There was also the very real case of deployed soldiers from various states, (thousands from *Florida*), whose names and ballots were counted, but which had never been delivered or seen at the actual bases by the soldiers stationed at various locations around the world. It was not universally the case, but many of our bases did not receive the ballots repeatedly requested.
I was personally involved in the investigation with then US Rep. Joe S’s office (Pensacola, FL) in conjunction with another US Rep Petri from Wisconsin.
I had personally spoken with Air Force personnel in England, whose ballots were discovered counted for Gore in Florida, who were upset they had not been allowed to vote! This after repeated requests from their base commander for delivery of the ballots to afford their personnel the opportunity to vote, which never came!
Discovery was made and recorded of thousands of votes from names of deployed personnel (all branches) being cast for Gore. In these cases, none were found for Bush.
Again, this problem originated well before the election after complaints from OCONUS commanders and personnel who repeatedly requested ballots and then never received the ballots in order to vote.
The ad hoc service members congressional investigation (during the Gore Campaign’s demand for recounts) did find thousands of ballots counted for Gore in Florida by concerned servicemen OCONUS which never received their ballots and who went on record as not actually having the chance to vote.
After the Bush win, the RNC halted and downplayed the investigation and did not publish the findings which were made.
And just think, this incident which happened with Clinton as Commander in Chief, which I was involved in investigating, happened long before the cargo plane went down destroying all the ballots for our ground soldiers in Afghanistan and a small naval vessel sank carrying more ballots for our service members in a later election on another presidents watch...
What a coincidence... (sarc)
I also recall that several reserve units were surprisingly activated during the last few days of the campaign and deployed to other locations -- both overseas and within the U.S. The notices arrived after the deadline for absentee ballot requests and these members of the military were rendered incapable of casting a ballot.
In retrospect, it's obvious that the Gore campaign knew Florida would be the key to the election...and that the margin in the state would be paper-thin. They then set about creating as many advantages for themselves as they could.
Question: how were you able to determine that a specific person's absentee ballot was recorded for a specific candidate?