Foxnews.com 11/7/00 Matt Gross "......George W. Bush has won one of the closest presidential races in history, according to Fox News Channel projections. ....Just after 2 a.m. ET, Fox News projected that the Texas governor had taken Florida, whose 25 electoral votes put him over the critical 269-vote mark. Gore officials said they would contest the Florida results. ....."

The New York Times 11/8/00 Richard Berke "...... George Walker Bush was elected the 43rd president of the United States yesterday by one of the tightest margins in history, crowning a spectacular and exceptionally brisk political rise only eight years after his own father was turned out of the White House. The victory over Vice President Al Gore became clear well after 2 this morning after one of the most fiercely contested battlegrounds, Florida, slipped into his column after the most suspenseful election night in decades, with the fortunes of each candidate shifting almost by the hour. Only hours earlier, the networks had projected that Mr. Gore would carry Florida, where Mr. Bush's brother Jeb is governor. ......"

Newsmax 11/7/00 "...... George W. Bush has been elected president in one of the closest races ever. He did so during a time of great peace and prosperity - all of which should have benefited Al Gore. But you helped Bush win. The talk radio show hosts across America - the listeners - the Internet users - the grass roots of the Republican Party who wanted reform - made the difference. Exit polls showed that honesty and trustworthiness was the No. 1 concern for voters across America. Seventy-eight percent of Bush voters said they voted for Bush on this issue. This election was a repudiation of Bill Clinton. Other factors helped as well. One was little Elian and his heroic mother. She perished trying to bringing her son to America. His freedom, thanks to Clinton-Reno, was ripped from the privacy of his home. Cuban-Americans, who voted for Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996, remembered Elian on Election Day. ...."

Reuters 11/8/00 Thomas Ferraro "......An hour after Democrat Al Gore conceded defeat to Republican George W. Bush in their White House race, he called back and said, ``circumstances have changed,'' according to an aide. ..... Gore said updated election returns showed him losing Florida by about 600 votes, rather than the 50,000 earlier reported, and said the margin was close enough to trigger an automatic recount, the aide said. .... The aide said he overheard only Gore's side of the telephone conservation. But he quoted the vice president as telling Bush, something to the effect, ``'Do what you have to do.''' .....Gore made the call at about 3:30 a.m. EST from a room at Nashville's War Memorial Plaza, just moments before he was to publicly concede defeat to a rain-drenched crowd. ......The aide said, ``The vice president told Bush, 'Circumstances have changed since I first called you. We have now learned we are down by only about 600 votes out of millions cast and that means an automatic recount.''' ``'I need to withdraw my concession until the situation is clear,''' the aide quoted the vice president as saying. ``Then Al said, 'Let me explain: If in fact I lose in Florida, I will immediately concede. But it's not in any way clear I have lost and until it is clear I can't concede,''' the aide said......."

CNN 11/8/00 Margaret Carlson/Tucker Carlson Freeper Arthur McGowan "...... Margaret Carlson on CNN just pointed out the backdrop of flags, etc., in the Gore appearance today. Tucker Carlson questioned why the Gore people continually point out that he is ahead in the pop vote--What point are they trying to make? he asked. ....." .... Freeper doppelganger adds "..... Gore likely wouldn't be ahead in the popular vote if the networks hadn't given him Florida (and by implication the election) so early in the evening. Western votes were lost to Bush, even those in conservative western Florida where polls were still open. How about a class action suit against the networks from everyone whose votes were suppressed by this outrage? ....." Freeper Azzurri adds "..... Many absentee ballots haven't been counted in Washington and perhaps California. The national popular vote may yet tip in Bush's favor. Not that it matters because the Electoral College will prevail in this election. ....."

NewsChannel5 (WTVF - Nashville) 11/8/00 ".....His name is Max -- Max C. Williams. Max doesn't have a social security number, but that doesn't stop us from making up one for him. With a few strokes of the pen, Max's application for a voter registration card is ready to mail. NewsChannel 5 investigative reporter Phil Williams showed Max's application to Davidson County election administrator Michael McDonald. "If everything is filled out correctly, would you send a voter registration card to this person?" Williams asks. "Yes," McDonald replies. There's just one catch: Max isn't human. He's a cat. Because people can register by mail, election officials may never see the individual -- or, in the case, the cat -- to whom they issue a voter registration card. "With this social security number and everything, there's no way for us to tell unless someone presents themselves as Max," McDonald adds. "You're exactly right."...."

Severnside 11/8/00 "..... Janet Reno may be in position to steal the election:

1. In cases of vote fraud the Feds are in charge. That means Janet Reno's Justice Department.

2.Many of the recent questions of the Immigration and Naturalization Service going overtime to turn illegals into voting US citizens involve South Florida. I think the Boston Globe had a story on this last Sunday. In any case there have been INS rumors involving South Florida circulating on Capitol Hill for weeks. Recall that the INS is part of Reno's Justice Dept and the current head of the INS is the widow of John Huang's supervisor at the Commerce Department.

3.In the new edition of "Year of the Rat" we devote an entire new chapter of the deal Reno cut with Clinton to protect Gore from Chinagate. That's probably the strongest chapter in the new book. Bottom Line: Reno has spent the past four years protecting Gore. Another few days will be right in line with this.

4. Reno was a Dem activist in South Florida and knows everyone. ...."

WRRK Radio (Pittsburgh PA) 11/8/00 Freeper tank_sherman "...... On this morning's Jim Quinn show callers have reported the following allegations:

- Republican names disappeared from voting rolls, even if long-time residents and regular voters

- Nursing home patients found to have voted by absentee ballots, even though they are paralyzed and can't write or suffer from Alzheimer's disease

- Local NAACP head (who is employed at the state mental hospital) observed driving mental patients in a state-owned van to the polls and "helping" them vote.

Massive voter fraud (close to 1 million votes) rumored in City of Philadelphia.

More instances being reported, but this is making me to ill to continue........ "

Freeper mountaineer 11/8/00 "..... I'll add something to the Tim Stevens (President of local NAACP) story recounted on Quinn this morning. They said the mental patients whom he transported to the polls were all newly-registered as Democrats in the precinct where the state hospital is located, despite where they really lived. If they showed up at that precinct and said they were registered Republicans, the poll workers told them they couldn't vote there, they had to be at their home precincts where they're registered. Insasmuch as they were confined to a mental hospital and were relying on Tim Stevens for their transportation, the Republicans didn't cast their votes. ..."

Freeper Neanderthal 11/8/00 Democrat Vote Fraud Charged in Florida Jack Thompson Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2000 "......NewsMax.com's "Man in Miami," Jack Thompson, predicted Monday on NewsMax.com that Democrat vote fraud would occur in South Florida. The GOP in Broward County, the largest city of which is Fort Lauderdale, is alleging that voting irregularities are now occurring there. What follows is a press release in its entirety, received by Thompson from Republican Party of Broward County: "The Republican Party of Broward County has received a number of complaints from its poll watchers and voters regarding irregularities at the polling places: "Such irregularities reported include

duplicate ballots

"Voters sent away for no apparent reason

"Poll watchers sent away for no apparent reason and a complete lack of cooperation by the poll workers "Irregular voting practices

"Poll watcher being harassed by the poll workers

"Campaigning being allowed inside the polling area

"Of particular concern are the poll watcher problems. The Republican Party and Republican Candidates, approved by the Supervisor of Elections, nominated these volunteers to deter irregularities and fraud, to safeguard the elector process, and to monitor the behavior of the poll workers.

"The Republican Party of Broward County demands that the election code be adhered to and the law be followed. The Republican Party will take the appropriate action, both civil and criminal, to guarantee a fair and free election.. ...

Florida Sun-Sentinal 11/7/00 Steve Friess "...... Hundreds of irate Palm Beach County voters, fearing they or their friends voted for Pat Buchanan instead of Al Gore, besieged the county Supervisor of Elections department on Tuesday with complaints about ballot confusion that could have swayed the race. In a contest that saw a turnout expected to be about 70 percent with particularly high participation in precincts that are overwhelmingly elderly or black, polls were so busy that voters were still in line a half-hour after the 7 p.m. closing time. Buchanan received more than 10 votes in more than 40 precincts by presstime, all of which were Democratic strongholds that otherwise went overwhelmingly for Gore. In precinct 162G, the Lakes of Delray area where Gore received one of his highest vote totals in all of Palm Beach County, a county high of 47 voters picked Buchanan, too. ......."People came out of there, and a lot of us don't know if we voted correctly," said Eleanor Merblum, 82, who voted at precinct 162E, a fire station on Hagen Ranch Road in West Delray. "If Gore doesn't win this district, you know something's wrong." ...... Supervisor of Elections Theresa LePore, a Democrat, insisted any confusion was unintentional and defended the layout of the cluttered ballots as necessary to get all the presidential candidates on facing pages while making the type large enough for voters to read. "I was trying to make the print bigger so elderly people in Palm Beach County can read it," said LePore, who said she doesn't think the ballot is confusing. "If I'd made it small, they would've said we made the print too small." ....... The Gore-Buchanan confusion may prompt an inquiry by the Florida Attorney General's office. ...... "It's been presented to us to take a look at," said Paul Hancock, deputy attorney general in charge of the civil rights division. "The ballot really is confusing." ....."

Florida Sun-Sentinal 11/7/00 Steve Friess "...... "There's nothing wrong with the ballots in Palm Beach County," said Clay Roberts, director of the state division of elections. "The ballot is laid out according to state law and the voting system they have. It's absurd to think that Theresa LePore is in some conspiracy to take votes away from Al Gore and given them to Pat Buchanan. That's absurd." ......... Panicked voters started calling Democratic Party offices shortly after the polls opened at 7 a.m., saying they worried their intended votes for Gore went to Buchanan. Calls continued throughout the day, said Cathy Dubin, special assistant to the county's Democratic Party chairwoman. By 11 a.m., the party dispersed fliers to its 260 poll watchers, warning voters to be careful when voting for Gore. ....... "If me and Pat Buchanan are winning precincts in my district, there is something wrong," Wexler said. At Temple Emeth, a heavily Democratic and elderly precinct in West Delray, more than 30 ballots were voided by 3 p.m., way more than the one or two voided in a typical election, clerk Ann Swift said. In West Boynton, Gore workers greeted voters outside to warn them about the ballot. ....."

Freeper dictatorMA 11/8/00 "...... My friend Don just called me this a.m. to tell me that he personally witnessed people entering polls at broward county locations and being allowed in to vote.. he says the local media down there is all over the story. If thats the case do we have any broward county freepers that can post stories. ....."

Freeper Michael Rivero 11/8/00:

1. In Browards County, Republican Poll watchers are thrown out of the polls by poll workers. Republicans told their names are not on the lists of registered voters and they are not able to vote.

2. In Tennessee, heavily Republican areas have only one viting machine each. Many Republicans, unable to wait in the long lines, leave without voting. Democratic areas have a surplus of machines and no lines. .

3. In Chicago, voting machines set up in GOP districts are found to be defective. Voters are turned away. .

4. In Pennsylvania, Democratic voters are caught crossing county lines to vote multiple times, because their names appear repeatedly on lists of registered voters across the state. Efforts to clean up the voter lists have been blocked by a Democratic Federal Judge. Indictments were brought against two congressmen in a vote fraud case sparked by the Voting Integrity Project investigation, but as is usual in such cases, the charges were dropped. .

5. Checks in Indiana show that over 100,000 names on the voter lists are fakes. More than 500 cases of multiple registrations in different counties (allowing multiple votes) are found, according to an article in last Sunday's Indianapolis Star. A cursory check found criminals, in this case a child molestor and three convicted killers, on the voting lists even though state law bars from voting anyone who has spent even 1 day in jail. .

6. The Federal Election Commmision estimates that as much as 20% of the names on the voter lists across the nation re bogus. .

7. In California, where it is illegal to ask a voter for proof of identity, non-citizens are encouraged to vote in a letter sent out by the California Democratic Party and signed by Bill Clinton. The letter includes a pre-printed "Voter Identification Card" the recipient is supposed to show poll workers to be allowed to vote. The California GOP is reportedly seeking legal redress for this obvious sham. .

8. By comparing voter rolls with Social Security data, the Indianapolis Star found over 300 dead people registered to vote, most in Lake County, whch has a repitation for vote fraud. The dead people have remained on the active rolls long enough to indicate that their names have been used in voting. .

9. A check on voting lists by a local TV station just days before the Nov 7th election revealed 15,000 dead people on the active voting lists in Georgia. In one case, a dead person had voted three times since his death. .

10. The "Motor voter" law, which created millions of registered voters who usually do not vote, specifically forbids the purging of voter rolls for non-voting. This creates a huge surplus of legitmate registered voters for whom absentee ballots may be created. .

11. Just days before the last election, the Tennessee election commission changed the rles to allow anyone with a Tennessee drivers license to vote, whether they were registered or not. This allowed Tennesseans to vote in as many counties as they could drive to. .

12. ...

13. In Wisconson, a TV crew catches Democrats bribing homeless people with cigarettes to go fill out absentee ballots. .

14. In Hawaii, where voters' two punchcards are suppposed to be fed through the voting machines at the time of voting, voters in many precincts report that the vting machines are not running, and their ballots are kept by the poll workers who promise to run them through the voting machine "later on". .

15.Elderly Florida caller to C-Span today (8th) said the radio talk shows in Miami area were causing havoc with voters by telling them to vote 100 times. .

16. In Indiana, voters are handed ballots by the poll workers with Democratic choices already highlighted in dayglo yellow ink. .

ABC News 11/8/00 Reuters ".....After a wild roller- coaster election-night ride, George W. Bush Wednesday quietly awaited a recount in Florida, confident he would be declared the next U.S. president in "a matter of time." ........ The Republican nominee canceled a planned news conference and remained at the governor"s mansion in downtown Austin. Aides said Bush and his vice presidential running mate, Dick Cheney, were expected to make a statement later Wednesday. "We see nothing that is going to change the race," one Bush campaign official said. We"re confident we will prevail, that it"s just a matter of time." ...... Bush watched the bizarre twists unfold with his family at the governor"s mansion. The mood swung there from anxiety to exhilaration as television networks withdrew predictions that Democrat Al Gore had won Florida, put the key state and its 25 Electoral College votes back in the too-close-to-call column and finally awarded it to Bush, pushing him over the 270 needed to win the presidency. ...... The networks declared Bush the 43rd president of the United States, but the Texan had less than an hour to celebrate before the vice president called him to withdraw his concession and election officials announced a recount in Florida that could take until Thursday. ......"

ABC News 11/8/00 Reuters "....."It sure was a roller coaster," senior Bush adviser Ari Fleischer said Wednesday. ...... "The only thing that remains are the overseas ballots ... those ballots trend Republican," he added. Likening the election to a baseball game, Fleischer said it was "in extra innings." "We"ll stay tuned, he added, "But we"re on top and I think we"re going to be there to stay." ..... Bush, his wife, Laura, his father, former President George Bush, and his mother, Barbara Bush, watched the returns on a television set in an upstairs living room at the governor"s mansion, while other family, including Jeb Bush, followed the outcome in the presidential suite at a downtown hotel. Jeb, who is under enormous pressure to deliver Florida and the presidency to his older brother, joined them late in the evening and then flew home to the state capital, Tallahassee, Wednesday. .....Fleischer said Bush got some rest early Wednesday morning and that he had "earned a little bit of sleep" after the thrill of being declared the president-elect, albeit briefly. "I just think it"s going to happen again in due order, in short time," Fleischer added. "It is a wonderful moment when it does." ....."

Freeper algo! 11/8/00 ".....Wouldn't surprise me. The official Michigan web site is giving it (with Wayne Co yet to be reported) to Bush by several thousand votes. Now, Wayne Co includes Detroit and the Wayne County web site shows that Detroit is voting about 257K to 14K in favor of Gore but the rest of the county is 214K to 175K, with 93% of the votes counted, most of those from within Detroit. ....... That huge spike in Detroit may be explainable by demographics. It might also be explainable by some less than honest handling of the ballots. Given that things are so close a recount would be, well, prudent. ......"

Freeper Dog Gone 11/8/00 "..... I heard on the local Houston ABC station 10 minutes ago. They reported Bush WON Michigan after all the ballots were counted and a recount had been demanded. ....."

Freeper abner 11/8/00 on House Managers ".....I believe that Rogan is the only one in question. So much for the "American People" being angry about them impeaching the president. As usual, the media is strangely silent on this front.

Indiana Dan Burton - 70% 194,771 votes.

Arkansas Asa Hutchinson Unopposed-

Pennsylvania George Gekas- 72% 164,750

Illinois Henry Hyde- 59% 133,137

Utah Chris Cannon- 59% 138,125

Wisconsin James Sensenbrenner- 74% 239,130

Florida Bill McCollum- Did not win (I bet he could have kept his Congressional seat though)

Florida Chris Canady- I don't know if he ran.

Indiana Steve Buyer- 61% 130,258

Tennessee- Ed Bryant- 70% 170,690

Ohio- Steve Chabot-53% 112,449

Georgia- Bob Barr- 54% 122,273

California- James Rogan- Still too close to call! ......"

MSNBC 11/8/00 Freeper bigeasy_70118 "...... Ashcroft is setting an example for Gore. Said he will not challenge election despite fraud. PMSNBC anchor "class statement" ...." Freeper ambrose adds "...Remember when Livingstone resigned to set an example? Everyone said "how nice", but Clinton didn't budge. ..."

YAHOO.NEWS 11/8/00 David Royse AP ".....Florida election officials began a recount of nearly 6 million votes Wednesday with the stunningly close presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore in the balance. ...... Florida's secretary of state said the recount should be finished by the end of the day Thursday. Both national parties were sending teams of lawyers to monitor. ......At last count, Bush led Gore by 1,655 votes in the unofficial Associated Press count with all Florida precincts reporting but an unknown number of absentee ballots yet to be counted. Some vote counts had the margin slightly higher or closer. ........ Election supervisors in the state's 67 counties were ordered to start the recount as soon as possible Wednesday. With the vote difference less than 0.5 percent, an automatic recount was triggered under state law. ......In each county, a three-member canvassing board made up of a county judge, the chairman of the county commission and the local elections supervisor, recount the votes. The makeup of the canvassing board is supposed to insulate the process from politics, Roberts said. ....... In Tallahassee, the state capital, the results would be certified by Gov. Jeb Bush, brother of the GOP nominee, Republican Secretary of State Katherine Harris and Roberts, also a Republican appointee. ...... Representatives of both national parties were headed to the state. The Gore campaign said former Secretary of State Warren Christopher was in charge of their effort. ........ Florida's attorney general, Democrat Bob Butterworth, was on national television commenting on the situation Wednesday, and the Republicans weren't happy about his involvement. ``My advice as a lawyer to either side would be I'd be a little hesitant about giving an acceptance speech right now,'' said Butterworth, who also was Gore's Florida campaign chairman. ``We don't need the attorney general to tell us how to follow the law,'' Roberts said. He said the job of overseeing elections ``falls solely to the secretary of state.'' ........ Elections supervisors had sent out 585,000 absentee ballots and 416,000 had been returned by late Monday. Underdetermined is the number of overseas ballots, primarily for military personnel and their families, that have been counted. The state counted about 2,300 overseas ballots in the 1996 presidential election. The law allows 10 days to count outstanding overseas ballots as long as they are postmarked no later than Election Day. ...... Roberts said it was ``technically'' possible the absentee ballots could change the result of the election, but it would be extremely rare. ......"

ABQ Journal 11/8/00 KarenMoses "...... Bernalillo County withdrew all early and absentee voting results from its tally early Wednesday morning after discovering a glitch in its data. That means more than 68,000 votes weren't included in the last results released by the county. Television reports and some newspaper stories relied on what the county had released earlier. ..... New vote totals for early and absentee voting could affect several close races. "They were just not getting good results for the early and absentee results," said Cliff Aldrich, assistant director of information technology for the county. ....."

Freeper Think free or die 11/8/00 "...... This is so critical. Here in PA I learned that the voter rolls are no longer purged of inactive voters. In the past, inactive voters were purged every 2 years. Now thanks to changes with Motor Voter, this no longer takes place. I found a relative registered to vote in PA who moved to another state 7 years ago. There's nothing but honor to stop him from requesting an absentee ballot and voting in two battleground states. ...."

American Spectator 11/8/00 Byron Yory "...... This morning it appears that what many experts viewed as an extremely remote possibility -- that one presidential candidate might win the popular vote while losing in the Electoral College -- appears well on the way to becoming a reality. In recent days, the scenario has been something of a pundits' parlor game, a topic that made for amusing talk around the anchor desk but did not pose the threat of a serious political crisis. In part that was because most members of the commentariat believed that such a situation, if it did emerge, would involve vice president Al Gore winning the electoral vote and thus the White House. No problem! But now, as the nation awaits a recount of the Florida vote, it appears the opposite might be true. Gore seems headed to a victory in the popular vote, while Bush seems likely to win Florida's 25 electoral votes and thus prevail in the Electoral College. As difficult as that would be for Gore to accept, the constitution is clear: the candidate who receives 270 or more electoral votes will be the next president. ........"

American Spectator 11/8/00 Byron Yory "...... Even before the final results are known, the outlines of a Democratic plan to undermine a possible Republican victory have already begun to emerge. ....The plan is based on the popular vote. If Gore does indeed win a greater number of votes nationwide than Bush, Alter suggested, then the vice president would challenge the Florida recount in court -- over and over again, if necessary. The Democrats' intent would be to tie the Florida results up in endless litigation, and in the process try to convince the public that no recount can be completely accurate, and that the final Florida result, should it declare Bush the winner, cannot be trusted. ..... At the same time they make that case, Gore's partisans will point to the popular vote and make the argument that, given the allegedly murky nature of the Florida results, the election should go to the winner of the popular vote. After all, they will argue, he is the choice of a majority of Americans. That would be the beginning of an intense effort -- aided, no doubt, by the White House public relations machine -- to create public pressure on Bush to concede victory to Gore. Of course, it's all grossly unconstitutional. ....."

The Associated Press 11/8/00 David Royse ".......Florida officials began recounting nearly 6 million ballots Wednesday to determine the next president, while Democrats and some voters complained of election irregularities. Partial results showed Al Gore cutting into George W. Bush's lead. ...... The recount in all 67 counties was triggered by state law because Republican Bush led Democrat Gore by less than one-half of 1 percentage point. State officials said they expect to finish by the end of the day Thursday. ......Florida elections supervisors also waited for an undetermined number of overseas ballots, primarily from military personnel and their families. The state allows 10 days after the election for the ballots to come in. ......The Florida totals, including all absentee ballots received so far, showed Bush with 2,909,135 votes and Gore with 2,907,351 - a difference of 1,784 in a state with 8.75 million registered voters. After 28 of Florida's 67 counties were recounted Wednesday, Gore had gained 351 votes. ........ Pinellas County, which includes St. Petersburg, will have to redo its count because a poll worker inadvertently failed to run an unknown number of ballots through its computer Wednesday, county Supervisor of Elections Deborah Clark said. The county retracted its original announcement that Gore had gained 404 votes and Bush dropped by 61 votes in its recount. ......."

The Associated Press 11/8/00 David Royse ".......Even before the recount, the Gore campaign was already eyeing legal options for forcing a new vote in Palm Beach County, where confusion over how to fill out the ballot may have boosted the tally for Pat Buchanan, a senior Gore adviser said, speaking on condition of anonymity. ...... Jesse Jackson said he got calls on Election Day complaining that blacks had difficulty voting in Florida and other Southern states. He said some voters were told there were no more ballots, or that polls were closed. ...... Separately, Democratic officials and voters complained about the way ballots in Palm Beach County were arranged. Voters punched holes in the middle of the ballot, while candidates were alternately listed to the left and then the right. County officials also said more than 19,000 ballots in the presidential race were tossed out because more than one candidate was picked. ...... Jeb Bush said he has seen nothing that indicates fraud, and pledged a fair recount. ``Voter fraud in our state is a felony, and guilty parties will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,'' he said......"

CBSNEWS 11/8/00 "......On an extraordinary evening, the Democrats captured four Republican Senate seats, but the GOP will nevertheless retain control of the upper chamber. One Senate race remains undecided - Democrat Maria Cantwell's challenge to GOP incumbent Slade Gorton in Washington state. If Cantwell loses, Republicans control 51 of the 100 seats in the Senate. But if she wins, the upper chamber will be evenly split. In this scenario, the Republicans would control the Senate anyway. That's because in the event of a Bush victory, Vice President Dick Cheney would cast the tie-breaking vote ..."

Ramesh Ponnuru, NR senior editor 11/8/00 ".....Gore said that while he had won the popular vote, he would of course respect the constitutional process of the electoral college. For this "concession" he is being praised on the airwaves as I write. But whether to abide by the electoral college has never been the serious question. The serious question is how the electoral college should vote: With the national majority, or by state. And Gore is not disavowing a campaign to get electors to vote against their states and with the national popular majority. In fact, the only point to Gore's having mentioned his apparent popular majority was to lay the groundwork for just such a campaign. .......He's going to have a strong case. The Constitution doesn't clearly say that the electors have to vote with their states' plurality. Can George W. Bush, who has talked all along about "trusting the people," really challenge him? What Gore cannot get away with politically, I think, is to try to win this battle in court; if he tries, there will be a backlash. But the electoral-college campaign is going to be very difficult. Republicans are going to have to think quickly and hard about several questions. ......"

UPI 11/8/00 Mark Kukis ".....Democratic lawyers and officials from Vice President Al Gore's campaign are gathering evidence for a possible legal challenge to the pending Florida vote count, a move that could land the presidential election in a legal battle likely to end up in the Supreme Court....... Internal documents from the Democratic National Committee show a legal strategy revolving around three instances of reported abnormalities at Florida ballot boxes on Tuesday......... Another argument centers on Florida Highway Patrol checkpoints in Woodville, a town in northern Florida, where state troopers allegedly intimidated minorities headed to the polling station at a church. Federal and state law enforcement officials are investigating complaints that four troopers set up the checkpoint without following normal Florida Highway Patrol procedures and stopped motorists, issuing citations for traffic violations. Democratic officials say alleged harassment by troopers at the checkpoint may have affected more than 1,000 minority votes at the nearby polling station......Additionally, Democrats cite reports of missing ballot boxes in Florida's Broward County, a heavily Democratic area where 68 percent of voters cast ballots for Gore. Democratic officials do not have an estimate for the number of allegedly missing ballots, but say any losses in the large Democrat turnout would disproportionately count against Gore in the statewide race by a "significant margin." Election officials have denied losing any ballots......."

UPI 11/8/00 Mark Kukis ".....Heather Gerrken, an election law expert at Harvard, said the evidence gathered so far by Democrats could form the basis of a lawsuit similar to many cases in which election results are challenged in state and local courts........ Gerrken said a likely scenario would involve the state Democratic Party bringing a case against Harris, Florida's top election official. In such a case, Gerrken said, a state court could choose to cancel all questionable ballots, call for another statewide vote or simply declare either candidate a winner based on the evidence....... However, Gerrken said, such cases are often difficult, and courts are loath to become involved in election politics...... "It's always hard to win," Gerrken said. "Courts are reluctant to interfere with the democratic process."......"

Fox News 11/8/00 John Martin "......With 27 of 67 Florida counties completing their recounts, Al Gore has cut into George W. Bush's lead by 198 votes late Wednesday, reducing the margin to just over 1,500 votes in the crucial state tally that will determine the nation's 43rd president. Meanwhile in heavily Democratic Palm Beach County, where there have been accusations that the presidential portion of the ballot was confusing, officials announced 19,120 ballots in the presidential race were nullified because more than one candidate was picked. Only 3,783 voters made that mistake on the U.S Senate portion of the ballot. ....."

Msnbc 11/8/00 "......Al Gore set aside the stoic valedictory written for him by an aide and picked up the phone. George W. Bush did not take his call happily. "You don't have to get snippy about this," Gore spat. THE ACID of their yearlong fight - character assaults and name calling, layered onto the Clinton-Gore defeat of Bush's father in 1992 - boiled over as Gore, in an underground office at the War Memorial, insisted that Florida's decisive 25 electoral votes remained in limbo. "Let me make sure I understand," protested Bush, his victory speech in hand. "You're calling me back to retract your concession?" Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, chastened on Election Night when it appeared Bush had lost the state, had just assured his brother it was a done deal. And the TV networks had already declared Texas Gov. George W. Bush the 43rd president of the United States. "Let me explain something," Gore lectured in a stony tone, "your younger brother is not the ultimate authority on this."....."

Voter.com 11/8/00 Ann Coulter "..... Vice President Al Gore has not only lost the presidency but, by insisting on a recount, he has ended his political career. Recounts never change the outcome, and always make the challenger seem like a sore loser. See eg, Bob Dornan (R-CA), Michael Huffington (R-CA), Ellen Sauerbrey (R-MD), and Louis (Woody) Jenkins (R-LA). And all those disputes involved not only close elections but allegations of voter fraud. ...... Gore is just being a sore loser. (That's certainly what the media said about all those Republicans who contest their own narrow defeats, anyway.) ........ Even with the Democrats trolling for votes this year among prisoners -- or the "Democratic base" -- absentee ballots always favor Republicans. One reason for this is that a substantial portion of absentee ballots come from our patriotic fighting men abroad. Another is, absentee ballots favor those who are capable of reading. ....."

The Telegraph (U.K.) 11/9/00 Mark Steyn "..... WELL, here's another first. Al Gore is the first presidential candidate to rescind his concession. He now refuses to concede that he ever conceded. It all depends what the definition of the word "loser" is. The Vice-President was on his way to give his thank-you-and-goodnight speech when he got a call on his cellphone: great news! In the grand tradition of the Clinton-Gore era, they'd found a loophole!. ..."

UPI 11/8/00 Michael Kirkland ".....The Justice Department told United Press International Wednesday evening it will review Democratic allegations of missing ballot boxes in Florida....... The major presidential candidates are waiting on an ongoing recount of Tuesday's votes in Florida to determine the presidency, and depending on how the recount goes, either Texas Gov. George W. Bush or Vice President Al Gore will garner more than the 270 votes in the Electoral College necessary to be elected, unless court challenges slow down the process......... Democrats have charged that numerous irregularities in Florida voting cost Gore thousands of votes. Bush held less than an 1,800 vote-lead on the first count........ "

APB News breaking 11/8/00 Rick Sarlat ".....As the world awaits a recount in Florida to learn the outcome of the presidential election, some black voters here are charging that they were deliberately harassed by state troopers who set up a roadblock near a polling station. At the urging of several black motorists, the State Attorney General's Office today is looking into whether the Florida Highway Patrol deliberately set up a checkpoint just one mile from Woodville First Baptist Church. The church is the polling place for a precinct where more than one-third of the voters are black, said Assistant State Attorney General Paul Hancock. ...... "This was not done in accordance with normal [highway patrol] procedure," Hancock said. "We certainly see the sensitivity of the black community in this situation. That's why we jumped right on it." .....Of the 13 drivers cited at the checkpoint for equipment violations, eight were black and five were white. The roadblock was set up between 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, police said. ......Howes said the sergeant who set up the checkpoint only chose the location because it had not been used in the past. Police did not release the name of the sergeant and three troopers who operated the roadblock. ....... Howes said the incident is being investigated internally. He said he did not expect the sergeant and troopers to be reprimanded. "They're just out there doing their job," Howes said. "Yes, departmental policy was violated, but the violations were really only administrative oversights." "These driver license and faulty equipment checkpoints have always been a normal part of our overall enforcement strategies," he said. "The sergeant and the troopers were oblivious to any connection between the election and the checkpoint."....."

FOX News 11/8/00 Freeper GunsUp! "...... JUST AIRED: Fox reprots that a relative of Pat Buchanan lives in Palm Beach County. During the 1996 election, Palm Beach posted over 8,000 votes for Pat Buchanan! Therefore it is POSSIBLE that the count of votes for Buchanan is valid!!! ......"

Newsmax 11/8/00 "....... Gore supporters are crying foul because they say that the ballot in Palm Beach County, Fla., was confusing and that votes intended for Gore were accidentally made for Pat Buchanan. At first blush these critics might appear to have a legitimate claim. ....... In Palm Beach County, the Reform Party's Buchanan received 3,407 votes - 1 percent of the vote - at the final tally. ..... In neighboring Broward County, which Democrats argue has similar demographics to Palm Beach County, Buchanan pulled just 789 votes - close to 0 percent of the vote. ....But NewsMax.com reviewed Board of Elections records for both counties. ..... Records show that Palm Beach County is not similiar to Broward County in voter registration. There are far more members of the Independent Party in Palm Beach County than in Broward County. ......According to the Florida supervisor of elections, Broward County has only 189 members of the Independent Party - Florida's Reform party. ... Palm Beach County, on the other hand, has a whopping 14,551 members of the Independent Party. In fact, it has the highest Independent registration in Florida. ....Buchanan received 1 percent of the vote in Palm Beach County. In all the counties in Florida where there is significant Independent Party membership, Buchanan got a similiar 1 percent. ....."

New York Times 11/9/00 David Rosenbaum "....... With the presidency at stake, election supervisors in each of Florida's 67 counties today began a recount of the nearly 6 million votes for president in Tuesday's election. But Clay Roberts, the state's director of elections, said he did not anticipate a significant change in the initial tally that showed Gov. George W. Bush slightly ahead....... Katherine Harris, the secretary of state, said she expected to declare a winner based on the recount by the end of business on Thursday, but Democrats suggested that they might try to delay a resolution by filing lawsuits........ Of the counties that reported their recount results to the state government today before the elections office closed for the night, 16 showed small changes in their tallies. Added together, the changes gave Mr. Bush 125 more votes and Mr. Gore 133, a net gain for Mr. Gore of 8 votes......"

New York Times 11/9/00 David Rosenbaum ".......In DeLand, in central Florida, a county judge sealed the election headquarters with police tape. In Tampa, Pam Iorio, the Hillsborough County elections supervisor, said that she did not expect big changes but that some were likely because of "hanging shard syndrome," when the tiny squares voters punch out to select their candidates cling to the ballot so that it does not register properly.......It was not clear tonight whether absentee ballots could delay the final count. All the ballots mailed in the United States are part of the initial count, Mr. Roberts said. But Floridians who live abroad only need their ballots postmarked by Nov. 7; state law requires they be counted if officials receive them by Nov. 17......."

New York Times 11/9/00 David Rosenbaum "....... There is no statewide record of how many ballots were requested by people abroad, how many have already been received and counted or how many might still be submitted. After the 1996 presidential election, Mr. Roberts said, about 2,300 absentee ballots arrived from overseas........Republicans maintained that most such ballots would come from military personnel, who were likely to vote for Mr. Bush. Democrats said that many in the military were enlistees and members of minority groups likely to vote for Mr. Gore. Also, Democrats said, there could be many Floridians who live in Israel, and they would probably vote Democratic. The truth is, no one knows......."

New York Times 11/9/00 David Rosenbaum "....... Mr. Roberts, the election official, did not disagree that the ballots were confusing. But, he said, all candidates had a chance to review them, no complaints were raised before they were printed and disadvantaged candidates had no recourse now.......... An expert on election law, Professor Daniel Lowenstein of the University of California at Los Angeles law school, said it was highly unlikely that the courts would agree to review the case. "I expect courts to take a pretty standoffish view of things like this, and I'd be surprised to find a judge who would intervene," he said...... "It's not an inherently defective ballot," Mr. Lowenstein added, since no one was asserting that it was anything but poorly designed. ....."

UPI 11/8/00 Michael Kirkland "......If Democrats believe the Florida election process has been railroaded in favor of Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush, they could take the fight to federal court to prevent the state's electors from voting for him in the Electoral College....... Democrats have not indicated that they will pursue that course. But the scenario is not beyond the realm of possibility......... Among the grounds such a legal challenge could claim is a denial of the right to vote for special Florida residents. The ability to vote is among a limited list of "federally protected rights" under U.S. laws such as the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act........"

Judicial Watch 11/8/00 "......If George W. Bush wins Florida -- as the pundits expect -- and this captures the Presidency, he will, ironically, owe his victory to Elian Gonzalez. This is because the Miami Cuban-American community -- which broke almost evenly for Bill Clinton in the prior 2 elections -- voted overwhelmingly for Bush based on the acts of the Clinton-Gore Administration in returning Elian Gonzalez to Cuba, and gassing & beating innocent bystanders during the fateful raid of Attorney General Reno's INS agents in Little Havana last April 22......... Ironically, Governor George W. Bush of Texas and Jeb Bush of Florida did not take action to try to keep Elian in the United States. However, they were not responsible for the illegal acts of the Clinton-Gore Administration in violating the rights of Elian and other American citizens......."

National Review 11/8/00 Rod Thomson "...... Over the sunny horizon, a plague of lawyers is descending on Florida. They officially are "watching" the presidential recount. But they are also scouring every comma and "whereas" in the Florida code to see if any loophole can be found to invalidate Florida, or to block such an action. The eyes of the world are riveted on the state now, as the historic recount begins. ...... Broward County Supervisor of Elections Jane Carroll, a Democrat, said she believes that any change in the vote total due to the recount will be negligible.. ......"

NRO 11/9/00 Jonah Goldberg ".......The Florida recount is half over and Democrats are rejoicing that Al Gore has cut George Bush's lead in half. But Republicans can take heart from some of the details. Of the 32 counties that have been recounted as of 8:00 A.M. Thursday, the Democratic strongholds of Broward, Dade, and Palm Beach are included. In these counties, the Democratic voter registration outweighs the Republican by 2.4 million to 1.9 million. In the counties remaining, the Republican registered voters outweigh the Democrats 1.4 to 1.3 million. More importantly, of the 1,189 votes that Al Gore has added to his total, three-quarters, or 751, came from Palm Beach County alone, where 19,000 votes were thrown out because voters had chosen more than one candidate (Pat Buchanan, continuing his role as spoiler, announced this morning that he believes most of these ballots belong to Gore). Indeed, the disproportionate surge for Gore in Palm Beach raises the specter for those close to the scene that the Palm Beach recount was flawed in Gore's favor. ...... The bottom line: It looks increasingly unlikely that Al Gore can close the gap from the ballots remaining for recounting. However with 19,000 votes discarded from Palm Beach and a statistically odd surge for Gore in that county's recount, it seems assured that no matter who wins the recount, we will be hearing a lot more about Palm Beach in the days to come. ......"

KSDK Channel 5 in St.Louis 11/9/00 Freeper A Citizen Reporter "...... Senator Bond is saying that there was a scheme to unfairly get votes in a predominantly Democratic area. He said it was planned in advance. Writing a letter to Freeh asking the FBI to investigate the criminal activities. In the St. L Post Dispatch the day of the election there was a story that there would be irregularities and that the polls would need to remain open. He said this is prima facia evidence that there was a pre-planned scheme. He calls it a "major criminal enterprise." ....."

Pensacola News Journal 11/9/00 Scott Streater "...... A fraudulent absentee ballot in Pensacola has sparked a criminal probe into potentially widespread voter fraud that could further muddy a presidential election whose outcome hinges on several thousand votes in Florida. ..... The State Attorney's Office is leading an investigation into whether the forged ballot is part of a much broader scheme to redirect mailed ballots to someone who filled them out and forged the voter's signature. .....``I agree there may well be more than just this one,'' said Assistant State Attorney Russ Edgar, who is heading the investigation. ``That's what I'm thinking right now.'' ....... Late Wednesday, Escambia County elections officials discovered what appears to be a second forged absentee ballot that also has been handed over to state prosecutors. ...... The state investigation was prompted by a complaint from Todd Vinson, a law clerk in Miami who is a registered Pensacola voter. Vinson, state investigators and others involved outline this series of events: ...... On Oct. 10, Vinson requested the Escambia County Supervisor of Elections to mail an absentee ballot to his Miami apartment. After it failed to arrive, he requested a second ballot on Oct. 24. ..... It, too, disappeared. Vinson, 28, said he complained to his father, U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson, last Thursday. That morning, the elder Vinson called Jones. ..... Jones' office reviewed all the absentee ballots and discovered a ballot with Todd Vinson's name on it. When Jones compared the signature on the ballot to the signature on Vinson's voter registration card, the two did not match. ... Jones faxed a copy of the signature to Todd Vinson. ``It was clearly forged,'' he said. ``Somebody definitely got hold of it and sent it back in. The question is where did they get it, and my speculation was that it happened somewhere in the post office. It made it down here to Miami, but it never made it to me.'' ...... Jones sent a third ballot to Vinson via next-day mail that arrived in time for Vinson to cast a ballot for Bush. Jones then contacted the State Attorney's Office, U.S. Attorney Mike Patterson and the Florida Division of Elections. Edgar said the signed witness required for all absentee ballots listed a fictitious address. ... State Attorney Curtis Golden said that if the Postal Service was involved, his office might turn the investigation over to federal law enforcement officials. ......"

CNSNews.com 11/9/00 Scott Hogenson "...... A few people in Palm Beach County, Florida, are so upset with the ballots they were handed on Election Day they're filing a lawsuit over it. The crux of their argument: they were confused and may have inadvertently voted for someone they didn't want to....... We've already heard more than a few dark insinuations of a "constitutional crisis" in the wake of the November 7 elections, what with the prospect of George W. Bush winning an Electoral College victory while losing the popular vote to Al Gore. These pronouncements are pure tripe. Article II of the Constitution is clear about the authority of the Electoral College in determining the chief executive, regardless of the popular vote......... But this Florida lawsuit has the potential to create a genuine constitutional crisis in the event it is given any credence at all by any court, for it holds the potential of creating a precedent by which any electoral result can be challenged because of self-proclaimed ignorance by a plaintiff. It is not merely a slippery slope; it is a sheer precipice......"

St. Louis Post Dispatch 11/8/00 Mark Schlinkmann "...... Missouri state election officials said today that they had received no complaints about punchcard voting problems similar to the one that has spurred controversy - and possibly contributed to the delay in knowing who won the presidency - in Florida. ...... Betsy Byers, deputy secretary of state, said 43 of Missouri's 116 election jurisdictions use punchcard ballots, in which voters punch holes next to candidates' names. ...... St. Louis and St. Louis County, and St. Charles, Jefferson, Franklin and Warren counties all use the punchcard system, she said. It's up to each county clerk or election board to decide how to lay out the ballot. ......."

The Hugh Hewitt Show/KIEV Los Angeles 11/9/00 Freeper truthkeeper "..... Conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt (a lawyer who used to teach Constitutional Law) is on the air right now asking callers who were affected by the network's fraud (the Florida and Pennsylvania "early calls") to contact him regarding affidavits. He wants to hear from people who were discouraged not to vote, or who have personal knowledge of other people being discouraged not to vote, as a direct result of the calling of Florida and Pennsylvania for Gore by the networks. He also is asking for the Republican volunteer callers, who were devastated and stopped making their phone calls to potential voters. He contends Bush would have garnered millions of additional popular votes had this call not been made. ......... He said if the Democrats pursue this crazy argument of the "Palm Beach confusion," and proceed with litigation, we need to be prepared to counter. He needs people brave and patriotic enough to be willing to TESTIFY IN COURT! He says bring it on, baby. ......:

Today Show Freeper smart_monkey2 "..... Tom Brokaw stated on the Today show that GWB should not declare victory even if he wins the recount. Brokaw stated that the other issues, (which will have no merit in court),must be considered and intimated that assuming victory would not be legitimate. Brokaw went on to say that legitimacy is important for foreign affairs. If Bush maintains his lead, the media is setting Bush up by giving the democrats false charges credence by giving them air time. I really do not believe in black helicopters, but I really think that forces are at work to steal this election. I cannot express the vitreol disgust that is building inside me. Who else has heard the same from other talking heads? ....." Freeper Starfan adds "..... Let Brokaw listen to Torricelli (who finally said something I agree with) and put the nation first. There are two time zones in Florida. Those hearing albore won left the lines and I'm sure that affected the outcome all across the country. Brokaw said they not only have egg on their faces, but omelets. He's right -- they affected this election! Now take responsibility for your actions Tom and shut up. ......"

Miami Herald 11/9/00 Carol Marbin Miller "...... Tuesday morning, Virgie Hawkins went to vote at Blanche Ely High School, where's she's voted for years. But when she arrived at the Pompano Beach campus, she was surprised to learn the polling place had been moved, and no instructions were left on where to go, Hawkins said Wednesday. Hawkins drove to two nearby elementaries and a youth club, hoping to cast her ballot but late in the afternoon, she just stopped trying. ``I said, hey, I give up,'' said Hawkins, 42, of Pompano Beach. ``I tried.'' ...... Hawkins is among hundreds of Broward voters who say they were disenfranchised Tuesday by problems at polling places. In Hawkins' precinct, for example, voter turnout was unusually low -- 46.2 percent compared to 66.2 percent elsewhere in Broward County, records show. ....... Supervisor of Elections Jane Carroll said she was ``more than satisfied -- extremely happy'' with the course of the election in Broward County. ``We didn't have any precincts with zero votes, so people knew where to go,'' she said. ``As far as not being mailed new information for switching, that isn't true. Some people don't always pay close attention to their mail. That's par for the course.'' ....."

NewsMax.com 11/9/00 "......Defense Secretary William Cohen predicted the military vote will have a strong impact on whether Florida's electoral votes - and thus the presidency - go to Republican George W. Bush or Democrat Al Gore. "I think there obviously will be a role for the military personnel who have retired in Florida and who also are registered to vote there," he said. ...... "I think it's too early for me to reach any judgment in terms of the proportionalities, how they are going to vote, but they certainly will have an impact in a race that close in that state." Cohen, a former Republican senator, is in the unusual position of serving in the cabinet of a Democrat administration. ......The military is largely presumed to be heavily Republican, with some estimates counting as many as 80 percent of the 1.2 million active-duty personnel. Military officers at the Pentagon say this sounds like a reasonable proportion because service members tend to be socially and fiscally conservative......"

New YorkTimes 11/9/00 Jim Yardley Michael Cooper ".....Ever a creature of habit, Gov. George W. Bush woke up this morning and did what he always does. He went downstairs at the governor's mansion, fed his two cats and his dog and made coffee for his wife, Laura...... But that was the only thing routine on this raw morning. When he walked out of the mansion for a brief news conference before lunch, Mr. Bush looked very tired. He had slept only three and a half hours, perhaps not surprising for a man who thought he had been elected president of the United States only to see the outcome thrown in doubt by the uncertain results in Florida. Today, Mr. Bush found himself in limbo. His parents, former President George and Barbara Bush, who had come for an election-night family dinner and had hugged him when victory seemed assured, had returned home to Houston. His brother, Jeb, the Florida governor, flew back to his home state to face questions about the recount. And Mr. Bush had even called upon James A. Baker III - his father's former confidant and a secretary of state with whom the younger Mr. Bush had once had a famous falling-out - to fly to Florida on his behalf......."

Freeper feymains 11/8/00 "....... Karl Rove said because of the early call of Florida Bush may have lost over 100,000 votes in that state alone. Look at the Vote in Oregon. Bush is winning that state. They mailed the ballots in over a week ago. Rush Limbaugh said he expected a higher turnout and I think they were there ready to vote . But when the Mid West and the west heard Bush was going to lose Florida he may have lost a ton of votes. This stinks to high heaven.Look at the battleground vote. They have a good track record. I have talked to alot of people and they said this stinks to high heaven. ......" Freeper uvular adds "....It sure does smell. Recall the station in Wisconsin that reported the trading of cigarettes for votes; they basically tripped over the story, while filming something else. How many other tricks such as this one occurred that we have not heard about yet? I believe the polls were fairly accurate, but failed to acknowledge the potential for the dems to pull out all the stops this time, so in fear of losing their power. ......."

Freeper GOPRealist 11/9/00 "...... I'd say the most damaging effect occurred in the Republican stronghold of the Florida Panhandle. As soon as those Bush voters came home and saw all the major networks declare Gore the winner of Florida, they were instantly demoralized because the polls were still opened and they hadn't voted yet: Why vote for Bush in Florida when all the major networks are declaring that Gore has already won all 25 of Florida's electoral votes? ...... The liberal network news pollsters didn't need to formally conspire with the Gore campaign. All they did was act independently -- they immediately declared Florida for Gore, knowing it would tilt the election to Gore. How did they know it would tilt the election to Gore? Because they're doing the polling! They knew where the Republican and Democratic regions of Florida are. And they knew that the Florida Panhandle is a Republican stronghold. ........And as usual, the liberal Brian Williams almost laughed off the Liberal Media's Pro-Gore premature announcement that Gore won Florida. Williams, I'm sure, thought to himself, hey, wow, we got away with that premature announcement for over an hour. Hopefully, that should be enough to give Gore Florida and therefore the Presidency. That's why he was smiling when they retracted their "Gore wins Florida" projection. ....... The Gore DemocRATS have performed every possible trick in their lying political strategy handbooks -- except one. Now, they're trying to rig the recount. Missing voter ballot boxes stuffed with Gore votes, trying to scam 6,000 Buchanan votes into 6,000 Gore votes. ......"

Judicial Watch 11/8/00 "...... Based on discussions with an Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) source, Judicial Watch said today that the Florida District of the INS has engaged in a systematic program of rushing aliens through the naturalization process to meet INS headquarters "goals" by October 1, 1999 and October 1, 2000. In Florida, a new citizen can register to vote up to October 10th......... An INS source told Judicial Watch that the program is nearly identical to the now infamous 1996 "Citizenship USA" program, wherein thousands of aliens - some with criminal backgrounds - were improperly and illegally rushed through the naturalization process in order to obtain Democratic votes for the presidential election. The Florida INS effort has been termed the "Backlog Reduction Program," - a neutral, bureaucratic-sounding title designed to lower the program's visibility with the media and the general public. INS examiners and clerks who met or exceeded headquarters goals and quotas for the program were rewarded with various types of bonuses, including an extra 40 hours of paid time off....."

NewsMax.com 11/8/00 Carl Limbacher "...... Al Gore served Tennessee as both a congressman and later as a U.S. senator. Like many Democrats in the South, he voted conservative to win. Al had learned the lesson of his dad, Gore Sr., who became too liberal for his home state after spending too long in Washington. Clinton had also been a conservative as governor of Arkansas. Both Clinton and Gore, while serving in their home states, held anti-gun control views and were anti-abortion. ...... As soon as Clinton and Gore became untethered from their home states in 1992, the pair became very left-wing, very anti-gun and very pro-choice. Arkansans accepted that behavior from Clinton, but Tennesseans didn't like to be lied to. Gore thought he had the state in his back pocket. ......"

WorldNetDaily 11/4/00 Jon Dougherty "...... Members of the military who are currently stationed overseas have complained that the Pentagon has not yet sent out absentee ballots this year, meaning they will not get to vote for a new commander in chief on Tuesday. Specifically, members of U.S. Navy units who are stationed overseas and aboard the USS Cole -- the destroyer recently attacked by terrorists while it was undergoing refueling in the port of Aden, Yemen -- have either not received ballots or won't get them in time because of current deployment circumstances, Pentagon officials said yesterday. ...... "I've heard about this within the past week," said Lt. Dave Gay, a Defense Department spokesman. "We are trying to get more information. We don't know if they were delayed through the mail." ...... He added that due to current deployment considerations, some military members overseas likely would not get their ballots in time. ..."

Joy Browne Radio Show 11/8/00 Freeper aspiring.hillbilly "...... Calllers to the Joy Brown radio talk show have reported that Florida voters, appromamately 1 in 20 in certian districts, reported that they were denied the right to vote when they showed up at the poles yesturday. The scheme was that Gore operatives took out absentee ballots prior to the election in the names of unsuspecting voters. These were marked and previously submitted so that the computer lists denied the victims an in person vote yesturday. If the victim of this scheme didn't show at the poles, the fraud would be undetected. Several callers including one election worker reported this..... ......:

Newsmax.com 11/8/00 Jack Thompson "...... A reliable source within the Gore camp informs NewsMax that lawyers this very minute, retained by the Gore-Lieberman 2000 campaign, are feverishly putting the finishing touches on a lawsuit that will seek, by various means, to overturn the imminent victory by George W. Bush in Florida. ...... The suit is expected to be filed within the next twenty-four hours and will apparently be a request by the Gore forces to get state officials in Florida to de-certify, or declare invalid, the election. .....No further details can be revealed at this time, but clearly Gore is going to try to attempt to secure in a court room what he appears to be unable to do at the ballot box. ......"

U.S. Newswire 11/9/00 ".....American church leaders from Catholic, Evangelical, Orthodox and Protestant traditions will today call on Vice President Al Gore and his campaign to act on virtue and courteously bow to the Constitution, end the rancor of the presidential campaign and acknowledge that George Bush is the president elect. "What the Gore people are doing is not good for the country, nor is it good for civility," said the Rev. Rob Schenck, president of the National Clergy Council. ......"It is extremely important for the well-being of the nation -- indeed for the world -- that Mr. Gore politely and peacefully transfer power. The more this is prolonged, the more unsettled we are as a nation, and the more dangerous things can become around the world." ......"

AP via ABCNews.com Politics Wire 11/8/00 "......Though the presidential cliffhanger is providing the country with a stunning political drama, recounts and contested elections are standard fare in a country with more than half a million elected officials. But they usually don't reverse the initial declared result, experts said Wednesday. ...... One former politician who went through two such ordeals - losing one and winning the second - said he feels nothing but empathy for both Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush and his Democratic opponent, Vice President Al Gore. "Every hearsay thing gets legs, you worry about it, and people keep calling you saying, 'Have you looked down here?'" said former New Jersey GOP Gov. Thomas Kean, now president of Drew University in Madison, N.J. "It's awful to get through." ....... Despite a recount, Kean said he lost his 1974 bid for the GOP nomination for a House seat from New Jersey by 72 votes out of 30,000 cast. In 1981, after being declared winner of the New Jersey gubernatorial election by 1,677 votes out of 2.3 million total ballots, he had to endure a recount demanded by his opponent, Democratic Rep. James Florio. Six weeks later, Kean's final margin was 1,797 votes - an outcome that professionals in the field say is typical. ......."

CNN 11/8/00 Freeper Styria "..... Compiled from CNN's results page. Control of the House of Representatives by State:

Republican:

1. Alabama

2. Alaska

3. Arizona

4. Colorado

5. Delaware

6. Florida

7. Georgia

8. Idaho

9. Indiana

10. Iowa

11. Kansas

12. Kentuky

13. Louisiana

14. Missouri

15. Montana

16. Nebraska

17. New Hampshire

18. New Mexico

19. North Carolina

20. Ohio

21. Oklahoma

22. Pennsylvania

23. South Carolina

24. South Dakota

25. Tennessee

26. Utah

27. Virginia

28. Wyoming ......

Independent:

1. Vermont

Tied:

1. Connecticut

2. Illinois

3. Maryland

4. New Jersey

5. Nevada ......,"

Miami Herald Online 11/8/00 Carol Marbin Miller "...... Broward's election follies made the national spotlight early this morning. With the presidential race still hanging in the balance and Florida playing a pivotal role in the outcome, NBC News with Tom Brokaw broadcast a report from Broward County on nine missing ballot boxes. That provoked an indignant response from Jane Carroll, Broward's election supervisor. Nothing was missing, Carroll said. Rather, there were 14 boxes of ballots from the Pembroke Pines area that took longer to relay because of heavy turnout. ``They're big precincts,'' she said. ...... There was one ballot box that was mistakenly left sitting at a Pompano Beach polling place, she said, but it had been fetched and was being delivered. ...... ``We have no missing ballots,'' she said. ``Tom Brokaw isn't here. I am here, looking at the ballots. We have no ballots missing.'' ...... Officials with both the Republican and Democratic parties reported scores -- perhaps thousands -- of people turned away from the polls. ...... Carroll said she had checked out every single complaint about voters not being allowed to vote and had found that there was an explanation for every problem. ``I think everybody is a little paranoid,'' Carroll said. .... Many voters didn't register in time to meet the state-mandated deadline for this election, while others moved from another county and forgot to change their voter registration, Carroll said. Another problem is voters who get out of jury duty by saying they no longer live in Broward County. They are automatically deleted from the voter rolls. Those people then show up to vote, Carroll said. ....."

UPI 11/8/00 Paul Singer "......Rev. Jesse Jackson Wednesday called for a thorough investigation of the voting process in Florida and suggested black leaders may initiate legal action to challenge "patterns of irregularities" that appeared to interfere with a full accounting of African-American voters. Jackson was on his way to Florida to meet African-American leaders to consider their legal options. He said a legal challenge may be necessary. Jackson told reporters outside the Loews Hotel where he and the rest of Vice President Gore's party is staying that black leaders are demanding a recount by hand, not by machine, and a thorough investigation into reported "acts of irregularity and/or intimidation." ......."

AP 11/8/00 Mike Feinsilber "...... Texas Gov. George W. Bush claimed cautious victory Wednesday in the unresolved presidential race. The outcome of his race with Democrat Al Gore hung on Florida and the uncertain fate of its 25 electoral votes. "This morning brings news from Florida that the final vote count shows that Secretary Cheney and I have carried the state of Florida,'' Bush told reporters in a midday appearance. "If that result is confirmed in an automatic recount, as we expect it to be, then we have won the election.'' ...... "

Freeper the crow 11/8/00 "....Many reports of voter fraud here in Milwaukee.

1. the rich b!tch from NY passing out smokes to the homeless last week.

2. I know of people getting limosine rides to go to the polls.

3. Multiple reports from all over town of no ID required for on site same day registration [as WI allows]. Apparently students from UW Milwaukee and Marquette U. were going all over town and voting many times. When I heard of long registration lines which stayed long all day, I knew we were in trouble. ..."

CNN.com 11/8/00 Matt Smith Thom Patterson "......It is also possible that one candidate could win the Electoral College vote and the other win the popular vote, which hasn't happened in a hundred years. Nationwide, Gore pulled ahead by 267,557 votes of more than 95 million cast, with all but 3 percent of precincts reporting. ...... Without a decision in Florida -- which commands 25 electoral votes -- Gore led the projected tally in the Electoral College by 14 votes, 260 to 246. The only other state yet to have a projected winner is Oregon, which holds seven electoral votes. A candidate needs 270 electoral votes to win the presidency. ....... But at the urging of his Florida campaign staff, the vice president retracted his concession. Gore campaign chief Bill Daley told supporters standing in the rain in Nashville that with a recount pending, "our campaign continues." ......"Without being certain of the results in Florida, we simply cannot be certain of the results of the national election," Daley said....."

Doctor Raoul 11/8/00 "...... On Philadelphia's Channel 10 news, the weather guy, "Hurricane" Schwartz, just showed his Absentee ballot mailed to him by the Palm Beach election board. He only lived there for 6 months, 5 years ago! He didn't get one in the interveining years, but he got one the year Bill Clinton's accomplice was running. ....." Freeper snopercod "....Everyone who has ever lived in Florida is still on the rolls down there. I could have voted there as well as in NC, since I lived in FL two years ago, but that would have been dishonest. They should do like many other states and delete you from the rolls if you don't vote in one election. ...."

Newsmax.com 11/8/00 Carl Limbacher "...... If George W. Bush wins the White House based on an Electoral College victory without winning the popular vote, don't expect the media to play by the rules. Early Wednesday morning, just minutes after his network called the election for Bush, CNN's Jeff Greenfield noticed that the president elect's lead in the popular vote had begun to dwindle. ........ Then, just after 7a.m. eastern time, when it was clear Gore had indeed opened up a razor-thin popular vote lead, NBC's Tim Russert suggested the development would mean Gore would remain a Washington player. ......Even if Bush had indeed captured the White House, Russert advised anchorman Tom Brokaw, Gore would become the "shadow president." ....."

Freeper Russ 11/8/00 "..... Nixon lost the election to Kennedy by about 100,000 votes due to massive voter fraud in Chicago. Had Nixon challenged those votes and demanded a recount Kennedy stood a good chance of not being President. Nixon didn't send in 175 lawyers, have media talking heads crying about it. He took it like a man for the good of the country. You can never accuse Gore of doing anything for the good of the country, only the party and his own power. ..."

Freeper My Favorite Headache "..... Here is the latest. I have yet to comment on last night's dispicable showing in Florida. I along with thousands have worked our butts off for the last year and getting the vote out for W. in Florida. For those who stayed home...CONGRATULATIONS..You might have just given this election to Gore. For those who voted for Pat or Ralph...Congratulations you just gave this to Gore. ......I have been on the phone with CNN producers this morning and am expecting a call back anytime now as they are very interested on the obvious garbage that is going on in Palm Beach county with Jesse Jackson and Robert Wexler. These sample ballots have been out for 5 or 6 weeks. There has been plenty of time for everyone to look at them. There was assistance at the polls for everyone if confused. The early call for Gore threw off the election for Bush in a Republican strong hold in the Panhandle. They had another 45 minutes to go and most walked away or stayed at home thinking it didn't matter anymore. ..... Still waiting to get on air for CNN (holding breath..yeah right). My call into FOXNEWS is coming next. ..."

Freeper Big Ezy "...... If you get to talk to CNN tell them the ballot in question was designed by a Democrat who signed off on it approval.

They have no leg to stand on.

Also last night an ABC employee who was thier number cruncher told Peter Jennings that she had worked for the Florida Sec. Of State working on recounts.

She said that "recounts rarely change the difference very much one way or the other. Maybe 10% of the difference between the two candidates." So if Bush has a lead of 1700 votes he could lose 170 or gain 170 about 10% give or take a few.

Also she said "that the military absentee vote is always in favor of the Republican", I think she mentioned Connie Mack.

Jennings said how can you be so sure? "She replied because of 25 years of doing the same job in Florida". She told Jennings "she would rather be ahead in a recount especially a Republican knowing the only thing out are the military absentees." ..."

FrontPageMagazine 11/9/00 Michael Long ".....GORE WINS the popular vote. Bush wins the electoral vote. That's what's likely. And now Gore will spend the rest of that DNC soft money of his in the campaign of his life to subvert the Electoral College. You didn't think he was just going to take this lying down, did you? ...... The Democrats are about to launch their biggest, dirtiest campaign in modern history. This is the one that you'll tell your grandkids about........ As early as this weekend, expect Al Gore to launch a massive media campaign -- commercials, interviews, whisper campaigns, maybe even a repeat of the kind of travel he's done personally for the last year. And the message will be this: I am Al Gore, and I won the popular vote for the presidency of the United States. The electors in your state have an obligation to enforce the will of the people. Contact your electors and tell them that you want them to vote in the Electoral College for Al Gore, the popularly elected president of the United States. Expect the focus to be twofold. First, Gore will focus on the states where electors are not bound by statute to vote for the candidate on whose behalf they were elected. Second, and most important, Gore will take his case directly to the people. He will say that their will is being subverted, that they elected him properly and honestly and by a majority, and that the Republicans are about to take away even their right to say who leads them. It will be powerful, and it might just be successful. The media will support Gore's effort, and the usual crowd of subservient, liberal academics will, too. They'll sign full-page ads in the Washington Post and the New York Times, saying that the will of the people is about to be tossed away by an anachronistic system over two centuries old. Look for a couple of ex-presidents (you know who you are, gentlemen) to turn the pressure on with public statements and Gore support for his dirty little campaign......"

Caselaw - Apellate Court of Florida 11/9/00 Freeper visagoth ".... Jeanne Khoyi NELSON, as Supervisor of Elections in Pinellas County, et al., Appellants, v. A. S. Jim ROBINSON et al., Appellees ......

No. 74-1201 Court of Appeals of Florida, Second District 301 So. 2d 508; 1974 Fla. App. LEXIS 8601

October 15, 1974 ...... JUDGES: McNulty, Chief Judge. Hobson and Grimes, JJ., concur. ....OPINIONBY: McNULTY ...... In our view the trial court misconstrued the law as to the test to be applied. It is not sufficient that a showing is made of a mere "reasonable possibility that the results of an election could have been changed by irregularities; rather, there must be a showing of a reasonable probability that the results of said election would have been changed except for such irregularities. That error of itself would require a reversal hereof. But further than that, in this case, we can say also that even if the trial court had applied the correct test herein the facts as he found them would, as a matter of law, be insufficient to meet it. Forty-eight assorted voters, poll workers and clerks, thirty-one of them called by plaintiffs/appellees, testified. Yet no finding was made that even a single voter was prevented from exercising this free choice although, concededly, it was found that several voters were "confused." But mere confusion does not amount to an impediment to the voters' free choice if reasonable time and study will sort it out; and no denial is made that, ultimately, all but one of the "confused" voters who testified were able with reasonable [**8] time and effort to find their choices, some of which choices included one or more of the appellees. Parenthetically, it should be noted too that ample notice was given that aid and assistance was available at each polling place to help a voter should he need it. No finding was made, nor was there any basis for one, that an unusual or inordinate number of voters sought such assistance. ......Expressly, the only other evidence upon which the trial court relied was his own observation of the voting machine. He concluded from that, as noted, that the ballot was "confusing and prejudicial," which is a far cry from satisfying the proper test of invalidity we set out above. Moreover, in the presence of counsel for the parties we have examined the same machine, which forms a part of this record, and can say as a matter of law that nothing can be found therein which of itself would support the conclusion that a prudent, observant and conscientious voter was prevented from making his rightful choice......".

National Review Online "..... On March 12, 1996, Pat Buchanan won 8,788 votes in the Republican primary from the four congressional districts that share Palm Beach County. In Rep. Wexler's 19th congressional district, Buchanan won his largest vote of the four - 2,961. ...... Buchanan's top strategist in the 1996 nomination race, Human Events editor Terry Jeffrey, explains that by the time of the 1996 Florida primary, the fight was essentially over. Buchanan had lost South Carolina on March 2, and five other primaries, including Georgia's on March 5. Still, with the nomination lost, and Buchanan not campaigning in Palm Beach (he made only a brief appearance in Miami on March 6), over 8,000 diehard Buchanan Brigaders voted in support of his message. .......Jeffrey says that it is "completely believable to me" that there were 3,000 Buchanan supporters again voting for their man in the Palm Beach area this Tuesday. "Over 8,000 people cast a symbolic vote for Pat and his message after he was eliminated from competition in 1996." ......"

Freeper prometheus 11/99/00 ABC Radio News "...... AFTER 39 COUNTIES COMPELETED BUSH LEAD UP IN OFFICIAL COUNT TO 1173. BILL DAILY OF GORE CAMPAIGN THREATENS LAW SUIT OVER PALM BEACH FLAP. SAYS WILL OF PEOPLE OUGHT TO PREVAIL AND GORE SHOULD BE GIVEN THE VICTORY. SAYS PALM BEACH VOTES FOR BUCHANON IMPLAUSIBLE. SAYS PALM BEACH BALLOT CONFUSING. SAYS BUSH CAMPAIGN LACKS FAIRNESS. SAYS WILL OF PEOPLE OUGHT TO DETERMINE THE ELECTION OF THE PRESIDENT. SAYS HAND COUNT TO BE REQUESTED. WILL TAKE LEGAL ACTION. CLAIMS GORE IS PEOPLE'S CHOICE TO BE PRESIDENT. SAYS BUSH CAMPAIGN TRYING TO DIVIDE THE NATION. SAYS LEGAL SYSTEM SHOULD PREVAIL, CLAIMS RULE OF LAW SHOULD DECIDE. ...."

FoxNews 11/8/00 Freeper Reagan Man "..... Bill Daley, Chris Lehane, Joe Andrews, Paul Belgala and the other Gore thugs are attempting to steal this presidential election out from under the American people. Gore could still win honestly if he can get enough votes in the recount, but I think Gore and his henchmen know what will actually be the outcome of the recount. ...... Hold on tight a rough ride is ahead for Bush-Cheney and all their supporters. ......" Freeper Dog Gone adds "......They are committing to fight it. They point to the national popular vote. Regardless of how the recount comes out they plan to sue, and influence the EC. This is essentially a declaration of war and a statement that they won't respect the outcome of the vote. This is serious, folks. ....." Freeper Gritty "...Rush just announced Warren Christopher has announced "voter fraud" in Florida, and the Dims will contest results! ..." Freeper Cosmo "..... I believe that Gore will concede tonight and demonstrate a little class --that is,if he hopes to ever have a hope of winning the Whitehouse in the future. This is my prediction. ......" Freeper logos "..... I've been watching this, and it's crunch time, friends. Bill Daley just said that this election must be decided consistent with "the will" of the Constitution, which he then interpreted to mean whoever wins the popular vote should be the next president. He also said that legal action will be "supported" regarding all "irregularities" in the voting process. Warren Christopher then stated, briefly, that he affirmed all of Daley's comments. Much talk about how the South Florida voters were "disenfranchised" in this election; also many comments about the "illegal" Florida ballot. Friends, this constitutes a declaration of war against the Constitution of the United States by the Democrat Party. I see no other way to interpret these actions and statements. ......"

Associated Press 11/9/00 "..... George W. Bush's margin over Al Gore in make-or-break Florida dwindled to fewer than 1,000 votes Thursday in a continuing recount that held the presidential rivals and the nation in agonizing suspense. Democrats said they would demand a follow-up recount by hand in a few counties and support unspecified ``legal actions.'' ........ Daley and others said it was possible Democrats would seek a new election in that county, where, he said, ``the confusion was massive'' because of the design of the ballot. ...... Earlier former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, tapped by Bush to represent him in Florida, said he had seen neither allegations of fraud nor evidence of it. He said the controversial Palm Beach County ballots had been reviewed before the election by both campaigns, ``and guess what, there were no complaints until after the election.'' ....."

NewsMax 11/9/00 "..... More than 300 protesters showed up outside city hall in West Palm Beach today to protest the presidential election results here in Palm Beach County. Jesse Jackson has arrived but has yet to speak to the gathering crowd. It is obvious from the Gore/Lieberman signs, and from the usual array of suspects - labor unions, government employees, pro-choicers, seniors, etc. - that the Gore campaign has orchestrated this rally. This is one indication that the Gore campaign is not interested in a simple recount but will aggressively pursue this in the courts, in the media and in public opinion. ....."

PRNewswire "......"Whichever candidate wins the electoral vote in Florida and goes on to become President of the United States will have won his margin of victory by the votes of non-citizens and illegal aliens, voting in mass numbers in South Florida," charged Edward Nelson, President, U.S. Border Control. ...... "We have asked legal counsel for U.S. Border Control to review the Florida election results carefully to determine how a challenge can be made to the votes cast in certain Florida precincts in order to document once and for all the scope of voting by non-citizens." ......"Thanks to the National Voter Registration Act, commonly known as the Motor-Voter law, millions of non-citizens and illegal aliens are being invited to register to vote as they apply for their driver's licenses or welfare benefits." ......."In Florida, as in most other states, the Motor Vehicle Department has been advised not to ask if applicants are citizens because this would somehow violate their civil rights. As a consequence, this 'don't ask -- don't tell' policy is wittingly or unwittingly handing out voter registration cards to tens of thousands of ineligible voters, more than enough to effect the results of a close election." ....."

Reuters 11/9/00 Allan Elsner ".....Democrat Al Gore decided on Thursday to fight the results of Tuesday's presidential election in Florida with campaign officials announcing a legal challenge and demanding a recount by hand of ballots in four counties. .....Without waiting for the result of a recount of the vote in Florida due later on Thursday, Gore campaign manager William Daley told reporters in the state's capital of Tallahassee that the vice president would not accept the outcome or concede the election to Texas Gov. George W. Bush , the Republican nominee. ...... Referring to mounting complaints of voting irregularities, Daley said: ``Technicalities should not determine the presidency of the United States; the will of the people should. Demanding an end to this election is not the same as demanding that the person who the people want as president takes office.'' .......The statement took the United States into uncharted constitutional territory, deepening the uncertainty following Tuesday's election, the closest in U.S. history, which failed to produce a clear winner. ...... ``Today the appropriate Florida Democratic officials will be requesting a hand count of ballots of Palm Beach County as well as three other counties,'' Daley said. ...... ``In addition today, I am announcing that we will be working with voters from Florida in support on some legal actions to demand some redress for the disenfranchisement of more than 20,000 voters in Palm Beach County,'' he said. ....."

Freeper randita 11/9/00 ".... Bush spokesperson in press conference. Refuting all the complaints in Palm Beach County. Says Buchanan got large number of votes there in '96. There are 16,000 people there registered in various independent parties affiliated with Reform. 15,000 double punched ballots were thrown out in '96. Says butterfly ballot (which Daley early today claimed was undemocratic) has been the standard ballot in Cook County, Daley's home county for years - zing! ...... Zapped the Gore campaign several times over their shenanigans. Said the Gore campaign is angling for new elections, but we have a law in this country which says that everyone votes on the same day. People can't get a revote if they don't like the outcome. ...... Bush is fighting back -- good for him. ...."

Freeper bigsigh 11/9/00 ".....Rowe says most counties are close to original in recount. Sent a letter to Palm Beach asking why such a descrepency. PB now showing 800 more ballots than two previous reports Tue night and Wed. 1 or 2 not unusual, but 800 is suspicious (my word). ....."

Freeper TigersEye 11/9/00 ".....Yes indeed! And let's be clear who's calling for war. Congressman Deutch declares Bush would be illegitimate President. Hillary agrees that Ralph Nader should be killed for spoiling the election. Jesse Jackson calls for "his people" to take to the streets. Daley asserts that we should ignore the Constitution and decide the election by popular vote. ....."

UPI 11/9/00 ".....Sen. Christopher Bond, R-Mo., Thursday charged there was widespread vote fraud in St. Louis on election night and asked the U.S. attorney and FBI to investigate. A heavy Democratic turnout in St. Louis led to the ouster of Sen. John Ashcroft, R-Mo., and the election of the late Gov. Mel Carnahan in Missouri's U.S. Senate race. In the governor's race, Democrat Bob Holden was elected over Republican Jim Talent by a narrow margin. .......A St. Louis judge ordered polls be kept open past their scheduled 7 p.m. closing time but a three-member appellate court panel overturned the ruling 40 minutes later. Bond charges some polls remained open despite the appellate decision. ......, In letters to U.S. Attorney Audrey Fleissig and FBI Director Louis Freeh, Bond said there is evidence "taped phone calls were prepared in advance to be delivered in the area alerting voters to the fact that the polls would remain open until 10 p.m. election night." ......... Judge Evelyn Baker Tuesday afternoon ruled in response to a petition filed by congressional candidate William "Lacy" Clay that St. Louis polling places remain open until 10 p.m. because long lines and lack of voting materials were depriving people of their right to vote. The Missouri Court of Appeals, however, ordered the polls closed at 7:45 p.m. and the Election Board ordered polls closed at 8:15 p.m. Board Chairman Floyd Kimbrough said, however, the last vote was cast about 10 p.m. ...... "Despite the court order, numerous witnesses have stated that voters were registered and permitted to cast ballots late into the evening in direct violation of that court order," Bond wrote. "Furthermore, witnesses have stated that individuals registering voters and encouraging voting were aware of that order and knowingly ignored the court order, thereby committing voter fraud. ...... "Additionally, election judges at approximately 29 polling places left their positions at 7 p.m., leaving ballots and ballot boxes unattended for an undetermined amount of time. Considering these and other events that transpired over the course of the evening, there is reason to believe that collusion existed to commit voter fraud and voter fraud occurred on a wide scale throughout the city of St. Louis." ......"

Bush Campaign email 11/9/00 "...... RECOUNT UPDATE

Democrats are leaking preliminary data from recounts in Florida. These numbers are not certified, and in many cases disputed. Networks should be cautious in how they report such uncertified numbers. Here are examples of just how questionable these numbers are in two important counties.

Palm Beach County

A precinct-by-precinct count found a change of only six otes, but when the ballots were rerun through computer abulation the change jumped to over 600, most likely the result of a computer glitch which is presently under review.

Democrats are arguing that 19,000 ballots being thrown out in Palm Beach County for overcounting (ballots cast for two candidates for the same office) is abnormal, and the result of a confusing ballot presentation that resulted in Gore voters voting for Buchanan. But in 1996, nearly 15,000 ballots were thrown out for overcounting, similar to the number on Tuesday, when the higher turnout is factored in.

This ballot presentation was published in local newspapers and approved by an elected Democratic party official prior to the election, but was not objected to prior to Election Day, as Florida law requires.

Pinellas County

There have been big discrepancies between the number of absentee ballots counted in the recount versus the number counted election night. In Pinellas County, absentee ballots are sorted into 40 "types" in the county.

On election night, one of the types had 430 ballots counted, but on recount turned up 1,555-a jump of 1,125 ballots. ..."

CNN 11/9/00 Freeper freedom4ever "..... CNN reports the lawsuit is withdrawn by the plaintiffs. Belief is that it will be filed in state court, possibly next week. ...." And ".... This was just on CNN. Litigants were in court, plaintiffs withdrew lawsuit, judge was taken aback, and ran everyone out of the courtroom. ...."

FoxNews 11/9/00 Freeper Teddy "..... I've just seen two separate reporters report fraud allegations in FL. The first involves the recount in Palm Beach County, not equalling the numbers reported from the individual precincts there. Where did Gore's magical 751 votes come from? ..... The second involves at least 2 investigations into absentee ballots being intercepted at post offices around the state and "used illegally". ...." Freeper San Jacinto adds "...... I saw the same report. A Fox News correspondent with an odd name --William Lajanuese, or something similar, said a government attorney (federal, I guess) told him there was an investigation concerning a possibly widespread operation whereby the overseas absentee ballots were being intercepted at the post offices. If this is true, then there could not be a more direct effort to steal the election. As serious as this is, it will not receive 1/10th of the publicity as the phony, made-up BS over "confusing" ballots in Palm Beach County. ......"

Freeper piasa "....I heard that on FOX too. Also, from earlier, a report of a person being caught with 7 absentee ballots on his/her person who had been attempting to deliver absentee ballots to different precincts. My guess is that somewhere out there is a box of unfilled-out absentees that are or will be used to provide Gore with mystery votes. Also, I heard that Seminole County is reporting that they will be late in their recount. My suspicion is that there is an effort to delay the rest of the recount perhaps to tomorrow... thereby allowing more votes to fixed and to put any announcement by GWBush beyond the prime-time hour. ....."

MSNBC 11/9/00 Freeper Recovering_Democrat ".... Some info babe on MSNBC said that Sec. of State Bill Jones is saying "don't count California out....1 million absentee ballots need to be counted still..." Sounds like they needed to fill some time, so they threw this out there, but it might be nice to see... " ....Freeper paul in cape ".... Just announced on MS-NBC, infobabe on with Chris Matthews announced that the Calif. Sect'y of State (I think), the highest ranking Republican in Calif., has just said that Calif.'s 54 electoral votes should be taken out of the Gore column and into the To-Close-To-Call column. Apparently there are over 1 Million Absentee ballots still uncounted, and those opened since yesterday are breaking for Bush! ...."

breaking from Joe Scarborough!!! Freeper dead 11/9/00 "....If Gore does not concede, Republicans will open voter fraud investigations in Iowa, California, Wisconsin. He says Austin is ready to go into four or five states and play hardball with Gore and the Dems. Scarborough says they took 24 hours too long (as usual) to get tough, but they are not playing any longer! ...."

Freeper Mad_Dawgg 11/9/00 "...Fox just said that Palm Beach does not want to call their Recount Valid now! ...."

Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Home Page 11/9/00 Freeper FlJoePa ".... Being a resident of Palm Beach County, I thought I'd look up a little information and post it here for your perusal. This information is from the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections' home page.

As of October 25th:

Registered Democrats: 296,122 Total Votes for Algore after re-count: 269,696

Registered Republicans: 231,626 Total Votes for George W. after re-count: 152,954

Now, according to this information, and making the simplistic assumption that no Democrats voted for George W, this gives the Democrats a turnout of 91%. Also, making the same assumption that no Republicans voted for Algore, this gives the Republicans a turnout of only 66%.

Add into the mix the fact that the Dummycrats are now wanting the 19,000 "tossed" ballots counted as well, that would raise the Democratic turnout to 97%. Yeah, there is something funny going on all right, but it's not these "butterfly ballots", rather it is massive voter fraud. The ballot issue is nothing but a smokescreen. ......"

ABC Radio News 11/8/00 Prometheus "..... THREE MORE COUNTIES TO GO. VOTE WILL NOT BE CERTIFIED UNTIL NOVEMBER 17TH WHEN ALL THE ABSENTEE BALLOTS CAN BE COUNTED. RECOUNT MANDATED BY FLORIDA LAW. FLORIDA SECERTARY OF STATE OFFICE SAYS THE UNOFFICIAL RESULTS BY STATE OFFICIALS IS BUSH LEADS BY 1784 VOTES. STATE SAYS WIRE SERVICE NUMBERS ARE BEHIND. NOT ALL PRECENTS TABULATED. ONLY 53 TABULATED. ......"

Freeper SFRigger ".....That IS NOT the final recount...The Florida Secretary of State said that there were 14 counties remaining to send in their official recount. I want W to win as bad as everyone here, but let's not muddy the water here. Bush IS ahead by 1724 votes at this time. It will be later tonight, or tomorrow before we have the numbers from the other counties. It may be as late as the 20th before we know everything including the count of the absentee ballots.

It IS looking good though. ...."

Newsmax 11/9/00 Daniel McAdams "...... The "people power" that has taken to the streets of Florida today courtesy of the Democratic Party and the Rev. Jesse Jackson is not so different from the mobs that have taken to the streets of the new democracies of Central and Eastern Europe when a vote was being stolen. And no, they are not "defending democracy" but rather they are a critical force-multiplier in the cheating process itself. The pattern may not be familiar to the American public, but as one who has observed elections throughout the former communist world, including those that have ended in violence and massive fraud, the pattern, to me, is unmistakable. .......... What is happening in Florida - and to a lesser degree in places like St. Louis and elsewhere - follows a game plan that has yet to fail: first rule is, delay delay delay. Do not let any official results be announced. The longer you can delay, the more doubt is cast on the elections and the more time there is to manipulate the results. ........Second, latch on to a legitimate issue and marry it to an illegitimate one until the original issue is completely lost. In Florida a recount was automatically called because of a very close race. But who now is talking about the real reason for the recount? Not CNN, not the networks and the liberal talking heads, not the American people. The issue has successfully been reframed. ...... With chaos successfully reigning, the accusations and claims have grown exponentially. .......Americans will no doubt be shocked to find themselves compared to Albanians, but the 2000 presidential election here is shockingly similar to that in Albania in 1996. There, the former Communist party pulled out of the elections just before the polls closed claiming massive vote fraud - despite the fact that there had been little evidence of fraud. The move was calculated to throw the entire process into chaos so as to buy time. Ultimately it did not matter that the anti-communists won. The elections were claimed illegitimate and therefore the government that took power was illegitimate. It was hobbled by the claims, fraudulent though they were, and soon overthrown. ......... The same thing happened to Robert Kocharian in Armenia two years later, though he survived only to be hobbled by legal challenges and questions about his legitimacy. ......Whatever the case, today the fraudsters have their sights set on their holy grail: a re-vote in Palm Beach County. ...... You must recognize what is happening, or you will lose more than you have already. Do not give one inch. No compromises. No new elections. No switching ballots. This election is being stolen. It is up to the Republican Party and all good American people to defend their vote. .......McAdams has observed elections in Central and Eastern Europe for the British Helsinki Human Rights Group. He is senior research associate at the Center for Security Policy in Washington......"

ABCNews 11/8/00 "..... ABC news was saying Bush will start naming Cabinet appointments as soon as vote counted (suggested tomorrow). Bush and Cheney want to pre-empt Demos move to draw this out and instead cement in the minds of voters the finality of the vote ... "

Freeper kazaneder 11/9/00 "..... According to the Sec'y State website from TUESDAY: Bush: 2,909,135 Gore: 2,907,351 Numbers from the news conference: Bush: 2,909,661 Gore: 2,907,877 The numbers from the news conference do not appear to be Tuesday night's numbers. ......"

Freeper FrostFire 11/9/00 "...... ONLY 53 COUNTY VOTE NUMBERS HAVE BEEN OFFICIALLY CERTIFIED BY COUNTY SUPERVISORS. The rest have been tallied but signed hardcopy certification has not been received from some counties. Now gore is announcing again, that the count doesn't count, he will not abide this count. I guess it's back to Bush. Claim what is his and do it NOW before they get a chance to bogus up the numbers even more. ....."

Fox News 11/9/00 John Martin "...... By 5 p.m. ET Thursday, 53 counties had reported their official, certified tallies to Florida's Division of Elections. According to Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, Bush led Gore, 2,909,661 to 2,907,877 - a difference of 1,784 votes, exactly the same results reported Wednesday morning. (But according to unofficial Associated Press projections, Bush led by just 362 votes out of roughly 6 million cast, with ballots in 64 of the 67 counties counted.) Harris said Thursday evening the final results might not be complete until next week: Counties are required to submit their certified results by next Tuesday, absentees ballots are still coming in and Florida must certify its statewide results by Nov. 17. ......"

Freeper SunStar 11/9/00 ".... FROM REAL CLEAR POLITICS:

Popular National Vote Still Undecided

At Least 1.5 Million Ballots Still Uncounted Gap Now Under 100,000

Bush Wins Original Florida Vote By 1,784, Before All Overseas Absentee Ballots

State of Florida: After 53 of 67 Counties, Gore has picked up 0 votes. Unofficially. The Bush lead is now 1784.

AP: After 64 of 67 Counties, Gore has picked up 1422 votes. The Bush lead is now 362.

Three Remaining Counties Are All Bush Counties ....."

Freeper ftrader 11/9/00 ".... A 1,000 sample of Palm Beach will be hand counted (3 precincts), but ALL the punch-card ballots will be re-run through the machine again, all this happening Saturday. ..."

FoxNews 11/9/00 ".... U.S. District Judge Kenneth Ryskamp dismissed the first of three lawsuits filed to invalidate the Florida presidential election. Lawyers for a Boca Raton voter had sued for a new election in federal court. ...... Attorney Lawrence Navarro told the judge that he wanted to dismiss the case. Ryskamp agreed and walked out in less than a minute. ....... Accusations of fraud, voter intimidation and invalid ballots have led to a flurry of legal actions, including one by a Tampa man who is seeking a court order to stop the state from certifying election results. Willie Dickens' lawyer Sidney Matthew says Dickens tried to vote Tuesday, but was turned away because he didn't have his driver's license. He said that Dickens, a regular voter, went home to get the license but the polls were closed by time he returned..... State prosecutors in Pensacola are also investigating whether a fraudulent absentee ballot submitted in Escambia County could have been part of a broader scheme. .....The investigation began when Todd Vinson, a law clerk living in Miami but registered to vote in Pensacola, complained last week to his father, U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson, that he had never received either of two absentee ballots that elections officials said they mailed to him. ......They found a ballot with the younger Vinson's name on it, but the signature did not match his and the address of the witness who signed the ballot was fictitious. ...."

Sun-Sentinel 11/9/00 Reuters ".....Palm Beach County will not certify its results in the U.S. presidential election until it recounts votes by machine and by hand starting Saturday, elections officials said Thursday........ The county will not pass along its recount figures to be included in a statewide total for all 67 counties that had been expected to be released by Florida on Thursday evening, a county commissioner who is a member of the Palm Beach County canvassing board said.......The county will conduct a second machine recount of all of its ballots, and will also handcount a sample of one percent of the ballots, which was expected to cover three or four precincts, the county's canvassing board said....... At least two lawsuits seeking a new election were filed in state court by Palm Beach County residents who believe thousands of votes that could have been crucial for Vice President Gore in the residential election were "lost" because of confusion over where to mark the ballot......"

ABCNews Reuters 11/9/00 "...... Republican George W. Bush"s campaign on Thursday charged the Democratic camp of Vice President Al Gore with politicizing election difficulties in Florida "at the expense of our democracy." .... "Our democratic process calls for a vote on Election Day," said Bush"s campaign manager Don Evans. "It does not call for us to continue voting until someone likes the outcome." "The Democrats, who are politicizing and distorting these events, risk doing so at the -- at the expense of our democracy," Evans said......."

ABCNews Reuters 11/9/00 "...... Evans and chief strategist Karl Rove accused the Gore camp of especially meddling in Palm Beach County. Democrats have charged that about 3,000 votes intended for Gore were wrongly cast for Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan in that county because of confusion over the ballot. They also say a high number of ballots were disqualified in the county. Evans said his Gore campaign counterpart William Daley had not "told the whole story" in his statement about Palm Beach County ballots. The Bush aides said that according to the Florida Department of State, 16,695 voters in Palm Beach County were registered to parties that supported Reform party candidate Pat Buchanan, an increase of 110 percent since the 1996 presidential election. They called Palm Beach County "a Pat Buchanan stronghold" and said that was why he had received 3,407 votes there......."

ABCNews Reuters 11/9/00 "...... Bush campaign spokesman Ari Fleischer, appearing on MSNBC, said the "butterfly" ballot that confused some Palm Beach voters was similar to one used in Cook County, Ill, where both Daley and the Rev. Jesse Jackson vote. Jackson was in Florida on Thursday expressing outrage at the situation. "They only object now that the results of this election did not go the way they want them to go. ...." Fleischer said......"

ABCNews Reuters 11/9/00 "......Evans said Daley "neglects to point out" that in the 1996 presidential election 14,872 ballots were invalidated for double counting in Palm Beach County, a figure comparable to the number of ballots dismissed this year. "...."

ABCNews Reuters 11/9/00 "...... Rove suggested the Florida recount might not settle the issue of who won the election, pointing out that there were 10,000 votes yet to be counted in Colorado; 168,000 absentee ballots still being counted in Arizona; almost 70,000 mail-in ballots to be counted in Washington; and perhaps as many as one million absentee votes to be counted in California. ....."

ABCNews Reuters 11/9/00 "...... Campaign sources said Bush"s vice presidential running mate, Dick Cheney, would oversee the Republican"s transition team in Washington and that Andrew Card, transportation secretary in the administration of Bush"s father, President George Bush, was a likely candidate for White House chief of staff. After Bush was declared president-elect, he would move quickly to name several top members of his team, the sources said, including retired Gen. Colin Powell, probably as his secretary of state, and Condoleezza Rice as his White House National Security Adviser. Bush met with Rice, his chief foreign policy adviser, who also served in the elder Bush"s administration, at the governor"s mansion on Thursday, spokeswoman Karen Hughes said. ....."

ABCNews Reuters 11/9/00 "...... At the Republican campaign headquarters in Austin, staff met to devise a strategy for dealing with the increasingly complicated scenario of looming legal challenges that could drag out the process of determining if Bush or Gore will be the 43rd U.S. president. Press spokesmen for Bush were dispatched from headquarters to Florida to handle inquiries from dozens of media representatives who have descended on Tallahassee...."

AP 11/9/00 "..... The Associated Press surveyed elections officials in each of Florida's 67 counties on Wednesday and Thursday to tabulate vote totals in the recount of the presidential election. The results were provided directly to the AP by election officials in those counties either in person or by phone. In every possible instance, the AP also obtained faxed copies of the recounted tally from the county officials. The same results were to be relayed from each county to the Florida secretary of state's office in Tallahassee, and she will then release a final unofficial tally. The vote totals include some but not all absentee ballots sent to Floridians living overseas. Those ballots had to be postmarked by Election Day, but can be returned as late as Nov. 17....."

Freeper Travis McGee ".... Other fraud events I've heard of:

1/ Marquette University, instant registration by students at up to 10 polling places, given absentee ballots.

2/ Miami: Post poll closing "ballot parties" behind closed doors. (Wonder why it took them so many extra hours to get the ballots in?)

3/ Pittsburg: massive multiple voting. Teachers saying they were handed two or more ballots and told "just go do them" by officials.

4/ Florida, absentee ballots which never arrived are found with forged names and filled out for Algore. ...."

AP 11/9/00 Larry Margasak ".......While a confusing ballot in Palm Beach County generated the most attention, Democratic Party officials, Gore campaign aides and the NAACP compiled fast-growing lists of complaints. .....Two lawsuits were filed in state court seeking a new vote in Palm Beach County. The Democratic Party and Gore campaign weighed their own lawsuits. ......"

AP 11/9/00 Larry Margasak "...... Among alleged irregularities:

--Polls closed while people were still in line in Tampa.

--Voters were denied ballots on grounds that their precinct had changed.

--Some election officials refused to allow translators in voting booths for Haitian-Americans in Miami.

--Hispanic voters in Osceola County alleged they were required to produce two kinds of identification when one was required.

Voters in Osceola County in central Florida said they, too, were confused by their ballots. ....."

AP 11/9/00 Larry Margasak "......On the Internet, Democrats.com, a Web site not affiliated with the Democratic National Committee, launched TrustThePeople.com, where voters in Palm Beach could download an affidavit, which they could sign and send election officials protesting the vote. The site had collected over a thousand affidavits by late Thursday afternoon, according to a site administrator. .....Another site, ActForChange.com, offered a form in which Internet users could e-mail Florida election director Clay Roberts directly to demand a revote. ......"

AP 11/9/00 Larry Margasak "......''We expect legal challenges,'' Roberts told a news conference. He said Secretary of State Katherine Harris, as the state's chief elections officer, will defend any lawsuit. ...... Adora Obi Nweze, president of the NAACP in Florida, said officials in her Miami precinct tried to deny her a ballot because she had been sent an absentee ballot earlier. The civil rights leader said she never received the mailing and demanded to vote. ''You can take me to jail or let me vote,'' she said she told county officials. She eventually was allowed to sign an affidavit swearing she had not previously voted......."

National Review 11/9/00 Deroy Murdock "...... After an election night as suspenseful as an Alfred Hitchcock thriller, deadlock has set in. In light of Florida's electoral-vote dispute, the U.S. must focus on ballot integrity.. ...Supporters of Vice President Al Gore in Palm Beach County, Florida, are complaining that a ballot they found confusing - previously approved by Democratic county elections supervisor Theresa LePore - generated accidental votes for Pat Buchanan. The NAACP claims that blacks were barred from voting in some polling sites. ......"

National Review 11/9/00 Deroy Murdock "...... Republicans say that resident aliens in Broward County voted although they are not yet citizens. GOP voters in the conservative Panhandle, within the central time zone, may have stayed home after the networks inaccurately projected Florida for Gore once voting ended in the eastern time zone. ......... Miami poll watchers told MSNBC's Jonathan Alter that some absentee-ballot recipients signed affidavits at the polls swearing that they had not mailed in their absentee ballots, then voted normal ballots. "Quite a number of people in the past in Miami, in Dade County, have voted twice," Alter said. "They filled out the affidavit, but they also filled out their absentee ballot." Officials now may have to compare affidavits and absentee ballots to eliminate repeat voting. ......"

National Review 11/9/00 Deroy Murdock "......New York Democratic donor Connie Milstein--who gave $402,000 to Democrats this election cycle and hosted Al Gore at a Park Avenue fundraiser--was caught just before the election giving packs of cigarettes to homeless people in Milwaukee if they would vote for Democrats. "I'm here representing the Gore-Lieberman campaign," she told WISN-TV. "I'm down here trying to get out the vote." Milstein, who was accompanied by two volunteers, later contradicted that statement and claimed to be operating independently. The Democratic National Committee also disavowed her actions. Wisconsin law forbids encouraging someone to vote in exchange for anything worth more than $1.00. ......"

National Review 11/9/00 Deroy Murdock "......Meanwhile, the victorious Senate campaign of Missouri's deceased governor Mel Carnahan took yet another odd turn when voter logs disappeared and Republicans charged that improperly registered voters cast ballots. At 21 precincts, ballot boxes reportedly were left unattended. One judge extended voting hours in St. Louis due to high turnout until another judge halted the additional balloting. ...... "

National Review 11/9/00 Deroy Murdock "......At this writing, Al Gore leads George W. Bush by about 98,000 votes nationally. Did unorthodox balloting procedures in New York, Wisconsin, and elsewhere swell Gore's overall total, perhaps eclipsing an actual Bush popular-vote victory? Americans may never know. ......."

National Review Robert Alt 11/9/00 "...... In an election where nothing is clear, the outcome in this lawsuit is: Neither the voters nor Gore have a case, so long as the judge follows previous Florida case law. In 1974, the Florida Court of Appeals heard Nelson v. Robinson, a case remarkably similar to this one. In Nelson, voters and losing candidates challenged an election in which names of candidates were placed on the ballot in a confusing way. ...... The court found that some voters were indeed confused by the ballots, which listed the names both horizontally and vertically, but that "mere confusion does not amount to an impediment to the voters' free choice if reasonable time and study will sort it out..." The court made clear that the Constitution assumes the voters' "intelligence to indicate his choice with a degree of care commensurate with the solemnity of the occasion." .........The Nelson court then turned to the candidate, and declared that he does not have a right to a "particular spot on the ballot which might make the voters' choice easier. His constitutional rights in the matter end when his name is place on the ballot." More telling, however, is that it is well-settled that a candidate may not object to a ballot irregularity after an election if he has the opportunity to object beforehand. Indeed, some courts have held that a candidate is barred from bringing such a claim at all. The reason for this rule is clear: Before the election, the risk of candidate self-dealing is lower (since he is uncertain of the results), and the cost for remedying the situation is not as high. After the fact, a candidate is likely seeking his own political advantage based on the particular results; and the costs of the fix - a new election or otherwise altering the tally - are very high. Because these concerns certainly exist in Palm, and because Gore election officials not only saw the ballot beforehand, but signed off on it, they should be precluded from challenging it now. ......."

CNS 11/9/00 ".....Defeated Missouri U.S. Senator John Ashcroft won't challenge the election of his dead opponent, but the Constitution Party will. Howard Phillips, the Constitution Party's presidential candidate, announced Thursday that he plans to sue to prevent Mel Carnahan from being certified as the winner in the Senate contest with Ashcroft. Carnahan was Missouri's governor, running for Ashcroft's senate seat when he was killed in a plane crash last month. ....... In Thursday's announcement, Phillips said the "Constitution makes clear that to win a seat in the Senate, you must meet certain qualifications. You must be at least 30 years old, nine years a citizen and an inhabitant of the state. In Missouri, in violation of the Constitution, it appears state officials are going to certify the election of an individual who is not an inhabitant" of the state. ......"

NewMax 11/9/00 "...... While the media breathlessly report each new vote added to Vice President Al Gore's column in the Florida recount, reporters have been all but silent on the tens of thousands of new votes that have been added to President-elect George Bush's nationwide tally in the last 24 hours. ......."

Nightline 11/9/00 Freeper SpiritOfTruth "..... Reported that the recount vote could not be certified pending a hearing next Tuesday...."

Financial Times 11/9/00 Stephen Fidler "..... As an automatic recount continued on Thursday in Florida, law firms in Washington were poring over Florida election law to find grounds for a court challenge to the vote that would allow Al Gore to claim the presidency. ...... Richard Semiatin, of American University in Washington, says the likelihood of a court overturning the Palm Beach County result is remote. Although on the face of it, the fairness of the vote is in doubt, there is no suggestion that the ballot confusion was deliberately contrived by the Democrats in charge of the election in that county. .... Unless negligence is shown and the election administrators ignored prior complaints about the ballot paper, the complainants would have to show deliberate manipulation. "They have to show some type of deliberate intent to keep people from voting the way they wanted," he says. ..... Had Republicans been in charge of the elections in the county, the question of intent would have been much more open to question, Mr Semiatin says. ....."

Financial Times 11/9/00 Stephen Fidler ".....The possibility of a court-ordered re-run of the vote appears even more remote. ... Assuming Mr Bush still prevails after the recount, many political scientists see strong parallels between Mr Gore's likely predicament and that of Richard Nixon in the close election of 1960. ..... The vice-president would need to balance the potentially huge political cost of reaching the presidency by pressing his case through the courts against the probability that a statesmanlike concession to his opponent would enhance his political credentials to mount a future challenge for the White House.

If a legal challenge is mounted and pushed by the Democratic party, however, a series of tit-for-tat challenges could be mounted elsewhere by Republicans, in the states of Iowa, Wisconsin and New Mexico where Mr Bush lost by narrow margins. ......In the process, the US political system could lose a lot of credibility, constitutional specialists fear. The election system is thought to be much less open to fraud than in 1960, in part because automated voting and improved information transfers sharply lessen the chances for fraud. ....."

Associated Press 11/9/00 "......Elian Gonzalez's Miami relatives say the lawyer who represented them in their effort to keep the boy in the United States betrayed them Thursday by taking up Al Gore's cause in the Florida election recount. The Gonzalezes abruptly canceled a Thursday night ceremony to honor Kendall Coffey and the other members of the legal team that donated their time to the failed custody fight over the 6-year-old Cuban boy. A statement released by Armando Gutierrez, the Gonzalezes' spokesman, called Coffey's new role assisting Vice President Gore ``incompressible ...."

Independent U.K. 11/10/00 Andrew Gumbel ".... With almost regal disdain for the growing controversy over the vote in Florida, George W Bush and his advisers spoke and acted yesterday as though the White House was already theirs, telling the world in carefully crafted information leaks that they were hard at work on the transition of power and fully expected to have victory confirmed in short order. The candidate himself stayed well out of the limelight in the governor's mansion in Austin, where he was holed up with his extended family and his running mate, Dick Cheney. ...... .."

New York Times 11/10/00 ".....Part of the test of presidential leadership, it seems to us, is finding a way to resolve electoral matters in the political arena. Given that, it is worrying that Mr. Gore and a legal team led by Warren Christopher, the former secretary of state, would announce their support for a lawsuit while the mandatory recount is still going on and while seven days remain for the arrival of overseas absentee ballots. It is doubly worrying that some Gore associates are using the language of constitutional crisis and talking of efforts to block or cloud the vote of the Electoral College on Dec. 18 and of dragging out the legal battle into January. The CNN political commentator Bill Schneider picked apt language when he spoke of the "treacherous path" that would-be leaders choose when they talk of unraveling the finality of elections. ...... Fortunately, given the Gore campaign's rush to litigation, there is a time window for both political and legal combat. .......One way or another, Republicans and Democrats alike should look toward the earliest possible date for recognizing the legitimacy of one winner in this election. They should not be laying plans that undermine an orderly and honest transition to a new presidency or set damaging precedents for future elections. .........The sad reality is that ballot disputes and imperfections are a feature of every election. It will poison the political atmosphere if presidential elections, in particular, come to be seen as merely a starting point for litigation. ......"

Associated Press 11/8/00 "...... West Palm Beach -- Presidential ballots in Palm Beach County can't be certified by the state pending a Tuesday court hearing, a circuit judge ruled Thursday. ....... The order, issued Thursday night by Circuit Judge Kathleen Kroll, is the result of one of six lawsuits filed in Palm Beach County by voters who say they may have mistakenly voted for Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan instead of Vice President Gore because of the way the ballot was designed. Two other lawsuits filed in Tallahassee allege race discrimination in Tuesday's balloting.

The Palm Beach County voters want a new election in the county. ......In the order, Kroll wrote that based on a lawsuit filed by two Boca Raton women it appears they would suffer ``irreparable injury'' if the votes are certified before the case can be heard. ....... The injunction, issued Thursday night about 8:30, came quietly. ....Two judges in Tallahassee _ one federal, one state_ refused to issue emergency orders stopping the state from certifying election results. U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle scheduled a hearing on one lawsuit for Nov. 21 and County Judge Don Modesitt said he would schedule a hearing Monday in another. ....... The Gore campaign criticized the ballots used in Palm Beach County as confusing, and asked for a hand count of votes cast there and in three other counties _ Volusia, Broward and Miami-Dade. Palm Beach County has agreed to hand-count ballots in three precincts on Saturday and a second computer recount. Volusia has agreed to do a hand recount. ...... Judges will be guided by a 1997 state Supreme Court decision in a Volusia County election in which county elections workers were found to have broken state law 14 times and committed gross negligence in handling absentee ballots, but did not result in a new election. ...."

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