Review by newspaper gives Florida vote gain to Bush January 14, 2001 Web posted at: 10:23 PM EST (0323 GMT) MIAMI, Florida (AP) -- A review of 10,600 previously uncounted ballots in Miami-Dade County showed George W. Bush gaining six more votes than Al Gore, The Palm Beach Post reported Sunday. The newspaper counted votes that were not registered by ballot machines, or undervotes. The count included ballots ranging from those with barely hanging chads to ones that were just slightly dimpled. Two Post reporters, each paired with an elections staffer, reviewed the ballots. The review concluded that President-elect Bush would have gained 251 votes and Vice President Gore would have gained 245 votes. No overvotes, or ballots where machines detected more than one presidential vote, were counted. The review, which ended last week, also showed that 7,600 of the more than 10,000 undervotes had no mark at all in the presidential column, or in rare cases included multiple votes that could not be given to one candidate or the other. At least 2,257 ballots were cleanly but inaccurately punched in odd-numbered holes that corresponded to none of the 10 presidential candidates on the ballot. The 653,963 Miami-Dade ballots used only even-numbered holes for the presidential race. The certified final results in Miami-Dade were 328,808 votes for Gore and 289,533 for Bush, according to the Florida secretary of state's office. Bush won Florida by a 537-vote margin out of about 6 million votes cast in the state. Later this month, a research firm hired by a media group that includes the Post, The Associated Press and other news organizations will undertake an inspection of all roughly 180,000 undervotes and overvotes in the Florida presidential election. The Miami Herald is working with an accounting firm to review only the estimated 60,000 undervote ballots that were rejected in the presidential race statewide. Sort of interesting that even with using a broad standard of what constitutes a vote in the three counties Gore wanted to recount, Bush still wins. Since Palm Beach County and Broward County had already completed their recounts, for Gore to have won (using his strategy of only counting those three counties), he had ot pick up a lot of votes in Miami-Dade. But the Palm Beach Post count says he would've lost ground if the undervotes were counted with a broad standard. All this backs my opinion that Bush probably should've let the statewide recount proceed and live with the results. Not that it would've made that much difference. Many people who oppose Mr. Bush would likely cling on to something else as proof that Bush is an illegitimate President. ------------------ Houston Sports Board The Anti-Bud Adams Page
Good for him. I wonder if all the GOP who were trying to stop the newspapers from exercising their rights will now try to use this info for their benefit. I oppose Dubya, but I just wanted to make sure, for the sake of the country, that the count was as correct as possible.
But the fact that I am only 10 votes behind Gore is left out. ------------------ Ceo of the Walt Williams fan club. Web site coming soon atheistalliance.org