THE DESPERATION OF THE DEMOCRATS

The American Partisan ^ | 29 October 2004 | Timothy Rollins

[MrBallroom]

Here's an advance copy - will be reposted later in the day Friday.

[dsc]

"had those votes been counted and added to the popular vote total, that California - the nation's most populous state - may have provided enough votes to put President Bush over the edge as the winner of the popular vote total as well."

Is this true? How come I haven't heard about this before?

[JanetteS]

"In their efforts to limit free speech through 'campaign finance reform', Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Russ Feingold (D-WI) opened a Pandora's Box with these 527's that cannot be closed, and frankly, that has become a good thing. The American people aren't the mindless dolts that ABC, CBS, CNN and NBC wish them to be. With FOX NEWS, Free Republic, and other web magazines and bloggers maintaining a vigilance of truth, the harpies in the mainstream press can no longer get away with their continuous lies or selective reporting. There is now an accountability factor that wasn't there previously, and like Martha Stewart in prison, this is also a very good thing.

Expect the Democrats to do anything, say anything they can to steal this election, because they'll try their best to do just that! Be sure to vote legally, but only once next Tuesday. Vote as if your life depended on it, because it very well might! *** "

Excellent commentary! Very well said. Thank you for posting this!

[Hank Rearden]

Yeah! What's the deal there? I remember a delay, with the CA absentee ballots sitting around, but I've never heard they weren't ever counted.

Doesn't pass the smell test, given the 'Rat emphasis on the popular vote totals. Are CA R's that wimpy?

[Just Lori]

I give a "bravo" and a standing ovation to this writer!

[Woogit]

This is a well written and very informative article...I just wish it would have made me feel a little more secure about a Bush victory next Tuesday. The immediate evil we fight is right here at home in the democratic party! I sure hope our guys are on all this stuff like stink on a skunk! May God help us!

[okie01]

Is this true? How come I haven't heard about this before?

I don't believe it is. The eventual California totals include the absentee vote -- which was distributed between Bush and Gore in about the same proportions as the polling station vote.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

If you recall the media tried to give FL to Gore in 2000
VNS was a private consortium owned by
ABC News, The Associated Press, CBS News, CNN, Fox News, and NBC.
4 of the 5 of the networks and cable newsrooms
(only ABC waited till both time zones closed)
"announced" Gore had won
BEFORE the 2nd time zone in FL had closed.
This cost President Bush votes in the FL panhandle.

I was at a friends house and the State of FL election website results showed President Bush was winning

In fact, the networks which called Florida for Gore did so early in the evening—before polls had even closed in the Florida panhandle, which is part of the Central Time Zone. NBC called Florida for Gore at 7:49:40 p.m., Eastern Time. This was 10 minutes before polls closed in the Florida panhandle. Thirty seconds later, CBS called Florida for Gore. And at 7:52 p.m., Fox called Florida for Gore. Moore never lets the audience know that Fox was among the networks which made the error of calling Florida for Gore prematurely. Then at 8:02 p.m., ABC called Florida for Gore. Only ABC had waited until the Florida polls were closed.

About an hour before the polls closed in panhandle Florida,
the networks called the U.S. Senate race in favor of the Democratic candidate.

The premature calls may have cost Bush thousands of votes from the conservative panhandle, as discouraged last-minute voters heard that their state had already been decided;
some last-minute voters on their way to the polling place turned around and went home. Other voters who were waiting in line left the polling place. In Florida, as elsewhere, voters who have arrived at the polling place before closing time often end up voting after closing time, because of long lines. The conventional wisdom of politics is that supporters of the losing candidate are most likely to give up on voting when they hear that their side has already lost. Thus, on election night 1980, when incumbent President Jimmy Carter gave a concession speech while polls were still open on the west coast, the early concession was blamed for costing the Democrats several Congressional seats in the West, such as that of 20-year incumbent James Corman. The fact that all the networks had declared Reagan a landslide winner while west coast voting was still in progress was also blamed for Democratic losses in the West; Congress even held hearings about prohibiting the disclosure of exit polls before voting had ended in the any of the 48 contiguous states.

Even if the premature television calls affected all potential voters equally, the effect was to reduce Republican votes significantly, because the Florida panhandle is a Republican stronghold. Most of Central Time Zone Florida is in the 1st Congressional District, which is known as the "Redneck Riviera." In that district, Bob Dole beat Bill Clinton by 69,000 votes in 1996, even though Clinton won the state by 300,000 votes.

So depress overall turnout in the panhandle,
and you will necessarily depress more Republican than Democratic votes.

A 2001 study by John Lott suggested that the early calls cost Bush at least 7,500 votes,
and perhaps many more.

At 10:00 p.m., which network took the lead in retracting the premature Florida win for Gore?
The first retracting network was CBS, not Fox.

Over four hours later, at 2:16 a.m., Fox projected Bush as the Florida winner,
as did all the other networks by 2:20 a.m.

At 3:59 a.m., CBS took the lead in retracting the Florida call for Bush. All the other networks, including Fox, followed the CBS lead within eight minutes. That the networks arrived at similar conclusions within a short period of time is not surprising, since they were all using the same data from the Voter News Service. (Linda Mason, Kathleen Francovic & Kathleen Hall Jamieson, “CBS News Coverage of Election Night 2000: Investigation, Analysis, Recommendations” (CBS News, Jan. 2001), pp. 12-25.)

The big 5 media TV and Cable newsrooms are the real threat to the 2004 election.

..."Early on Tuesday, November 7th 2000, TV stations and various media based in Florida reported that Gore has won Florida which was a big surprise for everyone because of strong republican support. Bush's brother Jeb is governor there and Florida usually gives support to the Republicans. Some of them questioned that and during the night CNN showed 52% Bush's lead over 46% for Gore. It is almost impossible to believe that media could have been that blind and biased to report Gore's victory."...

[ladyinred]

Excellent analogy!

[LegendHasIt]

Yeah, we had three counties here that never counted absentee ballots in 2000 either.

That, and a "lost" ballot box that was "found" at the very last moment gave Gore the state by fewer than 400 votes.

[JanetteS]

Vote! Vote! Vote! Okay, only actually vote once but take a friend! We're okay! Think how much sweeter our victory will be on Wednesday when we know They cheated to get as far as they did! Just think how many more Dems would have turned out for Howard Dean! Sad, but that @ss would have come closer to beating President Bush because he actually represented his own beliefs instead of Kerry who represented the beliefs of whomever he was speaking to at the moment.

WE WILL WIN! I predict (yes, I' going out on limb here)President Bush wins the electoral vote by a good margin and the popular vote by. . .10% (GASP). Really. No, joking. Screw the polls. I think voters (paid by crack or otherwise) are that smart.

[Arizona Carolyn]

But... if Kerry is elected the bloggers as well as conservative talk radio will become dinasaurs as they start to dismantel our ammendment rights. Kerry would like to force conservative radio stations to carry shows like Al Franken in order to brainwash the public with mindless drivel.

[dsc]

Yeah, I remember all that. But I don't remember CA absentee ballots not being counted.

It wasn't only Florida that messed with absentee ballots, btw. Mine didn't arrive until weeks after the election.

[JanetteS]

Right . . . Sorry we still live in a capitalist society and money drives every market. Franken's show will die. The Fairness Doctrine will never be accepted especially now with the advent of satellite radio (which I don't have but would get in a heartbeat if the Fairness Doctrine ever went into effect). Money drives the market...Republicans have the most money...oops...did I say that out loud?

[MrBallroom]

Your one-month anniversary on FR! Happy anniversary!

[It's me]

.

[Arizona Carolyn]

You did... and I agree. Actually I'd willingly pay to listen to Rush, Sean, Hewitt, etc., commercial-free.

[JanetteS]

Oh my gosh! Thank you! I've managed to be awfully mouthy in a month! Now if I could just find the time to figure out HTML...think of all the damage I could do!

[patriciamary]

How can they be desperate? They're tied and ahead in Ohio and N.H.by many.If I were the Bush team that seems to be mute on Kerry I would be worried