did prior to ... on election day and after ... gosh knows what in other states (e.g., Tennessee, and states too close to call on election night ...
the votes Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan received as a 3rd Party candidate in Palm Beach County, FL, alone ... which Buchanan himself said was wrong ... were, likely, enough (along with the voter purges, etc.), to cheat the election
I'm not defending Nader. I paid attention to him, and appreciated the anti-corporate rhetoric ... it is imo 'the big issue' which affects just about everything else, and the Democrats should incorporate it much like they did the Farm Alliance ~ Progressive Party issues which led to the New Deal. It was Al Gore's acceptance (populist) speech which I thought was brilliant and was clear as far as the direction he would lead us.
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2000/conventions/democratic/transcripts/gore.htmlIn the aftermath of the 2000 presidential election, many observers viewed the potentially confusing butterfly ballot in Palm Beach County as one of the factors that took away more than enough votes from Al Gore to swing Florida and the national election to George W. Bush. While the court cases have been settled, the effect of a flawed ballot design in a single county is still open to debate. In this paper, we present maps that graphically illustrate the impact of ballot form on the number of votes counted for Reform candidate Pat Buchanan. In another paper, 2 our collaborators show that the 3,407 votes for Patrick Buchanan in Palm Beach County was extraordinarily high and unexpected, that it was the result of ballot form, and that it was greatest in precincts with high Democratic registration and substantial support for Al Gore. That paper shows that 2000 to 2400 of the Buchanan votes were almost surely Gore supporters who mistakenly punched their ballot for Buchanan. The anomalously high numbers of mostly unintended votes Buchanan received in Palm Beach County become even more obvious in this paper when we map the results by precinct. http://ucdata.berkeley.edu/new_web/VOTE2000/MapBuchanan.PDFI've posted before about the Log Cabin Republicans claim of 25% of the Gay vote for Bush-Cheney. That's significant as much as it is unbelievable considering the knowledge we had of those 2 when seeking office; and, of course, what they're doing now. In states where there are large Gay populations, which I believe Florida would qualify, especially southern Florida, 25% +/- can siphon off quite a few votes.
http://www.logcabincolumbus.org/VOTE%20ANALYSIS.htmI think it was Ralph's rhetoric of there not being a dime's worth of difference which began to be revalued as a result of the stolen election and forward through all the atrocities of the last 3 years, that draws ire. Running as a Green in 2000, the GOP supporters pay big bucks to lawyers to fight Green Peace around the globe ... so, the likelihood of a Green voting Republican vs. Democrat are slim imo as compared to taking votes from the Democrats makes more sense.