Election 2000
The presidential election between George W. Bush and Albert Gore is down to the wire. As of this date, 11/8/00, Gore has more popular votes and electoral numbers while Bush is leading by a little under 1800 votes in Florida's popular voting. Currently, at this time and date, Gore has 260 Electoral College tallies with 270 needed to win. Bush has 246. Either candidate will win with
the 25 Electoral College votes in Florida, providing each EC voter casts its vote as expected (to the winner of the popular vote). It seems that this progressive state, cannot tally the votes in a timely fashion. Apparently, there were problems in Broward County and other counties. Ballots were ignored. Other counties lost ballots - suddenly finding them. And, the national networks gave the tally to Gore too early. Also, absentee ballots are still coming in. Wow! Hopefully, both candidates will have experts to oversee
this major problem. Thus, no winner as of 10: 54 a.m. Central Time, 11/8/00.
Louisiana voted for Bush, unlike the Clinton victory in 1996. Bush got: 887,950 (53%) while Gore received (45%). Locally, Jefferson went Bush (59%), Orleans went Gore (76%), St. Bernard went Bush (57%), St. John supported gore with 55%, St. Charles supported Bush with 56% and St. Tammany gave the Republican Texas Governor 71%. Thus, it looks like Louisiana's seven Electoral College votes will go to Bush....
The breakdown is this. Male voters voted for Bush 56% of the time. Females voted 54% Bush. Democrats voted 74% Gore while Republicans voted 91% Bush. Buchanan got 1%, Nader 0% and Other 4%. Whites voted 70% Bush. Voters 18-29, 68% Bush. 30-44, 56% Bush, 45-59, Bush 56% and 60 and older, 52% Gore. Income-wise: Gore 64% with earners less than $15,000, $15,000 to 30,000, 61% Gore, $30,000 to 50,000 Bush 59%, $50,000 to 75,000 Bush 71% and 58% in the $75,000 - 100,000 category. Over $100,000 Bush got 75%.
Christians voted 61% for pro-life candidate, Bush. Catholics voted 53% Bush, Other voted 74% Gore. Liberals voted 76% Gore, Conservatives voted 75% Bush. Moderates tied with 48% for each major candidate.
All seven La. congressmen were easily re-elected. Vitter got 80%. Tauzin got 77%. McCrery got 70%. Cooksey in the 5th House district got 69%. Richard Baker collected 68% and Chris John got 84%.
The Louisiana amendments looked like George Armstrong Custer at the Battle of Little Big Horn - surrounded by defeat. Louisiana Inc. got a 68% no vote. The Stelly Plan, which needed numbers two and three to pass collectively lost miserably. No. 2 - got a 63% negative vote while number three got a 49% negative vote. While number three won, they both lost. Both had to pass for victory. Education is said to have lost...and teachers will be interesting to listen to.
11/16/00 - Katherine Harris, the Florida secretary of state, stated today that she will not approve requests from three of the state's largest Democratic counties to manually recount votes from the presidential election. Meanwhile, Vice President Al Gore proposed to break the deadlock by asking Gov. George W. Bush to allow a manual recounting. Bush declined.
11/17/00 - The Florida Supreme Court has given permission for the manual recounting of votes. The issue is still unresolved as to whether the new total will be counted in the final tally.
11/18/00 - With the overseas ballots coming in, Bush's margin swells to 760 votes. Yesterday, after Circuit Judge Terry Lewis rules that the Florida secretary of state may reject hand counted ballots, the Florida Supreme Court refused to allow her to certify Florida's count today. In another court setting, the appeals court in Atlanta refused to stop a hand recount in Florida.
11/18/00 - Six of the seven justices of the Florida Supreme Court are Democratic appointees, with the seventh, selected jointly between Democratic Lawton Chiles and current governor, Republican Jeb Bush. Will the nation get an objective opinion on the election from this court? Will the voters believe it is fair if it allows the Democrat Gore to win?
11/18/00 - In another close state election, Vice PresidentAl Gore has officially won New Mexico in a 481- vote squeaker. He gets five electoral votes.
11/18/00 - Political leaders and lawyers (who else?) have gathered in a Palm Beach County Circuit courtroom to figure out whether or not they could declare another election there. The central question seems to focus on whether or not the state constitution allows for another election when one has been botched beyond repair. Interesting....
11/19/00 - Bush's lead in Florida widened as the absentee ballots come in. However, controversy looms as several ballots were rejected for inaccuracies. Victory was still elusive as state law provides due to the intervention of the state's highest court. Bush gained 1,380 -or 65%. Gore gained 750 votes. The lead grew to 930 for the Texas governor.
11/20/00 - Will the decision go to the nation's highest court? Will the presidential election be decided by nine old men? Or, is it eight old men and one elderly lady? Today's the state supreme court hearing - stay tuned...
11/21/00 - Still no President. The seven justices, Democrat heavy, heard arguments yesterday as to whether the manual recounts could continue and,ultimately, counted. Attorneys for the state attorney general seemed to have been met with open arms, while the secretary of state's attorneys seemed to have collected the court's resentment. Vice President Gore's hope seems now to rest in the 5,000 contested ballots. But, it's not over yet...nor can any swaying be detected. It's just not realistic.
11/21/00 - What's a chad? Well, it's a punch hole in a paper ballot. In Florida, the chad is one of the centers of attention. It seems the recount in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties will take up the problem of what to do with the partially punched paper ballots. The condition of the chads is the issue. The types of chads are: 1) hanging, in which the ballot is attached by a single corner, 2) the swinging-door chad, in which the ballot is held together by two corners, 3) the tri-chad, in which the ballot is attached to three corners, and 4) the pregnant or dimple chad, in which the ballot is bulging- but not perforated. Who knows, next week, we may have more types.
11/21/00 - The absentee ballots coming in from the military personnel stationed throughout the world, believed to be in Bush's favor, are being thrown out in high numbers. Florida's attorney general is being pressured to count the ones which were voided due to no postmarks, etc.
11/21/00 - 8:52 P.M., the Florida Supreme Court ordered the recounting to go on - but, only until Sunday. Meanwhile Gore has gained 278 votes. I got to page thirteen in the decision when I learned that this was too ambiguous. Unclear terms here include: error in vote tabulation, intent of the voter, failure of the voting machinery to read a ballot, whether the returns correctly reflect the votes cast, and number of votes determined by a voter tabulation system and the number of votes determined by a manual count of a sampling of precincts. I say check the machines to see whether they were working properly and leave hand-counting alone. Too much human error in judging pimples, tears, swinging doors, etc. In other words, use the same method used during the election. If it was good enough then, it's good enough now. If the election would have been a landslide, would we recheck the voting using a different method? Nope.....
11/22/00 - Some of the counties are now stopping their manual counting. Seems they cannot finish by the court imposed deadline, so they're checking irregularities -- I think. The court set not standard for determining how to count partially punched ballots.
11/22/00 - While everyone hopes Dick Cheney fully recovers, the first explanations of what to do if he doesn't (or resigns the position) is surfacing. Here's the rundown... A vice president-in-waiting can be replaced by the presidential candidate as long as that happens before the Electoral College meets in the month of December. Meanwhile, Republican protestors remain vocal in the lobby of the Stephen P. Clark Government Center.
11/23/00 - Seems like all the counters are getting tired and exhausted. They're dazed and confused, agitated and downright lackadaisical. Democrats are threatening lawsuits as counties are abandoning their counts. At this time, the dimpled ballots are the main ones in question. In Broward and Palm Beach, Gore gained 137 and 14 respectively. The law suits filed to force the counties to count after they've said it's no use were thrown out. What of the 10,000 votes that didn't register from the dimpled ballots? What about Miami stopping the counting? What of the Bush appeal of the Florida Supreme Court decision appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court? Cheney's chest pains, after being rushed to a Washington hospital, were first diagnosed as NO heart attack. Now, they're saying a mild one.... And, why no one's mentioning anything about Cheney's misfortune is interesting.... You think that the Democrats would be adding this matter to their arsenal, or is it that they do have a heart. Dignity, too.
11/24/00 - Either candidate appears that he would be a sore loser and Al Gore is making headlines with his crying. He now vows that he will fight past any Sunday deadline imposed by the courts. He reportedly will NOT concede defeat without a court challenge to the election.
11/25/00 - George W. Bush's appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court worked. The nine justices will debate the question of whether the Florida Supreme Court overstepped its boundaries next Friday. One-and-a-half hour arguments. So far, Bush's unofficial lead is now at 659 votes. The question still focuses on what to do with the dimpled ballots. When is a dimple really a dimple? Tensions are mounting ever higher as the counting draws to an official end. Will they really stop counting, or will they bank on some courtroom okaying an extension? Does the U.S. Supreme Court have the power to intervene? This remains unclear as Florida's Secretary of State prepares to certify the vote, Sunday at 5:00 P.M. C-Span wants to be the first broadcaster to ever set foot in a U.S. Supreme Court's hearing. Florida's top lawmakers have decided to join Bush's legal team in its legal fight in lieu of calling a special session to deal with the questions there. New term introduced down there - "butterfly ballot". A butterfly ballot is the example that was flashed all over the television as the one with arrows to the left and arrows to the right. The ones Jeannie flashed to the people of New York. Dick Cheney has been released from the hospital with no restrictions placed on him. Supposedly, his heart attack was a "trivial cardiac event". Meanwhile, Bush has picked up some earlier rejected ballot totals. Gore, too - but a lot less.
11/26/00 - Gore added 567 votes in Broward County. Palm Beach counted all night. Bush's new unofficial total is now 464. Getting slimmer... Today's the day the Florida Secretary of State certifies the total. This will be done at 5:00 P.M. Florida time. 80 votes were picked up in the hand count in Broward County. Gore's supporters doubt that he'll overtake the Texas governor before the deadline today. If the certification goes on as scheduled, a new phase of the election will emerge - the courtroom challenges. The GOP is changing directions in the form of a challenge to not counting military/overseas ballots. On the Democratic side, observers are speculating that Gore's supporters are going to abandon him if he doesn't abandon all challenges after today's calculations.
11/28/00 - Al Gore filed challenges in three counties to force them to count all the votes. He claims it's a matter of integrity that we do. Well, where was that integrity when he used White House phones to solicit money?
11/29/00 - Al Gore issued a plea for patience as his legal team proceeded with legal maneuvers to overturn George Bush's certification in Florida's presidential race.
11/30/00 - George Bush is considering La. Sen. John Breaux for Secretary of Energy if his win in the Presidential race is finalized. Meanwhile, Al Gore has started a media blitz asserting that he is the real winner of Florida's 25 electoral votes.
12/1/00 - The Republican-controlled legislature moved into position to calling a special session to name a slate of 25 Bush electors who would vote if litigation fails to determine who won the state's electors. Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court, behind closed doors, will hear arguments from both sides to determine whether the Florida Supreme Court overstepped its boundaries when it ordered additional ballot counting.
12/4/00 - Lawyers for both the Republican and Democratic parties argued it out in a Florida courthouse about the mechanics of punch cards. Judge N. Sanders Sauls, a Leon County Circuit Church judge, is the presiding official.
12/5/00 - Judge Sauls rejected Al Gore's petition to force a manual recount in three Florida counties, saying he has not met the burden of proof. Also, the U.S. Supreme Court set aside the Florida Supreme Court's recent decision authorizing selected manual recounts in these three counties. The decision sent back the case to the Florida court for clarification. Two setbacks for Gore...yet he fights on. His lawyers are saying that the Florida high court's decision will be it if they lose. Al's saying he will fight on no matter what. Political experts are beginning to mention that Al Gore's political career is suffering with all this. But, this webmaster doesn't blame him. 537 votes apart!! The biggest prize in the land!!! Probably, no other chance to win the job again!!!!
12/6/00 - Vice President claims he's still optimistic about his chances of winning the Presidency. Really? Meanwhile, Bush is proceeding with his transition plans. Attorneys for the two square off tomorrow in a Florida courtroom over whether to count enough ballots for Gore to win, as Gore wants.
12/7/00 - The Florida legislature, led by Republicans, has met to begin to decide whether it needs to choose 25 electors to vote for George W. Bush who won the election at this point. Meanwhile, three court decisions will come tomorrow that could have a major impact on the Presidential election. Any one of the three can be decisive.
12/8/00 - Two decisions in the Circuit Courts went in favor of George W. Bush. These were not sanctioned by Gore and his lawyers. The other decision, made by the state Supreme Court, went for Gore- and it was a big one. It cut, officially, Bush's lead to 154 official votes. And, it ordered the Circuit Court to begin recounting votes immediately.
12/9/00 - The Fla. Supreme Court's decision to recount "undervotes" throughout the state is having serious impact in the political arenas throughout the nation. Democrats are predicting a Gore victory. Republicans are scrambling for answers and alternatives. The abandoning Democrats ready to retreat before the decision are now full fledged back into Al Gore's camp. An amazing turn of events, for sure...
12/9/00 - Palm Beach County's Canvassing Board now reports that they miscounted the votes. Gore's total was 39 more than what is should be. Thus, George W. Bush's total is now 193.
12/10/00 - The vote totals reported by the press are: 930 officially, 537 certified, 154 tallied, 193 corrected and currently 177 unofficially. The oral arguments in from of the ultimate decision maker in the land is 10:00 am tomorrow. With a 5 to 4 decision to stop the recount yesterday, who knows what will happen Monday. The candidate who has the favorable ruling is in the driver's seat. Stay tuned. Anybody making plans for a TV movie yet?
12/11/00 - The nation's highest court heard arguments today on whether the manual recount will continue via a Florida Supreme Court decision. All kinds of rumors are surfacing as to whether Al Gore will quit if the decision goes against his request. A local radio station reported that a CBS newsman ran out of the courtroom saying that Al Gore is in trouble. We'll have to wait and see.
12/12/00 - While the people waited for the Supreme Court's decision many speculated still whether Al Gore would concede. At 10 p.m., the court's decision came. There was just not enough time. There are no fair standards applied to all the counties when recounting votes. 5-4 decision stopped the recount.
12/13/00 - Al Gore is supposed to concede at 7:00 p.m. Some are questioning whether he'll concede or just withdraw. Out is out....no matter what you call it. Why would he not simply say 'concede'? Final electoral tally: Bush 271 Gore 268. Popular vote: Gore 50,158,094 Bush 49,820,518
12/14/00 - Inserting that he does not agree with the U.S. Supreme Court's decision, Al Gore conceded "for the sake of our unity." His 10-minute speech looked like a dentist was besides him pulling it out, but Gore showed some dignity and acceptance. Later, President-elect Bush later spoke and vowed to pursue good. By a little after ten, it was all over with. And, perhaps this journal is finished. Though there are some other suits pending they will not affect the outcome of the election at all, supposedly. If you see another entry, then all is not over. Bush and Bush thus becomes the second father and son combination to hold the nation's highest office. Adams and Adams was the first, and only other.