Date: Thu, 23 Nov 2000
Stealing Votes
Thomas M. Miovas, Jr.
><HB: Under the law, either party can request a recount,
>and then the canvassing board "can authorize"
>that recount. It would have been proper and more honest
>to say "We want a recount, because we think our
>guy will be thus determined to have won.">
I think this is precisely where the accusation of stealing votes
can hold up.
I watched the entire court proceedings before the Florida
Supreme Court. One of the issues raised was whether or not a
candidate could *demand* a re-count. Under Florida law, a
candidate or a party can *request* a re-count, but the decision
is left entirely up the various canvassing boards -- if they
agree, they will do a re-count; if they disagree, they won't --
**and there is no law or legal authority that can override their
decision.** In Florida, and I believe throughout the country,
elections are governed by local (county) canvassing boards who
have complete autonomy (provided they stay within their federal,
state, and local election laws). [This is one reason each county
has their own vote ballots and tabulation procedures; which I
like, by the way, because it cuts down on universal attempts at
fraud.]
But what happened when Miami-Dade decided, after the legally
required sampling hand re-count, not to do a full hand re-count?
The Gore legal team threatened to sue the Miami-Dade canvassing
board, so the counting continued.
What happened when Miami-Dade decided they couldn't meet the
Florida Supreme Court ruling that the hand counting could
continue, because they didn't have enough time to do a total
hand re-count? The Gore legal team went to a local court of
appeals in an attempt to force the canvassing commission to
continue hand re-counts. Fortunately, this last was rejected by
that appeals court. Unfortunately, the Gore legal team will
probably enact a law suit against the Miami-Dade canvassing
commission.
What happened when one of the counties (I forget which one) came
up with more votes for Bush, rather than Gore? Team Gore
threatened them with a law suit if they didn't go back and try
again.
I submit that the threat of force or law suits against the
various canvassing commissions on the part of Team Gore, if
those canvassing commissions don't come up with more votes for
Gore, is tantamount to holding a gun to their heads and telling
them to hand over the votes or else.
In my book, that's an attempt to steal an election.
<HB: I agree that baseless law suits, hoping to capitalize on irrational
juries and/or non-objective law, are a disgraceful initiation of force.
They are a form of extortion....>
