"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

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

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

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

"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

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

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

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

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

"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

I know it's short notice but if you're in one of these cities, and agree that the popular vote of the people should be honored and upheld, there's gonna be a lot of spontaneous protests happening tomorrow afternoon.
posted by ZachsMind on Nov 10, 2000 - 19 comments

Wherefore art thou, NM? "Amid the intense legal and public relations battle for Florida and its 25 electoral votes, Al Gore may have lost a state: New Mexico."
posted by bilco on Nov 10, 2000 - 9 comments

Two Americas. This election has made even clear the division existing in America between more liberal city dwellers and the more conservative people who live in the country's rural areas. The election seems to say that the division is about 50-50 without either side having much regard for the other. Can this be remedied? Should it?
posted by owillis on Nov 10, 2000 - 30 comments

Linear regression analysis adds approximately 2700 votes to Gore's tally -- "If Palm Beach county were like the other counties, according to estimates with Bush's votes Buchanan would have gotten around 600 votes in that county instead of 3407 votes he actually got. If we used Gore's votes to predict Buchanan's vote, we would have predicted Buchanan to get somewhere around 792 votes. ...[in any case] it can be claimed with a high degree of statistical confidence that the mistakes cost Gore somewhere between 2000 and 3000 votes. If Bush wins Florida by an amount smaller than this, such as 1700 votes, a strong claim can be made that the confusion over the unique ballot structure in Palm Beach cost Gore the presidency...."
posted by johnb on Nov 9, 2000 - 25 comments

The last time Electoral Votes were disputed was in 1876, with the Florida votes being handed over to Rutherford B. Hayes, who had lost the popular vote. But the real story was that the Democrats gave in order to clinch a secret deal to end Reconstruction, paving the way for 90 years of Jim Crow...
posted by MattD on Nov 9, 2000 - 0 comments

If Al Gore becomes the president, Mickey Kaus has a wickedly devious idea on how the Dems can stick it to the senate Repubs. It hinges on Joe Leiberman refusing the vice-presidency.
posted by nikzhowz on Nov 9, 2000 - 10 comments

Conspiracy theorists, start your engines. Regardless of the outcome, those "9 missing ballot boxes" are going to figure in conspiracy theories for decades to come -- there are still people talking about how Nixon was robbed by the Daley machine in 1960. (The fact that a Bush is governor in Florida surely won't shut anyone up.)
posted by snarkout on Nov 8, 2000 - 20 comments

What a shock: your votes does count.
posted by tranquileye on Nov 8, 2000 - 6 comments

Variety praises 'suspense-filled, seesaw race'.
posted by Mocata on Nov 8, 2000 - 2 comments

Live election night coverage from Nader HQ! Ralph Nader + weblog format = obvious metafilter post.
posted by fraying on Nov 7, 2000 - 1 comment

That's final projections only, not still-changing exit poll results, which can go in the thread below. (And no, that's not a link two sentences back.) VNS and the Bush and Gore campaigns have a projection in the presidential race, which is hidden inside to protect the weak. Also, a projection in the New York Senate race.
posted by aaron on Nov 7, 2000 - 8 comments

GOP Supports Gore! Well, sort of. The GOP Web site was defaced last night with a well-written diatribe about why Bush shouldn't be President.
posted by bkdelong on Nov 7, 2000 - 6 comments

Michael Moore, Certified Public Crankyman, explains why Gore is so deeply undeserving of the vote I'll probably cast for him anyway...(via memepool)
posted by m.polo on Nov 7, 2000 - 6 comments

Here is the best reason I've seen yet not to vote.
posted by netbros on Nov 6, 2000 - 0 comments