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Donovan et. al.<BR>
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Some states like Florida mandate recounts when the result is within a certain percentage. If I recall correctly, in Florida this means the vote count is within .5% margin between two candidates.<BR>
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So the first challenge to the results in this case did not have to come from a partisan legal effort. Over and over we heard that Gore was using the courts to mess up Bush's win in Florida. But the initial recount in Florida, which was never legally completed, by the way, was mandated by Florida election law, not by Gore's lawyers in the courts.<BR>
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The initial recount in Florida after Bush was declared the "winner" was never completed. Some counties just resubmitted their original election night results again! In fact, none of the court ordered recounts were ever legally completed. Why? Republican efforts to block the legal court ordered recounts as ordered by Florida's courts. The great party of downsizing the Federal government, of championing states rights, used the power of the Federal government to overrule Florida's courts to seize the White House.<BR>
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Here we see the importance of the Federal courts and who is appointed to them. They determined our current president. This alone is a good reason to vote for Kerry, because we know he will not appoint extreme ideological judges to the US Supreme Court, or other federal courts, like Bush will.<BR>
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Ted Moffett </FONT></HTML>