Gore's popular vote lead still growing!

[garyaddis]

Published on Saturday, December 30, 2000 in the New York Times

Gore's Growing Lead Now Exceeds 539,000 Votes
by David Stout

WASHINGTON — Vice President Al Gore's nationwide lead in the
popular vote has grown by about 200,000, to more than half a
million, since Dec. 18, when the Electoral College sealed his fate
and made Gov. George W. Bush the 43rd president of the United
States.

A state-by-state survey by The Associated Press of the final
certified results put Mr. Gore's popular vote edge at 539,947, up
considerably from the lead of about 337,000 that was widely
reported in the first several weeks after the election. The totals
were 50,996,116 for Mr. Gore and 50,456,169 for Mr. Bush.

Much of the increase came in California, New York, and other,
smaller states that went for Mr. Gore, said Curtis B. Gans of the
Committee for the Study of the American Electorate, a nonpartisan
research group that has followed presidential elections for a
quarter-century.

Election officials in California and New York said today that the
bigger numbers for Mr. Gore were not hard to explain. Mr. Gore
carried both states easily. Both had large numbers of absentee
ballots, which could not be counted immediately, and, because
absentee votes generally do not vary sharply from election night
returns, it was predictable that the absentees would widen the vice
president's lead.

Mr. Gans said that in 1996, President Clinton's lead over Bob Dole
grew by some 200,000 votes from election night until all absentee
ballots were counted and all the votes certified, a fact all but
forgotten except by political trivia buffs.

"But it didn't matter," Mr. Gans said, in a race that the incumbent
won by more than eight million popular votes and by a 379-to-159
advantage in the Electoral College.

In the 1960 election John F. Kennedy had the electoral vote edge
and a 114,673-vote margin in the popular vote over Richard M.
Nixon. A total of 68.8 million votes were cast for president. Eight
years later Mr. Nixon won the Electoral College and a popular vote
margin of 510,645 out of 73.2 million votes cast for president.

The 2000 election, of course, will be remembered as the first in
112 years in which the leader in the popular vote lost the White
House because his opponent prevailed in the Electoral College.

Mr. Bush got 271 electoral votes, one more than he needed for a
majority and five more than Mr. Gore, who lost one vote in the
Electoral College when a Washington, D.C., elector left her ballot
blank to protest the District of Columbia's lack of voting power in
Congress.

Mr. Gore won New York State, 4,107,697 to 2,403,374, or by some
1.7 million votes. Lee Daghlian, the chief spokesman for the state's
Board of Elections, said today that about 360,000 absentee ballots
were requested, and that about 260,000 were returned in time to
be counted. In New York, absentee ballots must be postmarked no
later than the day before the election and received no later than a
week after the election.

Mr. Daghlian said absentee balloting was about 20 percent higher
this year than in 1996. He speculated that the presence of Senator
Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut on the Democratic ticket
might have caused more American Jews to mail ballots from Israel.

It was clear on election night that Mr. Gore had carried California
in a landslide, so it was expected that the nearly 1.5 million
absentee ballots that arrived in time to be accepted would sharply
augment his victory — and they did.

The final certified totals in California were 5,861,203 for Mr. Gore
and 4,567,429 for Mr. Bush. Alfie Charles, a spokesman for the
California secretary of state, Bill Jones, said that the percentage of
Californians voting by absentee ballot had been increasing, and
that about one-quarter now did. (Californians can vote absentee
without showing a compelling reason. Their ballots must arrive by
Election Day to be counted.)

Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company

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[Weave]

You need to find a new forum to post on.. maybe political-fanatics online or something.

[garyaddis]

Gore did win Florida

Ed Vulliamy in New York
Sunday December 24, 2000

As George W. Bush handed
further key government posts
to hardline Republican
right-wingers, an unofficial
recount of votes in Florida
appeared to confirm that Bush
lost the US presidential
election.

Despite the decision by the US
Supreme Court to halt the
Florida recount in the
contested counties, American
media organisations, includ
ing Knight Ridder - owner of
the Miami Herald - have
commissioned their own
counts, gaining access to the
ballots under Freedom of
Information legislation. The
result so far, with the
recounting of so-called
'undervotes' in only one
county completed by Friday
night, indicates that Al Gore is
ahead by 140 votes.

Florida's 25 electoral college
votes won Bush the
presidency by two seats last
Monday after the Supreme
Court refused to allow the
counting of 45,000 discarded
votes. But as the media
recount was suspended for
Christmas, the votes so far
tallied in Lake and Broward
counties have Gore ahead in
the race for the pivotal state,
and hence the White House.

Gore's lead is expected to soar
when counting resumes in the
New Year and Miami votes are
counted. In a separate
exercise, the Miami Herald
commissioned a team of
political analysts and pollsters
to make a statistical
calculation based on
projections of votes by county,
concluding that Gore won the
state by 23,000.

The media initiative is likely to
bedevil Bush in the weeks to
come, thickening the pall of
illegitimacy that will hang over
his inauguration on 20
January.

It has already led to a face-off
between almost all the news
media organisations in the
state and Bush's presidential
team. In the most extreme
example of the Bush camp's
desperation to avoid a recount,
the new director of the
Environment Protection
Agency, Christine Todd
Whitman, has proposed that
the Florida ballots be sealed
for 10 years.

Bush's spokesman Tucker
Eskew dismissed the recount
as 'mischief-making' and
'inflaming public passions'
while his brother, Florida
governor Jeb Bush, accused
the papers of 'trying to rewrite
history'.

Meanwhile, Bush made his
boldest ideological statement
yet with the appointment of
John Ashcroft as Attorney
General.

The appointment is especially
significant, because as head of
the Justice Department
Ashcroft would be the man to
bring any felony charges
against President Bill Clinton
over the Lewinsky affair.
During the scandal, Ashcroft
was among the loudest and
shrillest voices for
impeachment.

There have been many calls to
President-elect Bush to
pardon his predecessor as a
sign of peace, but he made a
point of rejecting them.

Ashcroft lost his Missouri
Senate seat to the widow of
the state's popular Democrat
governor, Mel Carnahan. From
the family of a Pentacostal
minister, he is an outspoken
social conservative and an ally
of the extremist Pat
Robertson.

Ashcroft represents a host of
militant committees and
activist groups, of which the
Christian Coalition is most
prominent. He is an opponent
not only of abortion but even -
as he said in one speech - of
dancing.

[Oh, this is just the guy to head the US Dept of Justice!]

[garyaddis]

Hey, Mr. Weave,

I did not start the political discussion on this forum. I merely responded--several times--to a bevy of attacks by RushLimbaugh fans.

I had my say; apologized to the nicest two or three of my opponents for perhaps hurting their feelings. Then I went away. For two weeks --I am a working man-- I didn't log on to the website even once. But when I did, there were the challenges, the personal attacks, waiting for me, asking, in essence, why I had chickened out of the debate. When they leave me alone, I'll go away again.

I do admit to fanaticism. For justice and truth. If the others choose to keep this thing going, then so be it: I will respond, I promise.

You can always do what I do when I come upon a Forum thread that doesn't interest me: I ignore it.

[Weave]

The forum, my friend is expedited trucking and the trucking industry. PLEASE enlighten me with your knowledge on this SUBJECT! And I will do the same for you. Thanks.
-Weave-

[Weave]

Your unpopular posts need to quit growing!

[garyaddis]

Unpopular? I notice they receive hundreds of reads.

Now, bud, as I told you before, you don't want to hear from me, then don't write me. Especially don't attack me, or my core beliefs. Okay, I don't remember any political postings from you.

If you weren't interested--and reading them-- and if my postings didn't cause you to doubt your stance on topical issues, then you wouldn't have written me, now would you.

When you people stop ganging up on me with defense of idiots--and voter fraud--then I will again settle into my cave and go to sleep. I repeat: I did not start a political discussion on this Forum. You want this debate to end, email your buddies Hammer, Beaker, et. al.

[garyaddis]

Weave,

I do. I normally write three articles (or more) per month for Expediters Online and Expedite Now. The subjects of my articles?
Trucking, in all its forms; health issues; and, once in a while, I provide Lawrence with a short story, usually about trucking and truckers. I hope you read my work. And I hope they both entertain and inform you.

I apologize if my posting have bothered you. But again I must ask why they bother you. I mean, Christ a'mighty, Weave, our newsgroup generally is running several threads simultaneously. You aren't interested in a thread, or a particulat header, you don't have to download the article.

I'll gladly forego the pleasure of debunking Conservatives most cherished beliefs, if they will leave me alone; if they'll stop trashing my core beliefs.

[Weave]

I'm not attacking anybody myself. Funny, but I'm so glad I didn't vote this election! Another funny thing involving Rush Limbaugh- and this is 100% true. I have never listened to this guy's radio show until Christmas week- I was driving a classic Cutlass I bought in NJ home to NY. It is a 78 model and only has an AM radio. So it was Rush or nothing (old motor noise is better in my opinion) But.. I listened. And do you know what he had to say about the election? Just about what I do.. Mr. Bush won so lets give it a rest. It's over.

[garyaddis]

>...
> So it was Rush
>or nothing (old motor noise
>is better in my opinion)
> But.. I listened.

I listen to him quite a bit too. That's how I combat him.

>And do you know what
>he had to say about
>the election? Just about
>what I do.. Mr. Bush
>won so lets give it
>a rest. It's over.

Then why don't you? BTW, Bush did not win. The key here is that he is *taking* the office. Massive voter fraud put him in there.
Now, son, if you want the politics to go away, let it! You can't keep telling me to give it a rest if you will not.

>
>

[The Hammer]

Gary,

It's always good to see your return to this forum.

You know, when I first started reading your posts a couple of months ago I thought that you were just trying to stir the pot and generate some activity on this board by presenting what most would figure to be an unpopular stance on these political issues. I no longer think so. I think that you truly believe in your ideas; I don't think anyone would spend the time and energy in answering the other writers unless one was filled with the all-consuming passion of his beliefs which would appear to be the case with yourself.

Gary, I find you to be an interesting paradox; a man old enough to be a grandfather, working in an occupation which most would consider to be populated with conservatively-oriented people, yet still maintaining the social radicalism of your lost youth, never wasting an opportunity to bring enlightenment to the mis-guided Republicans/conservatives.

Re: The Election. It's probably a waste of bandwith to mention it, but George W WILL be inagurated a few days from now, so it might be best to put all the allegations of voter fraud, voter disenfranchisment, stolen election, biased Supreme Court decision and the rest behind you. When Hillary cranks up her presidential campaign in about two years, you'll need all the energy and political savvy you can muster to combat the ever-present right wing conspiracy that almost did in her hubby.

But, not to worry. Just like Bubba, Hillary's compassion for the downtrodden masses and especially "the children" will play well with the electorate, particularly in comparison with the disaster that the Bush presidency will be according to the liberal intelligentsia. After Bush destroys our economy, rapes the environment, wipes out all the achievements in civil rights and enslaves our children, it should be a shoe-in for the soon to be former first lady/US Senator.

Yes, she will need the support and dedication of all progressive-minded people such as yourself to turn back the tide of the reactionary right that will probably bring this nation to the brink of ruin. Save your strength for the struggle ahead, Gary. Hillary needs you!

[doe.mouse]

The election is over. We have a president elect. It is time to support him and hope for the best. Save your anger for the next election.