Duval County, FL - campaign ground war

[featherman]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/26/politics/campaign/26vote.html?pagewanted=3&hp

"In Duval County, where a confusing ballot design in 2000 helped disqualify thousands of ballots in black precincts, new registrations by black voters are up 150 percent over the pace of 2000.

"We're using guerrilla tactics to get into the malls and sign up voters before the security guards chase us off," said Adam Broad, 40, an organizer in Duval County with the Florida Consumer Action Network Foundation, one of dozens of community groups registering in Florida."

(Readers may recall that Bush supposedly won Duval County by over 44,000 votes despite the fact that registered DEMS outnumbered registered GOP by over 60,000. This was the vote counting fraud that made the vote in Florida close enough for the Bush brothers to steal)

[fishnfla]

1. They tossed out 21K votes in 2000. (Overvotes)

The good ol' boys own that county.

[AmerDem]

2. Thanks for the update..

very encouraging. There are only so many votes they can hide!:toast:

[Awsi Dooger]

3. I remember the numbers well

A 7.5% overvote percentage in Duval compared to 4.1% in Palm Beach County. A full 12,000 of the 22,000 overvotes in Duval came from 4 heavily African American precincts among the county's 14. If you concede Gore the typical 90% among blacks, just 700 fewer overvotes would have overcome Bush's supposed 537 statewide margin. It's really incredible how many bizarre factors were required for Bush to prevail in Florida.

Unlike many DUers, I attribute Duval and Palm Beach as much more forfeit and fluke than theft. The 10 candidates allowed on the Florida ballot gave incompetent election officials an opportunity for multi-page or butterfly designs, which caused the overvote percentages to triple or worse. We could have overcome the numbers of minority voters denied at the polls easily minus those confusing ballot designs. This year, even with Nader, I think there are "only" 8 names on the Florida ballot. Gore would be president today with that number in 2000.

[Florida_Geek]

4. Maybe yes and maybe no

Somehow I still believe that a majority of the overvotes happened after the voter turned in his vote.