How did Bush steal Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004? 

 

Answer must contain an actual explanation, not just uttering in response to '04, Diebold machines and to '00, confusing ballots.  And don't be distracted by the black helicopter overhead while you're at it. 

 

Look, the cases couldn't be more different.  In 2000, Al Gore legally enacted his right to recount, in fact 3 times, in the state of Florida, and in only heavily democrat-dominated areas such as Dade County (Miami).  3 times.  Not one of these recounts got him the lead in Florida.  At the same time he was trying to recount the votes so that all the votes can be counted, so that every vote could be count, every voice heard, his legal team was trying to disqualify certain absentee ballots because the majority of those break in favor of Republicans, especially those of military oversees.  The other aspect about Florida was that on election night the media acted unethically in calling the state early for Gore.  Florida covers two time zones, and so once the polls closed for the majority of the state, the remainder in the other zone, the panhandle, was still open.  This could've disenfranchised either any Democrat or Republican voter since, if you were for Gore and you are on your way to vote before heading home from work, and you hear that Gore already won Florida, then you could just not vote since you think it's all over.  The same logic would work the other way if you were for Bush since if you hear he already lost Florida before you could vote, you figure he got beat badly and oh well.  Now, the dynamic of the red and blue segments of the state of Florida are as red in the panhandle as it is blue in Miami.  This fact commands that the greater disenfranchisement of voter turnout was done from either media bias, neglect, or incompetence on election night, and it hurt Republicans most. 

 

In 2004, no one other than the tinfoil crowd thinks Bush stole anything.  They point to Ohio because the race was close and they think the Diebold machines rigged the Bush victory there.  Thankfully, a sane and honest review of how close elections are in numerous states indicate that any number of scenarios exist where had this or that gone ever so slightly different here or there, then the outcome, nationally, would be entirely different in any election.  In other words, in any election you can point to instances where if so-and-so only won this state, where he barely lost, then he would've been President.  For example, forget Florida for Gore in 2000.  Had he managed to merely hold onto his home state of Tennessee in that year, he would've been President. 

 

What is going on in the Coleman-Franken senate race in Minn. is a case where the canvassing board is saying they don't have the authority to do things like question the shifting results of local election officials.  For instance, there is a county where they did a recount and lo and behold they found more votes and despite the recounted vote totals coming out that they had more ballots cast than they had voters turnout and, imagine what, the result was a net gain for Franken.  So the committee decides, eh since it's not our job and we probably don't have the authority to question what the recount officials are doing where they give us a new vote total that somehow is greater than the number of voters who voted, we'll just go with their new number.  Yet in instances from other counties, the recount total came up shorter than the election night total.  So, if the precedent is that you do the recount to get it right, then you go with whatever the recount turns out, right?  Nope.  In this case, Franken lost votes in the recount, and so the canvassing board decided to stick with the election night total.  This is in direct contradiction to what they said of the earlier case in the other county where took the recount figure even though the ballots cast were somehow greater than the voter turnout and they said it's not their position or in their power to doubt or question the local officials doing the recount.  This is one board, the canvassing board, deciding when to count the recount number and when to stay with they election night total, and every time it resulted in a net gain for Al Franken, Tree.  This is how he has gone from a 700+ vote loss to a 200+ vote "victory".  The real kicker is that the only reason Franken was even close enough to try to steal this election is because there was a third party clown in the race that flanked Coleman from the right.  Seriously, Al Franken can be Senator?  Don't get me wrong, I've never liked that guy and it disgusts me to see anyone using theft and lawbreaking to gain power, but I hope he does steal it because it'll only weaken the democrats sooner rather than later.