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From: Richard M Yellin
Subject: Sworn Affidavit Made to Palm Peach DNC
Some colleagues asked, what went on here. Here is my own sworn testimony to the DNC -- Richard Yellin.
I came to my voting precinct at the St. Thomas More Church in Boynton Beach, Palm Beach County, Florida, at 6 30 am on Election day 2000. I was fifth in line waiting for the precinct to open. By the time it opened, about 30 people had already lined up, and by the time I exited from the poll at 7:15, 100+ individuals were waiting to enter a very crowded precinct area. I was fully prepared to vote my choices with my own pre-prepared list of candidate selections and referendum choices. I came early to vote because I had to be at my Synagogue, by 8 am to speak at a morning religious service.
When I entered the precinct I signed the voter register and received the "computerized ballot." I went to a cubicle on a desk that had a "votamatic" platform which had a "butterfly brochure" fixed on the platform, with pages of the brochure to be turned sequentially so that candidates and referendum questions could be "hole punched," i.e., voted for. I followed the instructions placing the ballot into the slot so that it could be properly fixed and aligned under the "butterfly" so that the holes on the "butterfly" lined up over the computerized "ballot."
At that point I started the voting process. I wanted to vote for Gore/Lieberman. I searched for the Gore "butterfly hole" and could not find it!! The arrows to the right of the candidate's name, pointing to the proper "butterfly hole" did not align properly !! I struggled to find the appropriate place for my vote, and tried to figure out which one it was by looking at the Bush "hole" and the others on the page. By a process of elimination, I chose the hole I thought was for Gore and Lieberman. I took 3-4 minutes to do this. It made me feel rather stupid, so I hid my stupidity, figuring that I voted my choice. I went on to all the other candidates on the next pages of the "butterfly" and the alignments to the proper holes were arranged neatly and to perfection, and I was out of the little cubicle (which was not very private in the least!), and I took out my "ballot from the "butterfly" and placed it in the ballot box upon leaving.
As I left I heard 2-5 people complaining that it was difficult to vote for President and V.P. I did not have time to consult with these individuals because I had my appointments. As I drove away, I had a gnawing feeling that something was not right, with the blame on me. I had a sample mock "butterfly" that was mailed out before the election, and I looked at it briefly while driving and I saw that it did not look anything like the "butterfly" that was attached to the "votamatic." At which point I dismissed the experience and went about driving.
At 7:45 am, when I came to my synagogue, (of which I am the Rabbi and Spiritual Leader), Temple Emeth of Delray Beach, a 2800 member congregation of retired senior citizens, our parking lot was a beehive of activity. A voting precinct is housed in our facility's auditorium, and it had lines waiting to go into vote. I went into my office to prepare my sermon and at 8:10 I went out of my office passing the voting precinct waving to many voters whom I knew. I rushed past the auditorium and went into the Chapel and began the service with a sermonette on the subject of voting and religious freedom. I told my prayers that in order to be religious, they had to vote, because political freedom is the guarantor of religious freedom. At exactly 8:20 am my speech was interrupted by a synagogue Staff member who said to me in front of the 60 people in the chapel, "There is a problem in the precinct," and he summoned me to the precinct. My 7:15 emotions began to gnaw at me again.
I entered the precinct ahead of the lines and I was told by several people leaving that they had trouble voting their choice for President. In fact one person was crying that she thought she had mistakenly voted for Buchanan.
I summoned the supervisor of the precinct housed in our facility and I asked her to get the butterfly ballot from one of the "votamatics" and to look at it together with me. Two or three other people gather around, and it was the identical "butterfly" that I had used at the Church. I said to the supervisor that the arrows are completely misaligned with the holes and therefore the ballots could not be punched, expressing with certainty the intent of the voter. She agreed, and I asked her to interrupt the voting in the precinct and I told her that the precinct should be closed until an announcement was made to all those voting, that 'the "butterfly brochure" was problematic, and that people should exercise great care.' I said to her that the supervisor of elections in Palm Beach and in Florida should be called immediately. She agreed. The phone lines to the election board were busy. She made the announcements, and I went to call all the media outlets in the area -- 3 TV stations and the radio station of record.
At which point, I felt I did my duty and I went into the synagogue office and began listening to people exiting from the precinct who complained that it was an impossible experience, and how they think they voted for Buchanan by mistake because of the "butterfly." At that point, I too put 2 and 2 together and I think I may have voted for Buchanan, a vote that would be anathema to my whole political disposition. By 9:15 I had meetings in my office and duties to attend to, and thought that others had been sufficiently apprised of the situation and that it was in hand. Wrong, by mid day all hell broke loose in the media.
Addenda: On Friday night November 10, I had planned to speak about Kritallnacht, the Rabin Assassination, and Veterans Day. Instead, before 500 people I asked them to shared their voting experience during election day. Several people got up to speak and told their stories that they had trouble with the "butterfly" in trying to vote for Gore, and they think they voted for Buchanan. (It is important to know that my congregation has well over 100 holocaust survivors, and no one would have knowingly voted for Buchanan. I took a referendum on that!)
At which point several people in the congregation began to laugh at those who expressed a problem with the vote! I asked those who were laughing to explain their lamentable public ridicule. They said they voted, and it was a piece of cake. I then asked them to explain why it was easy for them. They said their "butterfly" was lined up correctly and all they had to do was follow the arrows for the candidates and punch the holes. In response, those who had the problem, said publicly that they had a DIFFERENT LOOKING "BUTTERFLY" AND THE ARROWS WERE MISPRINTED. I then took a tabulation. "If you thought the votamatic was easy to use, raise your hands." 50% raised their hands. Then: "If you were troubled by the vote and think you may have voted incorrectly for Gore because of your "butterfly", raise your hands." 30% raised their hands. 20% were unsure. The conclusion of this "Town Hall" sermonic discussion!? There were two different versions of the "butterfly" or maybe even a partial misprint of the butterflies used by many voters in various precincts of Palm Beach County.
I tried the same experiment on Saturday morning to an even larger crowd, dispensing with the planned sermon, asking people to share their voting experiences. The Saturday morning congregation is made up of different people than the Friday night congregation. To my amazement the same thing happened again. People laughed, and slowly they came to the realization that there were 2 different versions to the "butterfly." The tabulation was virtually the same as the previous night.
Conclusion: The real problem is the "butterfly" brochure. There were misprints in the alignment of arrows and holes, and there were bad "butterflies" hovering within and mingling with normal "butterflies," and the way you could predict who received infected misprinted "butterflies," was to scan the precincts where Buchanan received greater numbers of votes than expected compared to all the other 50+ counties in Florida. It just so happens that the Buchanan factor surfaced most within Jewish and Afro-American areas and precincts. As an Afro-American pastor friend of mine said, "there is no one in his congregation who would for a moment think of voting for Pat Buchanan." Buchanan subsequently went on air saying he knew that these exaggerated votes, close to 3500 in Palm Beach County, "should not have gone to him."
The real question for these 3500 suspected votes: Why doesn't the government impound all the "butterflies" and search for the misprinted ones.
The media is totally confused by this, and it is no wonder that the former Secretary of State, The Honorable James Baker, could hold up a normal "butterfly," and unconscionably imply, that elderly, Jewish, Afro-Ameircans, and Palm Beach County citizens, were "confused" (implying 'stupid'). Mr. Baker, in this case, was really "holier than thou", meaning, of course Bush voters were not confused because their candidate was the first on the list, and you could not mistake punching the Bush "butterfly" hole because it was at the top of the column of holes, i.e., "holier than thou."
I do not believe in conspiracies! I am a registered independent voter who learned as a child: "It is not who won or lost, but how we played the game." In this election, the voting machinery was flawed, not the electorate!
v
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i saw some grateful dead ale at gracefully on ave a today. anybody seen it/tried it?
Has blogger been having trouble lately? 7CR said that it "...[s]eems like blogger finally blew up under the weight of it's own
crapulence. You can't get that much bullshit together in one
spot and not expect it to reach critical mass." I'm glad he's not commenting on this system. But what's the deal? Dave?
Daves dratfink post today "13 myths about the 2000 election" debunk link is GREAT ! Run, dont walk there.
I'm hoping some of you language mavens can help me out. This question has been driving me nuts for years. What's up with using an umlaut in the english language? Is this strange diacritical marking really part of proper english? I've seen it used in the New Yorker for years now, but everytime I ask someone it's like they don't believe me. Now I see that the Red Herring (tech business magazine) is using them too. (I saw: "Reëlection") Does everybody use them, and I've just never fnord noticed? Is it just some sort of ivy league pseudo european posturing? What's the deal?
"You'll never eat Granola in this town again !"
I guess they'll come up with a term for the kind of Nader voter I am (NJ Democrats for Nader?). Like disingenuous so an so's...... What can I tell you ? I guess I was using the green party to shore up the Dems due to their abandonment (read shift to center) of the liberal left. In todays NYT James Dao caps off his column on THE GREEN PARTY with :
MR. Nader's campagne also seems to have caused squabbling within the Green movement itself. An Oregon based group called Greens for Gore whose members include a founding member of the green party, issued a blistering statement today accusing Mr. Nader of running a "reckless, irresponsible and totally counterproductive" campagne.
Judy Nicastro, a Seattle city councilwoman with both Green and Democratic ties, said she had scrapped plans to try to mediate peace talks between the two in Washington. "I am angry and disgusted." "I know I dont have it in me to be big enough to forgive Nader right now."
Gettin snippy with it.
From Jims link to aol scoop page (thanks Jim !):
NBC's Shipman reports that, according to two Gore aides present at the time, when Gore called Bush to retract his concession, Gore told Bush at one point: "You don't have to get snippy" ("Today").
When I woke back up @ 3:45 am watching NBC tv they said Bush people (nice mental image) claimed W said : "do whatch gotta do"
2012
Our undertaker, one of his poems, and a little Q&A.
well if gore looses cause of one vote for nader in the state of new jersey you can blame me for the shitty next four years. The long line really did not warent the 20 min pluss wait at ps whatch-ma-callit . I'm just saying the line should have gone a little faster. No reason for more than a few secs. of empty booth syndrom between votes. The polling clerks were real dolts.
Any ideas on watching this go down in real time on the net ? any new polls ? any hot scoops ? please post links.
heard some analysts mentioning somthing about weirdness coming over from a late grudge report last night but couldnt catch it.
Home at last. Thanks to all.
patti smith is playing at the melkweg during the can-u-bus cup!!!
This is kind of silly, but I wanted to see how hard it would be to write. If you want to see a unique list of every word you have ever used on your page (sorted by the number of occurances, in descending order) you can do so at www.digitalmediatree.com/word_count.php3?global=x:x:x: (where x:x:x: is the page global location, for instance, this page is 0:1:1:) Here's my page, for example: jim's page.
(please note: this is highly unpolished. The script makes certain crude assumptions about what a word is, and other crude transformations on the html so that no unintended html gets into the print out. It just strips out most punctuation. Not so pretty, but still slightly interesting. I could make it better, but it's functional enough in this state for what I'm interested in.)
News Alert:Due to an anticipated voter turnout much larger than originally
expected, the polling facilities may not be able to handle the load all at
once.
Therefore, Demorcrats are requested to vote on Tuesday, November 7, and
Republicans on Wednesday, November 8.
Please pass this message along and help us to make sure that nobody gets
left out.
Talked with Alex. He's doing well in a tough situation. His fathers funeral is on Saturday, and we're hoping for his return soon afterwards. Maybe we'll have a small gathering here at Rivington St. if he's up for it. Until then, keep sending your good vibes.
Reuters - Re: vote for sale - Wed Nov 1 12:58:15 2000
Calif. Shuts 'Nader Trader' Vote Swap Web Site
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - California
authorities have shut down a vote
swap web site aimed at so-called ``Nader traders'' -- people in battleground
states who agree to vote for Democrat Al Gore (news - web sites) if someone in
a less contested state votes for the Green Party's Ralph Nader (news - web
sites).
``We did notify the site manager that they were in violation of California election
law and they did need to cease activities on the Web site, and they complied,''
Shad Balch, a spokesman for California Secretary of State Bill Jones, said
Tuesday.
The site, (www.voteswap2000.com), was one of a number of Internet trading
sites which sprang up after political pundits suggested vote swapping as a way
of backing Nader without costing Gore the election.
According to the theory, Nader supporters in toss-up states sign up to vote for
Gore. In exchange, their votes are ''swapped'' for Nader votes by people in
states already solidly behind either Gore or Republican candidate George W.
Bush (news - web sites) -- helping Nader toward his goal of five percent of the
popular vote, the threshold needed for the Green Party to obtain federal
matching funds for the 2004 election.
Balch said Jones sent Web site managers Jim Cody and Ted Johnson a letter
explaining that their swap site ``is engaged in criminal activity in the state of
California'' through violations of state laws prohibiting the brokering of votes.
``The right to free and fair elections is a cornerstone of American democracy.
Any person or entity that tries to exchange votes or brokers the exchange of
votes will be pursued with the utmost vigor,'' Jones' letter said.
In a message on the site on Tuesday, Cody and Johnson said they had turned
their software off to comply with Jones' order. ''At the time we set the web site
up we understood that what we were doing was legal,'' the message said.
spoke to the good doctor wilson--sad but he seems fine--Nov 01, 2000
My father died this day
in the first hour
as All Hallows Eve
slipped into All Saints’ Day.
Sainted his memory.
Hallowed his name.
The Love he lived
will power prayers for him.
He who taught me
now has learned
the Mystery.
Be at Peace.
"To achieve the most left-wing result that is possible in this year's New York Senate race, trade unionists from Buffalo to the Bronx will eschew the Democratic line and cast their ballots for Hillary Clinton on the line of the Working Families Party--theorizing that because New York allows the fusion of votes from different parties, Clinton will read the results and know that she could not have won without the votes of people who object to the Democratic Party's rightward drift."
Boo! Happy Halloween. Don't know what to do with all your pumpkins after the big day? Maybe you could donate them to the 2000 World Championship Punkin' Chunkin competition.
50 8th ave voting headquarters are trying to decide our vote. we are concerned about the supreme court appointees/pro-choice etc, as well as getting nader his 5%.
what to do?
-lkb/wheel
drat fink, bill and all please advise
I'm proud to announce that this page comes up number 2 in a google search for 'procrastinators support group.' Who says search engines don't work?
I was thinking that a good use for the now ubiquitous web haiku would be a collection of 404 haikus. Presently, if you request a page on this site that does not exist, you see this lame page (404 is the error code for page not found.) Wouldn't it be more interesting if you were served up a random 404esqe Haiku instead? Maybe something like:
Many grains of sand
can be hidden on the beach
you look in vain here
...only better. Anyone feel inspired?
don't foret to turn time back 2 nite
In case you're starving for bird news: A new study claims that "songbirds rehearse their melodies by singing in their sleep."
For those of you who remember the early days: this might be funny.
