Future uncertain for Florida's Bush-Gore ballots from 2000 race

[flashl]

All six million-plus ballots cast in the historic 2000 presidential election remain in storage, and the secretary of state is debating whether to move them out.

TALLAHASSEE --In the final seconds of the new HBO movie Recount, a box labeled "Palm Beach County ballots" is shown sitting inside a gigantic warehouse. As the camera pulls slowly back, it reveals row after row of boxes stacked to the ceiling.

While the image is a pure Hollywood creation, the truth is the ballots from the chaotic 2000 presidential election are still around.

Five years ago, the state of Florida gathered up boxes of ballots from 65 of the 67 counties and stashed them inside the cramped, air-conditioned confines of the state archives in Tallahassee.

After much hand-wringing and debate, state officials decided in 2003 that they should hold onto the more than six million votes cast in the historic election between Al Gore and George W. Bush that Bush ultimately won by just 537 votes. Normally, ballots are destroyed after 22 months.

But now Secretary of State Kurt Browning says he would just as soon junk them and free up the space in his archives that hold the ballots -- more than 4,000 cubic feet.

Miami Herald

[Botany]

1. Tell you what I'll take 'em

They are one more piece of evidence of the ongoing
criminal nature of bush/Cheney/Harris/Rove/Blackwell/
Jeb/Scalia/Rummy/PNAC that has infected this country.


Last I heard was every recount showed Al Gore won.

[flashl]

2. Hopefully, this will not slip under radar without any action. nt

[Botany]

3. Even after a Federal Judge ordered Ohio's BOEs to keep the 2004 ....

.... ballots, poll logs, extra ballots, and other iteams 55 of
the 88 counties destroyed them.

not a peep in the media

[flashl]

4. I remember. nt

[L. Coyote]

5. Not true. That falsehood was propagated by litigants seeking a judgement.

and their bias is obvious, not to mention their financial stake.

It is untrue that 55 counties destroyed their ballots, poll logs, extra ballots, and other items.
The facts are that 55 counties did not comply fully with the court order in some way.