| Thursday,
Now Roberta has it. I am not at a local SF convention I usually enjoy
because I just don't feel up to going. But I think things are getting
better.
I have received at least 40 copies of a message from a Mr. Terry
Sullivan supposedly in response to my request for a business program of
some kind. He even includes his name, Terry Sullivan, and a telephone
number, and other information:
Thanks,
Terry Sullivan
1(800)941-2709
Go To: http://www.tmmg.net/freetalk
www.terrytalks2@hotmail.com
Calling the number gets what sounds like a human being named Terry
Sullivan in a recorded message inviting me to leave a message. I did,
imploring him to stop bombarding me with his unasked for messages that
purport to be in reply to a request. This sounds less like a monster and
more like an incompetent, but I have had enough of his emails, which come
to every possible address I own.
If anyone is trying to access me through my IBM account, I haven't been
able to log on to that for a while, but they tell me it is all fixed now,
and should work in about an hour. The only things I normally get on that
are press releases and spam anyway.
Regarding the election: I cannot say I have any agreement with Bush's
decision to bring the Federal Courts into a Florida election. If he wants
to appeal the Florida Supreme Court decision his path is simple: the
Florida Legislature can choose electors any way it sees fit. It can
confirm the Bush slate. It can appoint entirely new electors ignoring the
election itself. Appealing to the Feds is dangerous and needless as well.
The Constitution is very clear that the state legislatures may use any
means they wish to select electors. It is not a Federal matter. The only
requirement is that they be chosen by a date certain and that their votes
be in the Congress in time for them to be opened by the Vice President.
That was a rule agreed upon in advance of this election. All clear rules
agreed in advance are in place, and should be.
The rest of this is very odd. Very. One county wanted to count ballots
in a small closed room without observers. Then it decided if it couldn't
do it that way it would not do it at all. This is an odd decision and an
odd strategy.
Regarding dimple: if all the choices on the ballot are dimpled we are
dealing with a feeble voter, and OK, we can count all those that would
have been valid if punched. I think everyone can agree to that. But if
only the presidential choice is dimpled and the rest punched through, we
are dealing with something else, ranging from a voter who deliberately
cast a blank ballot to mean "none of the above" to an election
worker with a quick fingernail. There is absolutely no way to know what
that ballot indicates; and since it is clearly not in compliance with the
instructions to the voter, and does not show any clear provenance of how
it got that way (unlike a ballot with multiple dimples) surely it should
not be counted?
Finally: what if there is a clear punch AND a dimple in the
presidential field? Does that become a spoiled ballot? Surely not?
Rules in contests are stated precisely so that there is a way to choose
a winner. There may be room for interpretation, but surely not to change
them unilaterally after the contest is over?
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