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ATLANTIC HIGHLANDS HERALD |
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"FRAUD" SHE CRIED Notice how American elections now follow a predictable format? After the votes are counted, if a Democrat comes up short he (she) hollers “I wuz robbed” and tries to get a hand-recount. The higher the electoral level, the louder (and longer) the yelling. Al Gore has been going around the country for six years whining that the 2000 election was “stolen” from him because the Supreme Court prevented selective hand-recounts in four Florida counties. (He ended up losing Florida to George W. Bush by about 500 votes out of 6 million cast.) Two ironies attach to that claim. First, it was actually Mr. Gore’s people who tried to grab the election after the initial tally showed Mr. Bush ahead in Florida by some 800 votes. Democrats don’t see it that way, but consider the players. Gore advisor Richard Daley has an impeccable election-stealing pedigree. His father helped secure Illinois for John F. Kennedy in 1960 by producing “late-reporting precincts” that pushed JFK over the top. (It was later shown that dead people had voted in Cook County.) The “chip off the old block” was certain that the small Florida margin could be overcome with selective “recounts”, but he made a critical mistake. That mistake was trying to steal the election in broad daylight. He wanted hand-recounts in four heavily Democratic Florida counties (Volusia, Broward, Dade, Palm Beach), but the Bush people were wise to the plot. Also, Democrats’ plans to have military absentee ballots – usually heavily Republican – thrown out were leaked to the media, provoking a scandal. A battle through the courts ensued, culminating in a Florida Supreme Court ruling to allow the selective recounts – virtually guaranteeing a Gore victory. This sparked a furious protest by about 100 white-collar Republicans at the Miami-Dade election-division offices. Officials were so spooked that they stopped the Dade County recount. Finally, the US Supreme Court reversed the Florida Supreme Court ruling. Mr. Bush was declared the winner. The second irony was that Florida-wide recounts sponsored by newspapers and various organizations throughout 2001 showed Mr. Bush the clear winner in every case. This does not mean, of course, that Mr. Daley’s selective methodology would have produced the same result. There are recounts and there are recounts. Mr. Daley’s kind needed to be done in the dark of night. Dear old Dad understood this. (Evidently election-stealing is a learned skill.) Since the 2004 election, John Kerry has also made a spectacle of himself by repeatedly charging that Ohio was “stolen” from him because Democratic voters who stood in voting lines for eight to ten hours were “disenfranchised”. Many of these voters, he insists, gave up and went home. The claim has been repeated so often that it has reached “urban legend” status and is widely believed. It seemed serious enough to merit investigation by federal election officials. These investigations failed to produce anyone who admitted quitting an Ohio voting line after hours of waiting. Although many claimed they “had heard” of such cases, no actual persons could be found. Nor was anyone located who waited more than an hour or two at the polls. A New Hampshire friend said he waited two hours to vote. But his district is Republican (and, of course, New Hampshire is not in Ohio). Besides, if the long Ohio lines occurred in heavily Democratic districts, those polling places could not have been run by Republicans. Democrats would have been disenfranchising their own people. The whole silly idea collapses under its own weight. Nevertheless, the legend lives on – variously promoted by a bevy of Democrats. In a long article to Rolling Stone magazine (“Was the 2004 Election Stolen?”), Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. charged that “…at least 357,000 [Ohio] voters, the overwhelming majority of them Democratic, were prevented from casting ballots or did not have their votes counted in 2004.” Mr. Kennedy also claims that “upwards of 80,000 votes for Kerry were counted instead for Bush” – a swing of 160,000 votes that could have turned the national result, since the Ohio election was decided by 118,000 votes. He also has Senator Dodd (D-CT) repeating the long-voting-lines legend: i.e., “People waiting in line for twelve hours to cast their ballots, people not being allowed to vote because they were in the wrong precinct – it was an outrage.” Mr. Kennedy’s long-waiting-lines allegations are made sans evidence (as usual). These claims are almost delusional. They evoke the 1980s tales of “starving” Americans – meant to demonize the “heartless” Reagan administration. None of the stories was ever substantiated. At the time, columnist Patrick Buchanan observed that if a single American had actually starved to death, we would know his name. Just so, dear reader, had anyone in the country really not voted after waiting 12 hours, we would know all about him. He would be a Democratic poster-child. In the man-bites-dog category, a losing Republican candidate did protest the 2004 gubernatorial election in Washington State – although he did not charge fraud and did not demand a recount. Republican candidate Dino Rossi had apparently defeated Christine Gregoire by 261 votes (of 2.75 million cast). An electronic recount reduced Mr. Rossi’s margin to 42 votes, but Democrats paid for an additional hand-recount (which election experts warned would be less accurate). Mr. Rossi protested a less accurate count superseding a more accurate one, but the hand-recount proceeded, putting Mrs. Gregoire up by 10 votes. Her lead became 130 after a state Supreme Court decision included 732 formerly excluded ballots in King County (a Democratic bastion). Republicans sought redress in the state courts, but a Washington Superior Court judge finally ruled, in June 2005, that Mrs. Gregoire’s election should stand. Thus, the recount ploy succeeded The latest cry of “fraud” comes from Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA), following a primary election in Georgia’s Fourth Congressional district. Rep. McKinney had a highly publicized dust-up in March with Capitol Police when she failed to show her Congressional badge at a security checkpoint. A guard tried to restrain her from entering, but Miss McKinney fended him off with a thrust of her cell phone and angrily flounced inside. The keystone kops incident was caught on security tape. (There is now a move to “get the assault cell phones off the street”.) When the Capitol Police refused to let the matter slide, the congresswoman charged the officer with “inappropriate touching” – wording that suggested (said one Washington wag) that she had been “groped”. As charges and counter-charges flew, Miss McKinney complained that she was “racially profiled” because she is black and had changed her hair-style. (My readers will understand that material this good – as Will Rogers would have agreed – can’t be ignored.) But I digress. We were discussing elections, not hair. As a member of Congress, Miss McKinney faces the voters in her district every two years. An incumbent is usually unopposed within his/her party, but the congresswoman’s brush with the Law and her unprofessional reactions spelled political vulnerability at home. DeKalb County Board of Commissioners member Hank Johnson challenged Miss McKinney for the Democratic nomination for her seat. Last week they finished nearly dead-even – each winning 47% of the vote and forcing a primary runoff on August 8th. True to form, Miss McKinney immediately cried “fraud”. While votes were still being counted she charged that the Diebold electronic voting machines had malfunctioned. She vowed to challenge the election, but so far she has not. (How about a hand-recount?) Evidently, voters followed Miss McKinney’s DC shenanigans more closely than she had realized, and they didn’t approve. Her margin in her own primary should have been overwhelming. Her challenger is even money to unseat her in the runoff. My guess is that she is toast. Ditto for Mr. Gore and Mr. Kerry. Voters tolerate a lot of things, but a poor loser isn’t one of them.
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