PALAST: 1M black votes uncounted in 2000 election

[nostamj]

1 million black votes didn't count in the 2000 presidential election
It's not too hard to get your vote lost -- if some politicians want it to be lost

In the 2000 presidential election, 1.9 million Americans cast ballots that no one counted. "Spoiled votes" is the technical term. The pile of ballots left to rot has a distinctly dark hue: About 1 million of them -- half of the rejected ballots -- were cast by African Americans although black voters make up only 12 percent of the electorate.

This year, it could get worse.

These ugly racial statistics are hidden away in the mathematical thickets of the appendices to official reports coming out of the investigation of ballot-box monkey business in Florida from the last go-'round.

How do you spoil 2 million ballots? Not by leaving them out of the fridge too long. A stray mark, a jammed machine, a punch card punched twice will do it. It's easy to lose your vote, especially when some politicians want your vote lost.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/06/20/ING2976LG61.DTL

[NMDemDist2]

1. Palast is great, he's such a rabble rouser n/t

[bluestateguy]

2. "Votin's for the white folks!"

What this really means is that Al Gore really won the popular vote by at least 1 million votes.

[nostamj]

3. yup

and, clearly, won the electoral vote TOO. he won FL hands down.

[rumguy]

4. this is what bugs me....

"In other words, in the white county, make a mistake and get another ballot; in the black county, make a mistake, your ballot is tossed. "

[nostamj]

7. and don't forget the 'felon' purge

overwhelmingly targeted black voters.

[rumguy]

12. yep - the state of FL. settled a lawsuit brought by the NAACP

on that issue...they couldn't contest the facts of what happened....

[seemslikeadream]

5. I think I missed something

When did the American press start publishing Palast? I'm putting this in LBN, hope you don't mind. Thanks for the link

[nostamj]

6. yeah, that was surprising!

I got it in an email from Palast's website. post away!

[cosmicdot]

9. at the bottom of the article is: Page E - 3

I take that that's Section E, page 3 for this?

it's front page stuff

[nostamj]

11. yeah. it was nowhere to be found on the SFC home page

had to do a site search to find the article and grab the link.

[BeFree]

8. That's ancient history....

That was a primitive ancient way of stealing votes.

Now they can get rid of milions of votes with just the click of a mouse.

Don't think they wouldn't. Palast has the proof of their intent.

[Bushfire]

10. Thanks for posting this.

I've forwarded it to an African American candidate running for Congress, and asked if she would support HR 2239 if given the opportunity. The exiting Congressman does not...

[seabeyond]

13. saved article to read later, 2 questions

there was 90k people purged for felony, 46k black it is said, if memory serves. then 2 million votes not counted, 1m black. for one state, this doesnt feel right. with the low percentage of voters in u.s. in turnout to have 1,460,000 black votes denied, does this sound right

[nostamj]

14. your math is off

1M + 46K = 1,046,000

and, the 1M did cast a vote but they were not counted

[seabeyond]

17. thank you for correcting my math

generally almost always i never make a kistake on math, not enough coffee.

so we are saying there should be about 1,046,000 more votes to gore numbers. that seems such an high unbeleivable number. the reason i say is becuase, this to me is one of the most valid points in the dishonesty of bush, and the beginning of the reign that the people need to understand and believe, and i dont want any exaggeration. i want the absolute truth in numbers as i tell others how the election was stolen. telling about florida and telling about georgia in 2002 leaves impact on those in amarillo.

both sides tend to exaggerate, while repugs flat out lie. i am also trying to show this to the people in area, when they say they both lie. not true i say. so i want to make sure i dont

number just seems incredibly high. election night when i saw bushie boys reaction to state being declared to gore, i knew they had screwed the nation. knew it. followed close all the way thru. couldnt believe no one invesigated it closer, found the cheating. and now to see the cheating found, and ignored and happening again, blood boils

[nostamj]

19. i trust Palast re: the numbers

remember, the bushies used MANY methods:

'felon' purge
phony absentee ballots
'spoiled' ballots
'bad design' ballots

BUT, they would have you believe it was about 'hanging chads' and other distractions.

across the entire state, using all their methods, I don't find the numbers hard to believe at all...

[seabeyond]

20. ah and allowing the oversea repug

late ballots throwing out democrats. and the repug absentee ballots cleaning up and even signing if forgotten which is against the law

yes your are right, there was many manipulations

the who0res/horrors

[never cry wolf]

21. Here's the confusion

The 1M number is nationwide, NOT just Florida.

[seabeyond]

22. ty steviet

i have the article saved to read at a later time

that makes more sense. then that is saying something totally different if not just florida but nation. a nationwide effort to stop black vote,. hm

[doni_georgia]

15. Emailed the article to Cynthia McKinney

I suggest emailing it to your members of Congress or the candidates you are supporting.

[frylock]

16. this can be blamed on nader and those filthy greens

</mondosarcasm>

[JHBowden]

18. Well yes, if you guys insist on empowering Repukes.

:spank:

[donhakman]

23. The voting act says

that blacks now have the freedom to vote.

There is nothing in the language of that act that says that blacks have the right to have their votes counted.

This is the loophole that many districts keep in thier back pocket as an excuse for the legality of not counting black votes.

[RedEagle]

24. Kick!

[MUSTANG_2004]

25. Tallahassee

One item in his article needed a little clarification IMO. When comparing Tallahassee to Gadsden county, it leaves some things unsaid. Tallahassee has perhaps the best supervisor of elections in the state, Ion Sancho. Because of that, it's not at all surprising that they had the best equipment. A better comparison would have been Gadsden against the state as a whole.
Also, while Leon (Tallahassee's county) has a white-majority, it has a black population of 29%, which doesn't exactly make it a poster child for a white-voters vs. black-voters comparison.

As an aside, Ion Sancho was elected about 20 years ago after the Republican supervisor totally botched an election.

[RedEagle]

26. Kick!