Kerry got 7,612 FEWER votes than Castor in Florida???

[JanMichael]

And 282,133 FEWER people voted in the Senate race?

Bullshit.

http://enight.dos.state.fl.us/

President:

Bush / Cheney
3,953,890

Kerry / Edwards
3,572,938

For a total of 7,526,828 which is 282,133 votes more than were cast in the Senate race...

Senate:

Republican Mel Martinez
3,664,145

Democrat Betty Castor
3,580,550


This simply can't be right.

They're suggesting huge Castor/Bush voting.

[Jersey Devil]

1. The 2nd part of your post is easy to answer

I have been gathering election results locally for over 15 years. It is very common for there to be less total votes as you move on down the ballot from the top of the ticket. Then there usually is a pickup again as you get to the bottom where there are local candidates that all the voters know. It is not surprising at all.

The first part is harder to answer but people do regularly split their ballot.

[WI_DEM]

2. well, that is actually not all that uncommon

that more people vote in a presidential race than a senate race and that a local candidate, someone who is known to Floridians, for instance, can get more votes than someone from outside the state. I'll bet if you check Illinois results that fewer people voted in the senate race than the presidential race and that Barak got many more votes than Kerry.

[JanMichael]

5. I would hazard to guess that Mel and Betty were equally well known.

Actually Mel has had HUD pimping for him for 4 years so I'm not certain that the example of the wildly popular Obama v. the Lunatic is the same.

I could imagine Obama beating Kerry in Ohio, it's not the same dynamic in the Florida race though.

[demodonkey]

3. 280,000 did NOT vote for ANY Senator??

Possible, but VERY unlikely

As a pollworker myself, I notice over the years that after President, most voters pay attention to Senator and Governor.

They often skip things like Attny General, Judges, State Treasurer... but NOT often US Senator.

[JanMichael]

4. That's another odd point.

?

[Jersey Devil]

7. Yes, but when you GOTV for prez sometimes they bullet vote

They vote for prez and leave the booth because never having paid attention before they know no one else. Hard to believe I know, but it does happen

[MyDogSpot]

6. The media kept saying that 2004 was like 2000

w/out much change.

That Bush received a quarter of a million more votes than Kerry is a huge change from Gore receiving more votes in 2000 once the newspapers had at the ballots.

I find it unbelieveable that Bush would receive that many more votes over Kerry in a heated election with such a huge turnout.

[Ima]

8. look at THIS

Break it down like this....The differences within each party.


Democrats

Kerry...Caster......7,612 votes


*...Martinez....289,745 votes


So the drop of senate votes was mainly with the pugs!


Something is way out of the laws of probability here.

[Ima]

9. This is important

[Orangepeel]

10. That was expected (at least by those of us working for Castor)

Betty had been elected statewide before, and many older people remembered her from that. She also got a lot of crossover from republican women.

In regard to fewer people voting for Mel than for bush, well, that's just your racist republicans and/or former McCullum voters refusing to vote.

I don't discount the possibility of voter fraud, but these results aren't inconsistent with a legitimate vote.