Bush Cheated but Still Lost. Al Gore Won
the Election. He Only Lost a Fixed Lawsuit

Mike Smith writes: You are blowing smoke sir.

All of the counties that the Democrats requested a recount in, which were all coincidently counties that were favorable to the Democratic party, were recounted - several times.

As for your ridiculous allegations of Jeb Bush throwing 100,000 votes off the ballots, where is your concrete evidence? You make claims that are false knowing that no one is going to care enough to research to prove your claims to be wrong.

This is a case of someone like you who is blinded by your ideology and is unwilling to not only see the truth, but accept it. Bush is our president and odds are he will be our president until 2008.

Thank God!

You are so full of it. First off, it was the Republicans who agreed with Gore to do a recount of the ENTIRE state. It was the Gore camp that only wanted the four heavily Democratic counties to be recounted. Check the fact sir and stop twisting the history around.

Secondly, after the justified court action by the Supreme Court following that brazen show of partisanship of the liberal Florida Supreme Court, the counts were later finished and then recounted again by various news organizations and political action groups. In all cases Bush WON!

I just cannot believe how you continue to push this garbage and rewrite history. You should be ashamed of yourself.

The editors respond: We're sure you believe all of this, but all of it is largely or entirely wrong. If anyone should be ashamed, it's AWOL and Jeb Bush and their accomplices who broke the law, stole the election, and lied to the American people about it.

There's no question or doubt Jeb Bush, Katherine Harris, and Clayton Roberts hired Database Technologies / Choice Point Corp. to "white wash" the Florida voting rolls. They had actual notice that the resulting list of "felons" included 10,000s of innocent voters, and this process violated the Voting Rights Act.

Rather than fix the errors, Clayton Roberts asked DBT to "purge" even more voters! If you doubt Jeb throwing up to 100,000 Democrats off the voting rolls didn't more than makeup for 537 votes, you're crazy. All this rigged the election before the polls opened.

Despite the dishonest claims by Republicans that the votes were counted and recounted, there wasn't even one full count of the ballots. Florida law requires running all ballots through the counting machines again in any election this close. Dozens of counties refused to do this, thereby violating the law.

Despite the dishonest claims by Republicans that hand counting votes introduces unfairness - what they called "manufacturing votes" - Republicans in several pro-Bush counties engaged in unauthorized, illegal hand counts on election night. They also illegally set up inside election offices and "repaired" defective absentee ballots - but only those for Bush.

You're 100% wrong claiming "it was the Republicans who agreed with Gore to do a recount of the ENTIRE state." You either made up or repeated an outright lie. The Republicans never supported that or any other recount after their illegal counts. Why should they? The Bush side had already ensured all legal and many illegal Bush votes were already counted.

Republican liars like to claim Al Gore tried to block military votes. This is the opposite of the truth. Al Gore was in no position to do that even if he wanted to, and he didn't want to.

On the other hand, pro-Bush counters threw out legal, on-time absentee Gore ballots, but counted illegal, defective, late and non-postmarked Bush ballots. Of course all of these Republican actions broke the law.

While Al Gore did initially call for a hand-recount in four counties, that was during the preliminary phase. Gore also called for a complete state-wide hand-count, but again the Bush team refused. The Republicans sued to stop every count but lost. The counts went on in the four counties.

As Bush's margin began to disappear, a band of Republicans thugs rioted, stopping the counting in West Palm Beach. Absent this lawless attack on voting rights, Gore would have won outright. That's why Republicans flew in from as far away as Alaska to stop democracy dead.

Katherine Harris "certified" the election for Bush by 537 votes, whereupon Al Gore contested the certification under Florida law. This procedure legally required hand counts, this time of the entire state. Again, Republicans sued to stop this hand-count. They lost. The counts began with sworn judges counting the ballots.

Aware Al Gore had the votes, in a panic as their coup began slipping away, Bush's trial lawyers implored Antonin Scalia to order an emergency halt to the judges counting. This because Scalia claimed it would damage Bush if the actual count were known.

The US Supreme Court deliberated to rule on the matter of Bush v. Gore. Bush's trial lawyers made various absurd claims before the Court. None of these arguments held water, but the Court ruled - without any precedent or other basis - that there wasn't enough time to finish the count. This after the Republicans stalled, delayed and even threatened violence!

The media consortium counted the votes, using various "standards." By every standard, counting all the votes for the entire state showed Al Gore won by various margins. Following Florida law -- counting the "over votes" as well as "under votes" Gore won easily.

Counts of only "under votes" using the most restrictive standards show Al Gore won. Bush only "won" if the count did not include the votes for the entire state. In no way can anyone honestly say that Al Gore lost or Bush won any full, fair count of all the legal votes in Florida. Period.

The Palm Beach Post and several other newspapers reported:

If all counties agreed to use the standard acceptable to most: Statewide count/Prevailing standards -- Gore by 60

If the 63 counties ordered to count had used their own standards: Statewide count/Custom standard -- Gore by 171

If all counties had used the Gore standard: Statewide count/ Most inclusive standard -- Gore by 107

If all counties had used the toughest standard: Statewide count/ Most restrictive standard -- Gore by 115

If all counties had used the Bush standard: Statewide count/Bush standard -- Gore by 105

Statewide count/ Palm Beach dimple rule -- Gore by 42

See: Gore wins under six of nine scenarios, The Palm Beach Post, Monday, November 12, 2001.

Note: the other three "scenarios" did not count all the legal "under votes" for the entire state. By any complete count Al Gore won - even using the "Bush standard" or any other standard.

But that's only the "under votes." Florida law requires hand-counting all the ballots to determine voter intent. That includes "over votes" where that intent is clear. Under the legal standard Gore would have won by even more.

As Gary Kane reports, "Had election officials eyeballed every ballot rejected by tabulating machines as over-votes to see whether any were clearly-valid votes, Al Gore would have won last year's presidential election by 350 votes." Even this short-changes Al Gore by using artificially restrictive standards which excluded 100s of legal votes!

See: If clearly marked 'over-votes' had counted, by Gary Kane, Palm Beach Post Staff, November 12, 2001: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/overvotes.html

With a full, fair vote count in just two counties -- Broward and Palm Beach -- Al Gore would have won by more than 1,000 votes! As the Miami Herald reports: "In Broward, where the official hand recount added 567 votes to Gore's county lead over Bush, a Herald-sponsored ballot review found that Gore's margin could have been 1,475, if every mark had been counted as a valid vote. In Palm Beach, where the official hand recount added a net gain of 174 votes to Gore's tally, the Herald-sponsored review found a potential Gore net gain of 1,081."

Across the entire state, "3,146 [over votes] bore markings that made it clear who the voter preferred, The Herald found. Generally, this occurred when voters chose a candidate and then cast a write-in vote for that same candidate," according to the Herald count.

The Miami paper's analysis shows, "1,871 [easily determinable over votes] were for Gore." Using this most demanding standard results in a "net gain for Gore of 682, [which] would have been enough to carry the Democrat to the White House...." Added to the under votes, even with the demanding Bush standard, shows Gore won Florida by over 1,000 legal votes.

Using the legally mandated standard - clear voter intent - proves an even larger majority of Floridians cast legal votes for Al Gore. According to the Miami Herald's examination of the ballots: "Three of every four overvotes -- a total of 84,204 -- contained a mark for Gore; only one of three overvotes -- a total of 37,738 -- contained a mark for Bush."

The infamous and illegal "butterfly ballot" also cost Gore 1,000s of votes. The Herald notes: "A recent statistical study by six political scientists from Harvard University, Cornell University, Northwestern University and the University of California-Berkeley found that Palm Beach County's butterfly ballot probably cost Gore at least 3,400 votes because of double punches and up to another 2,400 votes that were mistakenly cast for Buchanan."

After expensive, exhaustive and evenhanded review, "The Herald's study confirms that many overvotes would have been accepted as valid -- if election officials had looked at them in time."

See: 'OVERVOTES' LEANED TO GORE, by Martin Merzer, Miami Herald, May 11, 2001. None of this calculus considers the intentional illegal racist Republican vote rigging, voter purging and white washing of the voting rolls or other cheating and crimes by Jeb Bush, Katherine Harris, Clayton Roberts and lesser known operatives.

Even so, all the facts show this: By any fair evaluation, Bush didn't win Florida by 537 or at all. Bush did not win or deserve Florida's electoral votes and therefore is not a legitimate president. Al Gore won those votes.

If the five Republicans on the US Supreme Court hadn't overruled the Constitution and Florida law to end the full, fair count by sitting judges, Al Gore would have won Florida by nearly 40,000 votes. Counting the mistaken votes for Buchanan, Gore really won Florida by approximately 50,000.

Most Americans understand Bush wasn't really elected. The terrorist attacks against the US wiped away this concern - at least for now. However in the back of every mind remain doubts about Bush and his legitimacy. These only grow as Bush mismanages the economy and international diplomacy.

To review how Americans viewed Bush before 9/11 (and might again soon) see: Six Months Since the Coup, and Bush is Still Illegitimate, by Steve Cobble: http://www.ips-dc.org/electoral/articles/stillill.htm.

For exhaustive analysis of illegal racist Republican vote-fixing see: How the GOP Gamed the System in Florida, by John Lantigua, The Nation Magazine, April 12, 2001: http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010430&s=lantigua

For explanation of Bush's failure to buy, cheat or steal the White House, forcing him to reply on an unconstitutional decision by the five extreme right wing "justices" see: The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Truth About Corporate Cons, Globalization and High-Finance Fraudsters, new paperback book by Greg Palast.

For more about the recounts showing Gore really won, read the book The Miami Herald Report: Democracy Held Hostage, by Martin Merzer, Miami Herald Editor and the Staff of The Miami Herald.

Here's a simple explanation of the unconstitutional SUPREME COURT BUSH V. GORE DECISION - lawyer to layman, by Mark H. Levine, Attorney at Law: http://www.daveross.com/marklevine.html.

See expert analysis of the unconstitutional ruling in Bush v. Gore: None Dare Call It Treason, by Vincent Bugliosi, The Nation Magazine, January 18, 2001: http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010205&s=bugliosi.

Also see the book by Bugliosi, The Betrayal of America: How the Supreme Court Undermined the Constitution and Chose Our President