American Politics Journal

Letters -- and Responses

From: Susan Mitchell
Date: Nov. 19, 2001
Re: Tamara Baker's Article on the REEEEEECounts

Please pass this along to Tamara Baker. Where, Ms. Baker, in the entire United States of America, are OVERvotes counted? Answer: No place. Never. Ever.

I have a suggestion that will settle the question once and for all ... rehold the election ... today....right now....immediately.

These 'recounts' (or as I like to call them 'reinterpretations'), were the most useless, BIGGEST waste of time, money and effort on the part of the media I've ever seen. The reality-challenged media absolutely cannot accept that the election was CLOSE. Had Mr. Gore simply won his home state, the question would be moot.

In short, MOVE ON.

Susan Mitchell
Quincy, Illinois

From: Tamara Baker
Date: Nov. 20, 2001
Re: Susan Mitchell's erroneous assertions

Overvotes -- illegal?

I don't care what right-wing talking-points crap Rush Limbaugh is feeding you this week, babycakes -- you are wrong, wrong, wrong!

First off, the State of Florida's statutes are quite clear: where intent is obvious, overvotes COUNT. They sure count for more than the bogus military absentee ballots Cruella Harris and her good friend Jeb shoved down our throats. The problem is that you need a hand count to find them.

Considering that Judge Terry Lewis has said that, had the Gore team asked to count the overvotes instead of the undervotes (and by the way: The Florida GOP originally wanted to count ONLY the overvotes -- good thing for you that they didn't get their way, eh?), he would have authorized it.

Don't believe me? Check out this pertinent passage from Michael Isikoff's Newsweek article on the subject:

Buried deep in the files of the mammoth Florida litigation, Newsweek has uncovered hastily scribbled faxed notes written by Terry Lewis, the plain-speaking, mystery-novel writing state judge in charge of the Florida recount, that potentially changed the calculations rather substantially.
The previously undisclosed notes lend firm documentary support to recent comments by Lewis that he might well have expanded the Florida Supreme Court ordered statewide recount of "undervotes" -- the disputed ballots in which machines did not record any vote for president. The notes show that -- just hours before the U.S. Supreme Court issued its order -- Lewis was actively considering directing the counties to also count an even larger category of disputed ballots, the so-called "overvotes," which were rejected by the machines because they purportedly recorded more than one vote for president. This is the group of disputed ballots that the consortium has now found that -- had they been manually recounted -- might have yielded a rich treasure trove of votes for Gore, enough even to put him over the top.
"Judge, if you would, segregate 'overvotes' as you describe and indicate in your final report how many where you determined the clear intent of the voter," Lewis wrote in a note to Judge W. Wayne Woodard, chairman of the Charlotte County Canvassing Board on the afternoon of December 9, 2000. "I will rule on the issue for all counties, Thanks, Terry Lewis."
The issue had arisen that crazed weekend in December because many of the statewide canvassing boards found themselves confused when they sat down to implement the State Supreme Court order. The court's opinion directed them to visually inspect and then manually recount their "undervotes" to see if any of them reflected "the clear intent of the voter" -- the standard the court said was the guiding principle of state election law.

Considering that there were well over 100,000 overvotes -- and other sources, most notably The Consortium, have stated that the vast majority of those overvotes were intended for Gore, guess what, honey?

Your man LOST.

Your man is a crook.

Your man is a fraud, a Potemkin-human, propped up by beings smarter and even greedier than he is himself.

You are on the side of immorality and evil.

Get over it.

From: Ricardo C. Linguitte
Date: Nov. 20, 2001
Re: Tamara Baker's response to Susan Mitchell

Tamara Baker, in her response to Susan Mitchell from Quincy, Illinois, forgot to mention that Election-Thief W. Bush did not win his home state either. Bush was born and raised in Connecticut, won in the 2000 Presidential election by Al Gore.