Has "moveon" answered for Florida yet?

[seraph]

My mother lives in Florida and volunteered for moveon in her state and county. Palm Beach.

She tells me that moveon brought people in from all over the country to work in Florida.

She also tells me, their "strategy" was to encourage and insist that Florida Democrats vote by absentee ballots, because there was no paper trail with Florida's electronic voting machines.

We had this conversation a few weeks ago and it slipped my mind.

I told my mother then, don't do it, because unless the official count is close, they don't count the absentee ballots before certification.

My mother then voted on a touchscreen machine, taking my advice.


However, that being said; Just how many Florida Democrats listened to moveon, adopted this rediculous strategy, and never got counted?


The more I consider this, the more I'm ready to lay this at the door of moveon.


As much as I HATE to do that.


Thoughts? Considering what KOS has posted?

[deminflorida]

1. I got a phone call with Bob Graham's voice urging me to fill out

my absentee ballot request....


I voted early, however and felt strange about that...

[seraph]

6. So did my mother.

And I explained to her, that if the official count looks to be moving in a specific direction, they do not immediately consider the absentee ballots.

What kind of strategy is it to encourage voters to vote by absentee when they can show up and do it themselves?


Are there huge problems with electronic voting machines with no paper trail?

Absolutely!

But was this the best way to deal with it?

I don't think so.


I think the strategy cost us Florida.

[markus]

2. Thats ridiculous

The only time absentee ballots might not be counted is in conditions where there are not enough absentee ballots to make a difference in any race in that jurisdiction.

That's just about never. There's always a close race somewhere up or down the ballot.

I agree with MoveOn's strategy 100% for any jurisdiction with touch screen voting.

[seraph]

4. You may think it's rediculous, but look at the margin

by which we lost Florida.

You mean to tell me that george w. bush increased his support in the Sunshine State by those margins?

Do you know how many uncounted Florida absentee ballots there are outstanding?

Bottom line, Florida Democratic voters were encouraged to vote by absentee because of electronic voting.

It is a horrible strategy. Why can I say that?

Because we lost Florida, and there is NO WAY we should have.

Check out KOS. I don't have a link, but it is posted here.

[President Jesus]

3. I have a sneaking feeling that these guys made the matter worse...

It's clear to me that red-state conservives feel like they are in a culture war. This is why the majority of Bush voters said 'values' was their number one issue.

Trucking in a bunch 'libruls' to these states may have been the spark that lit these kooks up. I don't know.

I'm not assessing blame, and I think moveon's efforts were noble. I'm just wondering out loud if it didn't make matters worse.

[AnnInLa]

7. Yeah, there was a definite backlash down here

against Michael Moore and MoveOn....they were seen as being pure evil, so whereas the poor people might have voted their pocketbooks (DEM), they thought it was their moral duty to vote against this evil. I admire MM and MoveOn tremendously, goodness knows, they both got alot of my money, but they were viewed as threatening here in the South.

[henslee]

14. Y'mean they don't like hipsters like Dicaprio and Robbins popping into

town, dropping some big city knowledge on them and then splitting? I can't understand it?(sic) I know moveon does good work but my family had real crap experience at an overprced moveon gig in NY. Security gurads were thugs and when I saw the moveon founders onstage, jamming with Moby, they really semed like a bunch of self aborbed urbanites.

[L84TEA]

5. ugH... i VOTED absentee in Iowa and so did my

entire family! I will NOT make that mistake again, I don't feel like I even was counted before they announced states and such.
Heck they probably didn't even open my envelope!
I did this out of encouragement from moveon and local dems. We had hundreds absentees right here in my precinct and I know that most of them were dem. I just don't get it.

[seraph]

9. Then maybe the question is

Has "moveon" answered for the election yet?


Look, I love the work they do, and I'm not trying to play the blame game.

But clearly this did not work.

[bushisanidiot]

8. I wouldn't trust a freeper election worker to count my absentee ballot

instead of tallying it for AWoL. I prefer the optical scan or the punch cards system. I think they are safer.

[Florida_Geek]

11. I will vote absentee over my county's Touchscreen nt

[bushisanidiot]

13. Good point. That's a tough call.

major problem with both methods: the governor is the incumbent's brother. it was fixed from the beginning.

[L84TEA]

12. Our election official

at our polling place was dressed in red from head to toe and let us know she was a registered republican.

[Hamlette]

10. pay attention!

early voters had their ballots counted last night. Absentee ballots will be counted on Thursday. There are not enough to swing the election, unless they are heavily dem. They won't be.

Before you go making wild accusations, get the facts!

[onecitizen]

15. That's it.........

blame people who tried their best to help us. That's always a good strategy.

[sidwill]

16. The repukes

were also strongly encouraged to vote absentee.