Post-Gazette Editorial – 10/29/04

This page was last updated on October 29, 2004.

Ballot blather; Editorial; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; October 29, 2004.

The theme of the editorial is that Sen. Santorum’s concern about making sure military votes are counted is much ado about nothing. For example, the editorial states, “This reckless political charge marks the return of a golden oldie; a furor over challenges to military ballots was part of the GOP counteroffensive mounted to offset the shenanigans that compromised fair play in Florida in 2000.”

Here is what happened to military ballots in Florida in 2000. The Gore campaign convinced election officials to disallow specified military absentee ballots on a technicality. Why? Because Gore anticipated military votes would favor Bush, and they did, nearly two to one. The Bush campaign appealed the military ballot ruling and a U.S. District Court judge ruled the ballots were illegally excluded. Unfortunately for the Bush campaign, the ruling came too late for the excluded ballots to be included in the certified count. Thus President Bush actually won Florida by a slightly larger margin than was certified.

Who was head of the Democrat National Committee and led Gore’s attempt to steal the 2000 election? Ed Rendell. Who is the Pennsylvania governor claiming there is nothing to worry about regarding military ballots? Ed Rendell.

Given the Florida 2000 experience with military ballots, I don’t believe this is much ado about nothing.

Hours after this editorial was published, the P-G reported that, “Under intense pressure from military voters and Republicans, Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell said today that he will ask a federal judge to extend the deadline for counting overseas military and civilian ballots by one week.” Is that enough leeway? I don’t know, but it’s at least a step in the right direction.