"On the weekends, he favors two-hour bicycle rides at a Secret Service training facility outside Washington, where he sometimes asks companions and agents to ride behind him so that he can have the illusion of riding alone." With all the focus on the upcoming election, what of George W. Bush?
posted by djgh on Aug 31, 2008 - 102 comments

A bizzare pattern of impossible anomalies This has long been known : the welter of financial ties of Diebold and ES&S to the radical religious right (with stakeholders currently, it seems, on the secretive CNP) and Bob Fitrakis notes : "Wherever Diebold and ES&S go, irregularities and historic Republican upsets follow." Howard Ahmanson was the original funder for Bob and Todd Urosevich's Data Mark,which became ES&S, Bob later left to head Diebold ,maker of HAVA Act mandated touch screen voting machines used in Ohio and Florida and elsewhere....Ahmanson is a Christian Reconstructionist (a form of Dominionism ) who has talked of imposing Biblical law on the US - including the death penalty for gays and drunkards - and is also a main funder of the Chalcedon Foundation. However, the most bizzare patterns of anomalies in Florida came not from touch-screen but optical scan machines. Florida's central vote tabulator also is Diebold made, raising questions on the a bizzare pattern of anomalies in which a large number of counties in Florida had increases in Republicans votes over expected levels - by an overall average of 50% to 100% and - in one county, as high as 700%. Meanhwhile, here are graphs of variance between exit poll results for battleground states.
posted by troutfishing on Nov 5, 2004 - 85 comments

No need to actually vote, folks: the Election result has already been written by the AP: At this hour, President Bush has won re-election as president by a 47 percent to 43 percent margin in the popular vote nationwide. Ralph Nader has 1 percent of the vote nationwide. That's with 51 percent of the precincts reporting. (they say it's a test article, but who ever heard of an election results article being pre-written?)
posted by amberglow on Oct 7, 2004 - 32 comments

"No voting rights for YOU......boy!"- Florida's illegal purges of voter rolls to continue for 3rd national election? Election head resigns. While Florida refuses to release the "purge lists" to CNN, "The head of Florida's elections division resigned Monday amid reports he was feeling political heat over a push to purge thousands of suspected felons from the state's voter rolls." (Tallahassee Sun-Sentinel) " there has been little action (and worse, really) on Florida's agreement to reinstate illegally purged voters to Florida voting rolls that resulted from an NAACP lawsuit over the 2000 election ["Many voters said their votes didn't count or they were turned away from polls due to mistakes on voter lists, busy telephone lines at election headquarters, punch-card voting machine foul-ups and other problems...Statewide, the largest numbers of voting problems were found in precincts with high proportions of black and elderly voters." The NYT editorially acknowledged the scandal on February 15, 2004.]

On May 21, 2002, Ashcroft's Justice Department began a suit against Florida counties "for purging Black voters from voter rolls and other violations of civil rights" Now, four years after the 2000 election, illegally "purged" Florida voters will not be notified until it is "too late to have their rights restored for this election - or are turned away on Election Day", reports the Tampa Tribune. "The vast majority of them are black and would be likely to vote Democratic." It's difficult for convicted felons to regain the right to vote in Florida, but many on the "purge" lists were not (in 2000) and still are not felons at all. [ note : Greg Palast - busy of late - must be most credited with blowing this story wide open. See here here, here.....]
posted by troutfishing on Jun 9, 2004 - 46 comments

2000 Election results ranked by avg statewide IQ. Shame on me for even posting this here in this slavering den of liberal fervor, but if it's true, it certainly is kinda fascinating.
posted by jonson on May 6, 2004 - 75 comments

Florida to settle 2000 election lawsuit. Major provisions include a promise for massive reforms in voter registration, voter-roll maintenance and polling practices, as part of the lawsuit pushed by the NAACP. Granted, it's good that a large angered group is "getting over it" as many (even on this board) have still been explaining, but should skeptics (read: Democrats) such as myself read the Florida legislature's desire to settle as a sign that they may not have thought they would have won against charges of rigging the election?
posted by XQUZYPHYR on Aug 31, 2002 - 11 comments

Election 2000 Enchantment: A love, crime story... From the author's geocities site: "Election 2000 Enchantment," by Elaine North, is a fun-filled adventure of two young women, who are ballot hand recounters during the Florida election crisis. The young women encounter intrigue, romance, passion, crime, danger and deception as they meet some of the many people from across the country that converge upon Florida due to the derailed presidential election. Exploitation or creativity? You decide.
posted by krewson on Jun 11, 2002 - 6 comments

The Press vs. Al Gore How lazy reporting, pack journalism and GOP spin cost him the election (If you don't believe that the 5 Justices hijacked the election) Still not over it, BTW.
posted by Rastafari on Dec 18, 2001 - 71 comments

At the risk of reopening this recount thread - The Economist is running this rather sarcastic correction in their current edition, along with this strange little 'What if Gore Was President' article. Does this signal that the Age of Irony is not, in fact, dead - or did someone at The Economist just not get the memo?
posted by anastasiav on Nov 16, 2001 - 10 comments

Is Nader Right? Or is he just fooling himself? I mean, even I can tell the difference between Democrats and Republicans. Apparently, the best Ralph can ever hope for is to ruin the Democratic party. If I were a Republican, I'd be donating to the Green party right about now.
posted by Jart on Sep 6, 2001 - 69 comments

Bush campaign source of debate tape smear attempt. In this campaign follow-up sure to delight all you anti-Bushies--in case Rove's possible insider trading or Bush's disingenuous charm offensive in Europe hasn't sufficed--an ex-Bush campaign aide pleads guilty.
posted by Joe Hutch on Jun 15, 2001 - 13 comments

Red v. Blue v. . . . Purple? Was America really so divided in the 2000 election? A map created as a retort to Salon's "Red v. Blue" map tells the real story. Any and all Prince references/jokes permitted.
posted by raysmj on Mar 10, 2001 - 22 comments

US Census not to be adjusted for undercounts. (NY Times, req'd registration)
Many political strategists, Democrats and Republicans alike, say that reliance on unadjusted population figures favors Republicans in the drawing of Congressional districts, since, they say, adjustment through statistical sampling would add to customarily Democratic neighborhoods most of those who have been uncounted.
They visited my home/office four times and never once brought the Long Form. Damnation.
posted by methylsalicylate on Mar 2, 2001 - 13 comments

The Election Story Never Told On it’s face, this article is about corruption in Florida before the election. It is still basically an known story in the US, but it is very popular in Britain. Also of note is the continued record of a lazy corporate media refusing to do any sort of journalistic legwork.
posted by capt.crackpipe on Feb 28, 2001 - 8 comments

A British writer's view of the recent American election We report. You decide. An issue that will not go gently into that good night.
posted by Postroad on Feb 5, 2001 - 6 comments

Nat Hentoff on the Supreme Court and Bush v Gore: "Far from stealing the election for Bush, the majority of the Supreme Court shamed the politicians of both parties who, for so long, have failed to secure everyone's meaningful right to vote."
posted by aaron on Jan 9, 2001 - 10 comments

George W. Bush is elected President of the United States. Affirmed by no less than Al Gore himself. The electoral votes have been tallied and certified. It. Is. Over.
posted by aaron on Jan 6, 2001 - 30 comments

DoubleClick one of the 10 Worst Corporations of 2000. I'm no Doubleclick fan, but are they really in the same league with a Firestone, or even a Glaxo?
posted by Doug on Jan 4, 2001 - 19 comments

Random Cheer Bombing II: Happy (Gregorian) New Year!

(Yes, I'm early; but I have a ways to drive to get kissed, so y'all can just deal. :-)
posted by baylink on Dec 31, 2000 - 5 comments

2000 Moron Awards.
posted by tamim on Dec 31, 2000 - 6 comments

"the new director of the Environment Protection Agency, Christine Todd Whitman, has proposed that the Florida ballots be sealed for 10 years. " Fuck the Christmas ceasefire. While the Anglo-Saxon world stuffs itself comatose, the forces of conservatism are busy mobilising. Yum.
posted by holgate on Dec 24, 2000 - 15 comments

FLASH: Gore Concedes. Ok, I guess *now* it's over. Bye, Alec...
posted by baylink on Dec 13, 2000 - 35 comments

Bush apparently wins... and the New York Times is apparently speechless. 54k
(The original page has already changed; please forgive the link to the image on my site.)
posted by Mo Nickels on Dec 13, 2000 - 15 comments

"If they are, I am..." Bush in an extraordinary display of independant thought.
posted by jyoung on Dec 11, 2000 - 14 comments

Send a Telegram to the Supreme Court Michael Moore has come up with another good idea. let the Supreme Court know your opinion through a hand delivered telegram. For only $31.90 your message will arrive hand-delivered by Western Union. Stop stopping the count. Mike suggests you call, but Western Union lets you do it online.
posted by DragonBoy on Dec 11, 2000 - 19 comments

Supreme Court II: Election Boogaloo. Programs, getcher programs here! Thanks to the wonders of the Internet, you can get your grubby hands on the Bush and Gore briefs right now. Fascinating reading. PDF files, of course.
posted by aaron on Dec 10, 2000 - 2 comments

ELECTION: "I'm with the Bush-Cheney Team: I'm here to stop the vote!" That pretty much says it all for me...
posted by baylink on Dec 10, 2000 - 58 comments

Ain't gonna be no link here, but just a comment. Other deadlines may slip, but Florida has to settle things by Monday, December 18, or they don't get to participate in this election. Inside is an analysis of what happens then.
posted by Steven Den Beste on Dec 9, 2000 - 11 comments

Choose your own election. Worth reading, just for a bit of 80s nostalgia.
posted by holgate on Dec 9, 2000 - 0 comments

Wired wants your nomination for worst Vaporware of the year 2000. (Hardware included.) Read the 1999 article here.
posted by Steven Den Beste on Dec 4, 2000 - 29 comments

When you're an aiga member they send you e-mail, I usualy don't read them, because they're accouncements of conferences and such, but this one was about Chicago enlisting the help of AIGA to design new election ballots. 'Some possibilities for making Chicago ballots more user-friendly include enlarging candidates' names, changing the font size, altering the color of pages, making wider ballot booklets.' Since I couldn't find the article on-line, I'll just cut-n-paste the e-mail inside. :)
posted by tiaka on Dec 2, 2000 - 8 comments

Chicago to enlist graphic designers for friendlier ballots. [free reg may be req'd] There's been a bunch of discussion about the usability problems with various voting systems, notably punch-card ballots. Chicago didn't have anything as dramatic as a "butterfly" prexy ballot or two pages' worth of candidates, but we still had close to 120,000 discards from 2.1 million votes -- and when compared with jurisdictions using other systems, there's little evidence to suggest that voters are skipping the presidential ballot. That's just how bad manual punch card technology is. Even if we can't get rid of them just yet, at least we can make sure they aren't confusing. Did I just post the twenty-sixth link on Metafilter today? GO AWAY. METAFILTER IS FULL. :)
posted by dhartung on Nov 29, 2000 - 24 comments

The first step in setting up a parallel government? "Republican vice-presidential candidate Dick Cheney said if the General Services Administration will not assist George W. Bush's transition to the White House, the campaign is prepared to go ahead on its own. 'We will proceed drawing on other sources,' Cheney told reporters in Washington on Monday." Yeah, I just bet they will.
posted by tranquileye on Nov 27, 2000 - 18 comments

The Greenwood Position. Partisan perhaps, but will Peggy Noonan's latest OpEd in the WSJ be a rallying cry for frustrated conservatives? She offers compelling arguments and solid suggestions for proactive redress. Talk amongst yourselves.
posted by netbros on Nov 25, 2000 - 6 comments

"Blame Florida! Blame Florida! ...with its stooges and its chad, the whole election's just gone mad..."

(Yeah, it's Salon: but Talbot has a point. Had this been outside the US, with Jimmy Carter and the other observers, the last few days' lunacy would have left no-one in any doubt that the state couldn't organise a pissup in a brewery.)
posted by holgate on Nov 24, 2000 - 10 comments

Nader recommends a coin toss for Bush/Gore - sounds good to me
posted by gluechunk on Nov 23, 2000 - 6 comments

perfect headline: Chad Is a Country in Africa Racism—Florida's Real Scandal
posted by palegirl on Nov 21, 2000 - 1 comment

It's a tribute to our system of government that no matter how screwed up the election is or how these folks get jerked around, we don't worry about them taking things into their own hands.
posted by CRS on Nov 21, 2000 - 11 comments

ELECTION: Dan Bricklin thinks the ballots sucked, too. Remember him? He helped write VisiCalc, and now runs Trellix? I'm still wondering why no one's agitating to invalidate that election in PBC.
posted by baylink on Nov 20, 2000 - 6 comments

George W. Bush is wearing a ZZ Top hat this morning. I wonder if he's a fan of the band's 1976 song Arrested for Driving While Blind ... "When you're driving down the highway at night/And you're feelin' that wild turkey's bite/Don't give Johnny Walker a ride/Cause Jack Black is right by your side/You might get taken to the jailhouse and find/You've been arrested for driving while blind."
posted by rcade on Nov 19, 2000 - 12 comments

The end is near. Judge Terry Lewis rules that Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris can disregard recounts in Florida counties.
posted by m.polo on Nov 17, 2000 - 10 comments

More nonsense from everyone's favorite biased website.

They screw up their own point of course:

"The surge of presidential candidates in the wake of Revision 11 had little impact on counties that use more sophisticated voting procedures and don't have to worry about crowded ballot space."

The problem is with the outdated voting procedures, not with third parties.
posted by Mr. skullhead on Nov 16, 2000 - 5 comments

The end... finally. Today at five pm. Judge Lewis upholds the statutory deadline for election returns to be certified, despite media specualtion that he was initially inclined to extend it.
posted by mikewas on Nov 14, 2000 - 35 comments

13 Myths About the Results of the 2000 Election. I know, I know. We're all tired of election stuff. But for anyone who's not, this is well worth reading. [via rewired]
posted by fraying on Nov 13, 2000 - 19 comments

Not very clever. Florida's Secretary of State (the BBC reports her being described as "a bit of an airhead") manages to make her position look even more ridiculous. Anyone get the disturbing feeling that this may be resolved, not in the courts, but on the streets?
posted by holgate on Nov 13, 2000 - 16 comments

Hand count in Palm Beach County agreed upon. History in the making.
posted by tiaka on Nov 11, 2000 - 9 comments

"If Dubya steals the White House, American democracy will be a joke." A vehemently liberal polemic from the UK, which I don't necessarily agree with, but still: "President Dubya will be barren of legitimacy at home and devoid of moral authority abroad. The Saddam Husseins of the planet, every petty, vicious dictator around the world, will scoff in the face of America."
posted by holgate on Nov 11, 2000 - 9 comments

Did the INS import votes?
posted by tiaka on Nov 11, 2000 - 6 comments

ELECTION: Florida SecState declares PBC ballot legal. Like that's her gig, or anything...
posted by baylink on Nov 10, 2000 - 5 comments

"In other words, the odds are less than 1 in a billion that the original vote was a fair count." OJR asked Dr. Lynn Miller, a professor of communications and expert on statistics at the USC Annenberg School to comment on what she found at CNN.com regarding the Florida Situation.
posted by th3ph17 on Nov 10, 2000 - 4 comments