticking this on your blog and claiming credit for it.

[OttawaFreeper]

But likely, the media and their liberal friends got away with the narrative about how GW Bush stole the election.

[sphinx]

Mr. Bush would have kept his lead, according to the ballot review conducted for a consortium of news organizations

It was good of the NYT to acknowledge this, but it still misses the point. The Democrats did not intend the ballot review to be conducted by a consortium of news organizations, or by any other entity pretending to at least a semblance of neutrality. The dems intended for the review to be conducted by democrat operatives empowered to cheat.

[griswold3]

Remember ‘Selected, NOT Elected’
Successful Branding by the ‘Progressive’ propaganda myrmidons

[who_would_fardels_bear]

The report that came out soon after the hubbub had subsided was that if Gore had gotten everything he asked for Bush would have won, but if Bush had gotten everything he asked for then Gore would have one.

This is an obvious case why elections need to be handled with a lot more care than currently.

I would be in favor of all elections moving to a Saturday/Sunday and then doing away with mail in ballots and making it difficult to get an absentee ballot. If most people had to go to a polling place and present proper ID that would help eliminate most voter fraud.

Then if we do away with electronic voting and require ballot security similar to what is provided for the Oscar results, then we can eliminate fraud by political parties.

It is really sad that in almost all elections one of two things happens: one candidate wins in a landslide, or the result is so close that voter/party fraud can open the door to overturning the true result.

In either case our votes don't count.

[reg45]

Oh Boy! That only took eighteen years and three Presidents.

[Ancesthntr]

“I would be in favor of all elections moving to a Saturday/Sunday and then doing away with mail in ballots and making it difficult to get an absentee ballot. If most people had to go to a polling place and present proper ID that would help eliminate most voter fraud.”

---

Let’s also dip voters’ thumbs in indelible purple ink, like we made the Iraqis do to avoid fraud. This way, if they wish to vote again, they can do so only if they cut off the thumb, so that there’s no purple ink.

I’m actually fairly serious - there need to be some very heavy penalties for cheating. No, not medieval torture, but hefty jail sentences...in northern Alaska in the winter, and in Death Valley in the summer. That’ll stop the fraud pretty quickly.

[Phlyer]

It was good of the NYT to acknowledge this, but it still misses the point. The Democrats did not intend the ballot review to be . . .

I think you miss the point as well. The issue was not to have the ballot review completed by the time the Electoral College voted. Gore (through his attorneys) would claim that the Florida vote was in dispute and that the Florida electoral votes could not be counted.

With Florida out of the count, Gore would have had a majority of the remaining electoral college votes.

By the time the decision came down, there was so much visibility into the count that 'cheating' would have been very difficult. But delay was achievable. What the Supreme Court decided - correctly - was that there was not time for a fair recount without compromising the electoral college schedule.

As others have posted, the 'legend' has formed, but the real strategy of Gore's attempt to steal the election has been buried even more deeply than the results of the subsequent recounts.

[Sacajaweau]

I totally agree and have been saying Saturday and Sunday for a long time. No reason it can’t happen.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

Lol. I was gonna add the purple thumb thing, but I thought it might rile up too much hatred.

Glad to see someone else is as serious about cleaning up this election mess.