Just watched a Documentary on the 2000 Election

[BamaBecky]

The Unprecedented 2000 Presidential Election

, featuring Danny Glover
ISBN 0-7389-2855-0 (can be purchased from Amazon.com)

I was so struck by how similar all the criminal tactics were (mal-functioning machines, extreme disenfranchisement, purging roles, very problematic re-counts, or the lack of them in spite of the law).

The big difference between 2000 and 2004, in my opinion, was that so much of it played out Publicly and on TV (the court cases, the so-called re-counts, The Florida Supreme Court, The US Supreme Court, Kathrine Harris stunts, James Baker news conferences). Because of that, there was lots of news footage made available to make the documentary. This time so many of this election malfeasance episodes were reported on the Internet. And in my opinion, that's why so few folks know what's happening. People generally are unaware of the Republican tactics to undermine our Democracy. I think that since there were no public brouhahas, then, in their minds things must have gone smoother.

Democratic tactical strategic errors were made then, as now. Back then they only choose 4 counties to focus on for a re-count, rather than a state-wide re-count. The consortium that studied the vote AFTER THE FACT REPORTED "The Post ballot review found that Gore could have had a net gain of 662 votes in a hand recount of optical overvotes, almost entirely because of those double-bubbles."

As it ended officially Bush won by only 350 votes!!!!! This doesn't begin to count the thousands of so-called damanaged votes, 170,000 approximately from primarlarily democratic counties.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A18220-2001Nov12¬Found=true

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2001/112101a.html

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/florida.ballots/stories/main.html

What do you think?

[WI_DEM]

1. There should have been a hand recount of every county in FL.

Gore would be president.

[idiosyncratic]

2. And how different the world would be . . .

the tsunami might have still happened, but all those innocent Iraqis and servicemen and woman would still be alive.

[BamaBecky]

3. kick

[Amaryllis]

4. Saw that. Amazing film. Part of Robert Greenwald's "Un" series...

Unprecedented: the 2000 Election
Uncovered: the Truth about the Iraq War
Unconstitutional (about Patriot Act)

It is an amazing film. Must see for all. That election was widely mischaracterized as being about hanging chads and butterfly ballots. Suppression and fraud just as rampant there as this time. And Jeb did all the same things again this time.

Also see Ronnie Dugger's How They Could Steal the Election This Time from The Nation to see how they stole the governorship in 2002.