BUT IS IT THE SOLUTION?
by Sharon Rondeau
(Nov. 14, 2012) — The congressional race in Florida’s 18th District was reportedly won by Patrick Murphy, but incumbent Allen West has filed a lawsuit with the purpose of having all ballots cast during early voting recounted in St. Lucie County, which is part of his district. A hearing is scheduled for Friday at 1:00 p.m.
On Sunday, St. Lucie County Elections Supervisor Gertrude Walker’s office carried out a partial recount consisting of ballots cast between November 1 and 3 only, having stated that some ballots were counted twice. West’s campaign had said that it sought a full recount of all early ballots cast. Early voting had included a total of eight days before November 6.
Walker’s office reports that the county has a total of 173,304 registered voters consisting of 74,281 Democrats and 55,755 Republicans, and 43,268 divided between two other affiliations. St. Lucie County uses optical scanners, and West’s campaign perceived that despite Walker’s explanation that the two-page ballot resulted in a percentage of voters higher than 100% the number of votes did not coincide with the reported number of voters. West’s attorney claims that the numbers have been “constantly changing.”
Walker admitted that there had been a malfunction of the voting machines on Election Night, adding that neither she nor her staff “was perfect.”
News services were very quick to declare Murphy the winner on Election Night, as they were with races across the country. The winner of the presidential race was not expected to be declared early on, but by 1:00 a.m. on Wednesday, November 7, Romney conceded defeat.
Since the election, some outlets have ridiculed those who were dismayed that Obama “won” a second term in an obvious display of media bias. Gross irregularities have appeared in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Colorado to date in which Romney received either no votes or votes in the single digits. One analyst has stated that such results are “mathematically impossible.”
Early voting by Democrats was reportedly lower by an estimated 220,000 in Ohio, and Obama made numerous trips there during the final weeks of the campaign. By 10:36 p.m., however, Ohio was called for Obama. How did that happen?
The Post & Email and CBI suspect that a computer code was changed to alter the votes of hundreds of thousands of votes for Romney so that they would be counted as votes for Obama. The tactic is also suspected of having changed the intended outcome of congressional races in favor of Democrats and cannot be detected by recounting. Rather, a forensic investigation would have to be carried out to discover whether or not evidence of an alteration in the code, which can be implanted remotely, exists.
Vote-flipping primarily from Romney to Obama occurred in Kansas, Pennsylvania, Ohio and North Carolina during early voting. On Election Night, Romney had been ahead in both electoral votes and the popular vote with only the East Coast partially tabulated, after which every other “swing” state was called for Obama. Polls earlier that day and in the days just prior to the election showed a very close race, with some polling companies reporting Obama ahead and some reporting Romney ahead.
Obama’s popularity had dropped in October following the first presidential debate, after which polls had shown Mitt Romney leading by as much as seven points. Questions about the Benghazi debacle and dissatisfaction with Obamacare, “a weak economy and high unemployment” were factors in the race. The University of Colorado, which has accurately predicted the presidential election for 30 years, had predicted that Romney would win soundly. One forecaster who was a self-admitted Obama supporter had predicted that Obama had a 73% chance of winning.
When Karl Rove contested Fox News’s report that Obama had won Ohio, he was ridiculed by some observers.
How likely was it that Obama would “nab almost every one of the 12 crucial battleground states?” How did Yahoo! News know that Obama had won on November 6 without waiting for final vote tallies? How did anyone know?
The unusual vote tabulations are, peculiarly, showing up in the identified “battleground” states. Despite the questionable numbers, it does not appear that Romney will contest the “final” results.
In 2000, the news networks were sharply criticized for calling the election too early for Al Gore. Why the rush in 2012?