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Jewish World Review Nov. 16, 2000 / 18 Mar-Cheshvan, 5761

Ann Coulter

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The liar next time

http://www.jewishworldreview.com -- IN A FAST-BREAKING STORY like the Democrats' attempt to steal a presidential election, it can be hard to keep up with the barrage of lies. Before today's lies become "old news," I thought it would be useful to begin a running tabulation. (A recount shall be ordered in Democrat counties only.)

Lie No. 1: We don't know who won the election yet.

Yes we do. George W. Bush won, albeit narrowly. Al Gore demanded a recount in one of the states he lost narrowly. After the Gore loser got his recount, it turned out the winner was ... Bush again! (Subject only to a final count of the overseas ballots, which have historically gone Republican in Florida and elsewhere.) Consequently, Gore insisted upon yet a third recount, this time with a highly manipulable and probably unconstitutional hand recount in only Democrat counties. By his fourth try, Gore will be insisting on counting only the votes of Gore campaign staff.

Lie No. 2: Gore has nothing to do with the Florida recount, which is mandated by law.

This is false. Gore is completely responsible for dragging the country through this. The recount is not like some "Star Chamber" unstoppable cataclysm. Gore set it in motion when he retracted his concession to Bush on election night.

The "shall order a recount" language means only that the loser doesn't have to pay for a recount in close elections. This is not an insignificant point: Recounts are extremely expensive. But it does not mean that in a national election to determine the next leader of the free world that the loser is absolutely required to drag the country though 17 recounts and endless litigation before finally conceding.

The Florida recount provision explicitly states: "A recount need not be ordered with respect to the returns for any office, however, if the candidate or candidates defeated or eliminated from contention for such office by one-half of a percent or less of the votes cast for such office request in writing that a recount not be made."

The current crisis is all Gore's fault. He could put an end to this madness any time he wants by conceding like a man. (Bush could not, by the way. He can't stop it because he's not the loser: Gore is.) Lie No. 3: The butterfly ballot is illegal under Florida law.

In the Nov. 10 Washington Post, Philip Heymann, a Harvard Law School professor and former Clinton deputy attorney general, claimed that the now-infamous butterfly ballot was "a plain violation of the law." As Heymann noted, the law requires voters to "vote for a candidate whose name is printed on the ballot place a cross (x) mark in the blank space at the right of the name of the candidate ..."

It ought to have struck a lot of people when reading the quoted language that it speaks of placing a "cross (X) mark," but the butterfly ballot does not permit of any cross marks anyplace! It's all very confusing, and thank heaven we have fancy, high-priced lawyers to explain complicated legal conundrums like this -- until you realize: the "at the right" requirement has nothing to do with butterfly ballots.

That phraseology comes from a section tellingly titled "Voting by paper ballot" -- you know, the kind of ballot on which it is possible to "place a cross (x) mark in the blank space," not to be confused with a butterfly ballot.

If you read down just a little bit, down past the section on "paper ballots," there is a completely different chapter titled "Voting machine ballots" -- such as butterfly ballots. This section quite clearly states that the location of the "push knob, key, lever or other device" must simply "indicate to the elector" which candidate the "push knob, key, lever or other device" refers to. If there were an "at the right" requirement for butterfly ballots, this would have been a good place to mention it.

The requirement that voting machine ballots follow the "order" of paper ballots ("as nearly as practicable") refers only to the order of the candidates and measures being voted upon -- which the "paper ballot" section describes in laborious detail.

Just remember this the next time you hear a Harvard Law professor explaining the law.

Lie No. 4: Pat Buchanan could not possibly have received 3,000-odd votes in Palm Beach County.

Just four years ago, Pat Buchanan received three times that many votes in a primary in Palm Beach. So we know there are at least 9,000 potential Buchanan voters in Palm Beach, and they are the kind of devoted voters who vote in primaries. Moreover, even this year, the Reform Party candidate for the House of Representatives received more than 7,000 votes from Palm Beach.

Lie No. 5: I believe the president.

Whoops! That's "old news."


JWR contributor Ann Coulter is the author of High Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Case Against Bill Clinton. You may visit the Ann Coulter Fan Club by clicking here.


Up

11/09/00: JUST GO!
11/06/00: Hail Mary past
11/02/00: As the nose grows: The scripture according to Gore
10/30/00: Clinton sure can pick 'em
10/26/00: Gore's 'Nam flashbacks
10/23/00: Courting George Orwell
10/20/00: The three faces of Al
10/17/00: Must Christian conservatives be fascists?
10/13/00: Oil good; Dems bad
10/10/00: Al Gore: Serial fibber
10/06/00: Sigh of the crook
10/03/00: So who's the 'dumb guy' now?
09/29/00: Don't do drug legalization
09/26/00: I'd burn down my neighbor's house
09/22/00: Democrats worship the money shot
09/19/00: Other film footage we'd like to see
09/15/00: Bush can name the **^%*
09/12/00: The Supreme Court ratchet
09/08/00: Our mistake -- keep polluting
09/05/00: Bubba protects and serves
09/01/00: AlGore's 'going out of business!' tax plan
08/29/00: Bush's compassionate conservatism
08/25/00: Space alien tells funny jokes in bathtub
08/22/00: Dems view world only in black and white, not in color
08/18/00: Another Damascus Road conversion
08/15/00: The viagra cotillion
08/11/00: The hand-wringing Hamlet from Hartford
08/07/00: The Democratic party's white face
08/04/00: Hillary's potty mouth
08/01/00: The hole in the story
07/28/00: Cheney's detractors can't get their story straight
07/25/00: AlGore: Elmer Blandry
07/21/00: The tyranny of non-objectivity
07/18/00: The state's religion
07/14/00: Reform it back
07/11/00: Keating for veep
07/07/00: Gore invented 'Clueless'
07/04/00: The stupidity litmus test
06/30/00: O.J. was 'proved innocent' too
06/27/00: The last guys 'proved innocent'
06/23/00: Serious Republican candidates don't get serious press
06/19/00: They weren't overzealous this time
06/16/00: Evolution of the strumpet
06/13/00: Actual journalistic malpractice
06/09/00: I did not have sexual
relations with that ... man!
06/06/00: IRS turns Bubba's screw
05/30/00: Too corrupt to be an Arkansas lawyer
05/26/00: Choose liberalism
05/24/00: Violence against coherence
05/22/00: Developmentally disabled Republicans
05/16/00: For womb the bell tolls
05/12/00: Asylum from Georgetown
05/10/00: The truth is out there, even for the clueless
05/08/00: Barbie is a liberal Democrat
05/02/00: Moving the goalpost
04/28/00: The bastardization of justice
04/25/00: How Monica Lewinsky saved the constitution
04/24/00: It's sunny today, so we need gun control
04/19/00: No shadow of a doubt -- liberal women are worthless
04/14/00: It takes a Communist dictator to raise a child
04/11/00: The verdict is in on Hillary
04/07/00: Vast Concoctions III
04/04/00: 'Horrifying' free speech in New York
03/31/00: Check-Off Box For Pimp Suits
03/28/00: All the news that fits -- we print!
03/24/00: Net losses all around
03/20/00: To protect, serve --- and be spat on
03/16/00: Thank Heaven for the consigliere
03/13/00: Vast concoctions II
03/09/00: The bluebloods voted against you
03/07/00: The Tower of Babble
03/03/00: Vast concoction
03/02/00: Hillary's sartorial lies
02/28/00: You have to break a few eggs to make a joke
02/22/00: I've seen enough killing to support abortion
02/18/00: A liberal lynching
02/15/00: McCain and the flag
02/11/00: The Shakedown Express
02/08/00: To mock a mockingbird
02/05/00: Summing up Campaign 2000: 'Oh, puh-leeze!'
02/01/00: A Confederacy of Dunces
01/28/00: Dollar Bill's racist smear
01/24/00: How high is your freedom quotient?
01/21/00: Numismadness
01/18/00: How dare you attack my wife!
01/14/00: The Gore Buggernaut
01/10/00: The paradox of discrimination law

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