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Posted on 11/27/2004 4:32:20 PM PST by RtWngr
Since George W. Bush captured Florida and the White House again, critics have fixed their sights on northern pockets of the Sunshine State and asked: How did the Republicans win so heavily in counties stocked with Democrats?
Some wondered whether Florida's tally was corrupt, with one Internet site writing: "George W. Bush's vote tallies, especially in the key state of Florida, are so statistically stunning that they border on the unbelievable."
Last week, The Miami Herald went to see for itself whether Bush's steamroll through North Florida was legitimate. Picking three counties that fit the conspiracy theory profile - staunchly Democratic by registration, whoppingly GOP by voting - two reporters counted more than 17,000 ballots over three days.
The conclusion: No conspiracy.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
Alachua - traditionally heavily Dem - ALMOST went for Bush, with 46% of its votes coming in for Bush, despite the fact that it is 3:1 Dem registration. This is because we worked like fiends to get the vote out, appealing to Southern conservative Dems and getting them to cross over. It's amazing how many people who came into GOP headquarters to get yard signs or bumper stickers told me that they were Dems, but they were voting for Bush.
I guess it's pretty hard for the Dems to accept this!
Is this gonna be above the fold, front page at the NYT?
Man, the left just keeps finding more ways that Bush won. Bush wins again!
I also live in Alachua county and was pleased to see Bush breaking the 40% barrier this time around. Last time it was a pitiful 38% 46% is a miracle for a college town.
I wonder if Olberman will be reporting this on Countdown come Monday? I serioulsy doubt it.
Maybe the pathetic progressive liberal socialist dems should concentrate on registering REAL PEOPLE instead of fraudulent ones like they do.
Or dead people...
Or felons...
or people with residency in more than one state...
Maybe, just maybe, these pathetic press organizations should concentrate on Legitimate Registrations, and would soon discover they don't have as many dem registrations as they thought they did.
Now the morons don't want to have the votes counted, they would just be happy with counting the registrations....
Why have elections at all, huh.....
DUmb dems......
I am so happy they still don't get it....
Regards,
Joe
Thanks for posting this.
Strage how the left isn't screaming about all the fraud that was found by the allmighty international election observers.......Oh yeah, thats because they didn't find any, at least from the GOP side.
San Luis Obispo Tribune
Independent vote count confirms Bush win in northern Florida
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/news/politics/10284880.htm
LAKE BUTLER, Fla. - Since George W. Bush captured Florida and the White House again, critics have fixed their sights on northern pockets of the Sunshine State and asked: How did the Republicans win so heavily in counties stocked with Democrats?
Some wondered whether Florida's tally was corrupt, with one Internet site writing: "George W. Bush's vote tallies, especially in the key state of Florida, are so statistically stunning that they border on the unbelievable."
Last week, The Miami Herald went to see for itself whether Bush's steamroll through North Florida was legitimate. Picking three counties that fit the conspiracy theory profile - staunchly Democratic by registration, whoppingly GOP by voting - two reporters counted more than 17,000 ballots over three days.
The conclusion: No conspiracy.
The newspaper's count of optical scan ballots in Suwannee, Lafayette and Union counties showed Bush whipping Sen. John Kerry in a swath of Florida where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans 3-1.
The newspaper found minor differences with the official results in each county, most involving a smattering of ballots that had been discarded as unreadable by optical scan machines but in which reporters felt the voter intent was clear.
Under the optical scan system, voters fill in an oval or darken an arrow by a candidate's name on a card. A machine reads the card optically.
Wrinkles aside, the Herald count confirmed that Bush's message sold in a part of the state where many voters may be Democratic by registration only.
"They're not going to vote for a Northeast liberal," summarized Lafayette County Judge Harlow Land, director of the county canvassing board.
Kerry had solidly won the battle in South Florida, where touch-screen machines do not create a ballot paper trail that can be checked. But Bush won the war in Florida by dominating elsewhere, particularly in the 52 counties that use optical scan ballots, which can be checked for accuracy.
Republicans had often done fairly well in those counties, but this year more so.
And it was on those counties that the critics focused. Democrats outnumber Republicans by about 340,000 voters in the 52 optical scan counties, but Bush took them by about 340,000 votes - a 680,000-vote swing that assured him of winning the White House.
The Herald focused on three counties that represented some of the more severe disparities between registrations and votes, beginning last Monday morning in Union County, where more than 75 percent of the registered voters are Democrats.
Election clerk Mary Francis Williams flipped ballots in the courtroom in Lake Butler, as reporters marked lines on pads - counting votes for Bush, votes for Kerry and the rare votes for a third-party candidate.
As the counting went on, the daily hubbub of life breezed through. One worker's husband dropped by to say he was taking a truckload of cucumbers and collards to Jacksonville. A neighbor stopped in to tell friends about the lot size for her double-wide.
Union County Judge Dave Reimer popped in, too, saying: "People here traditionally register as Democrats to vote in local primaries, but they're very conservative. When I came here in 1983, there were only 54 registered Republicans in the whole county."
Election Supervisor Babs Montpetit was a little more direct. "People here are mostly fundamentalist Christians who work in the prisons," she said. "Do you think they're going to vote for the liberal senator from Massachusetts?"
The Herald total: 3,393 votes for Bush and 1,272 for Kerry. There were 15 votes that couldn't clearly be counted.
The official Union County total: 3,396 votes for Bush, 1,251 for Kerry and a few dozen that couldn't be counted.
"The difference is in the under-over votes," Montpetit explained. The Herald concluded voter intent in a couple of dozen cases that optical scan readers could not discern.
The next stop was west a bit, past cattle and tall pines to neighboring Suwannee County. Election Supervisor Glenda Williams greeted reporters at the election office in Live Oak: "Most people in this county are against abortion and gay marriage. So, they voted for Bush."
Did it matter that Dick Cheney, Bush's vice president, said that same-sex marriage should be left to states to decide, a position that differs from Bush's? "We don't think that deep," she replied.
Williams had just put together a packet to mail to BlackBoxVoting.Org, an Internet group that has questioned the outcome of the Florida election. "BlackBox wants office memos," Williams said. "But we just talk to each other."
Williams displayed the voting tabulation machines and demonstrated how the ballots are fed in by voters. She printed out a tape that looked like a cash register receipt to show the early vote results.
It matched The Herald's count.
Halfway through Tuesday, Williams took a break so she could pick up Sassy at the dog groomer and buy a pecan pie from Cracker Barrel.
The head of the Suwannee County Chamber of Commerce, Dennis Cason, put in his two cents during the respite. "A lot of Christians here - independent, fundamentalist Baptists - think that God interceded for Bush," he said.
The Herald counted almost 60 percent of the votes in Suwannee County, where nearly 64 percent of the voters are registered Democrats.
The newspaper's total from those precincts: 6,140 votes for Bush and 2,984 for Kerry, which nearly matched the county's official tally.
Next stop: Mayo in Lafayette County (pronounced "Luh-FAY-it"), where 83 percent of the voters are registered Democrats.
Along the way were neighborhoods called "The Christian Village," and a warehouse called "The Christian Outlet." One billboard said: "There is life before birth."
"This can't be deja vu, like four years ago," county Election Supervisor Lana Morgan said at the courthouse, where the ballots awaited.
Four years ago, the Florida vote was so tight, and so flawed, that The Herald counted every questionable ballot. This time, the results weren't as close, but the questions remained. Reporters told Morgan the newspaper had come back to hand-count presidential votes to end the speculation.
"Good," she said. "You don't know how frustrating it is to convince people who are set on believing something - even if it's not true."
Lafayette County Judge Land paid a visit during the count. Bush made "an honest mistake" when he said there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the judge said, and voters looked past that error to other issues.
The reporters' total: 2,452 votes for Bush and 848 for Kerry, with 20 that couldn't be clearly counted.
The official Lafayette County total: 2,460 votes for Bush, 845 for Kerry and others that couldn't be counted.
Morgan invited the visitors for an early Thanksgiving dinner in her office, but the reporters had to return home, driving to the Jacksonville airport past Snoball stands, chicken farms and anti-abortion billboards.
I sent this story to oberman with the subject as voter fraud ;-)
The dims just keep letting us win over and over. this is a gloatathon.
I just realized that the dems have finally quit whining about how Bush "stole" the election of 2000, how he was "selected" by the Supreme Court, etc. Now they just hate us for caring about the war, the economy, morals and our faith.
It's an improvement - I'd rather have them spread their bashing out over many of us than just going after the President.
Well that's the question they don't want to hear...or know the answer to. They keep parading the northeastern "liberals" for president.
This really comes as no surprise to me. I live in Walton county, Fl. in the NW panhandle where the registered Democrat are 72%, and yet, I know off NOBODY, not a single soul who voted for Kerry. I'd have a hard time believing it if I didn't live here and see this for myself.
Good news.
Remember Senator Dungheap Harkin's comment regarding the inpeachment of XDIRTPOTUS - "they're going to try to hem us in with FACTS!"
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