NewsMax.com
Monday, Nov. 27, 2000

"If there’s anyone who really believes that the ballot recounts are objective and fair, I’m ready to sell him the Brooklyn Bridge," one Republican recount observer told NewsMax.com.

Among the questionable and outright fraudulent practices that witnesses noted in the recount of presidential votes:

Tampered Ballots

• Numerous absentee ballots had the chad for George W. Bush Scotch-taped back in and the chad for Al Gore punched out.

"We were told there were about 80 such absentee ballots," an observer told NewsMax.com. "The Broward County Canvassing Board's justification for allowing these votes – that voters obviously just changed their minds – might be understandable for the isolated case, but not for 80.

"These Scotch-taped ballots are a shining example of a corrupt process. These ballots can be tampered with after they left the hands of the voters, and the Broward County Canvassing Board is all too happy to count them as Gore votes."

• Chads were dislodged from ballots shaken by county workers during the counting.

On one such occasion, for example, a county ballot counter predicted that a hanging chad on a ballot would fall off if he were to shake the ballot. He then shook it, knocking off the chad. That ballot was subsequently identified as a Gore vote.

• One Republican observer collected more than 75 chads from the table and floor in the area where ballots were being inspected and counted.

While that observer was trying to collect the chads from the table before a lunch break, the counting supervisor ordered him to leave the chads – and leave the room.

• Writing and ink blots, indications of tampering, were found on ballots.

Miscounts

• There were attempts to count 75 Gore ballots as 100.

During the final counting, four stacks of 25 ballots each were supposed to be stacked crossways into stacks of 100 votes. But on at least one instance, four stacks containing only 75 Gore votes each were originally counted as if they were four stacks of 100 ballots, a miscount of 100 votes in favor of Gore.

The Republican ballot observer who saw and objected to this error – leading to its correction – was then kicked out of the room at the Broward County Emergency Operations Center.

• County ballot counters also were observed placing Bush ballots in the Gore pile.

At one counting table, a counter repeatedly put ballots that had been identified as votes for Bush onto the Gore pile. On no occasion was he observed placing a ballot identified as a Gore vote onto the Bush pile.

Also, he continuously watched the wall-mounted televisions. Several times the other counter at the table told him to pay attention to the ballot inspection and counting. He replied, "I’m giving it as much attention as it deserves."

A recount observer said, "It’s important to understand that most of the county workers were professional and fair in carrying out their duties, but it’s a shame that a few bad eggs can make the whole room stink."

Bias and Collusion

• Democrat observers were under instruction to challenge ballots even where it was clear there was no vote cast for president.

Ballots with no presidential votes punched provide a significant opportunity for tampering. A Gore chad could later be dislodged or punched and then counted as a Gore vote.

• A Broward recount supervisor was even overheard accepting pro-Gore instructions from a Broward County Canvassing Board attorney.

The board attorney told the recount supervisor to "err on the side of giving it to us," a witness told NewsMax.com.

The Broward supervisor then reversed his earlier instructions and told the ballot observers to feel free to challenge no-vote ballots.

• On one occasion two Broward counters were observed showing each other their voter registration cards and identifying themselves as Democrats, as if they were members of the correct club.

• On other occasions county workers were observed demonstrating for Gore.

These are the sort of Democrat practices that helped Gore "gain" hundreds of votes from the Broward County recount.

"It’s hard to believe that the leader of the free world would be determined by these kinds of cheap tricks," one ballot observer told NewsMax.com.

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