we started going door to door through town, walking to neighborhoods, talking to people. then a few miles southwest of the town of wamego, a local farmer found an individual in one of his vehicles. in florida, the polls have barely been open and the first reports of voting irregularities begin to surface. i got a call from my sister early in the morning who lived in boca raton, florida, at the time and who said i think the ballot here is very confusing. i just looked at it and looked at it and looked at it. it took me about 10 to 15 minutes to try to make sure i voted for al gore. we didn t have a name for it at that point, but it was called the butterfly ballot. they had that so-called butterfly ballot where a lot of people presumably voted for al gore, but the way it was
then a few miles southwest of the town of wamego, a local farmer found an individual in one of his vehicles. in florida, the polls have barely been open and the first reports of voting irregularities begin to surface. i got a call from my sister early in the morning who lived in boca raton, florida, at the time and who said i think the ballot here is very confusing. i just looked at it and looked at it and looked at it. it took me about 10 to 15 minutes to try to make sure i voted for al gore. we didn t have a name for it at that point, but it was called the butterfly ballot. they had that so-called butterflballot where a lot of people presumably voted for al gore who was like the second name down, but the way it was actually done they voted for pat buchanan.
through town, walking neighborhoods, talking to people. then a few miles southwest of the town of wamego, a local farmer found an individual in one of his vehicles. in florida, the polls have barely been open and the first reports of voting irregularities begin to surface. i got a call from my sister early in the morning who lived in boca raton, florida, at the time and who said i think the ballot here is very confusing. i just looked at it and looked at it and looked at it. it took me about 10 to 15 minutes to try to make sure i voted for al gore. we didn t have a name for it at that point, but it was called the butterfly ballot. they had that so-called butterfly ballot where a lot of people presumably voted for al gore, who was like the second name down. but the way it was done, they actually voted for pat buchanan.
notorious butterfly ballot. how would you describe what happened to al gore in florida? he got screwed by a bad ballot in palm beach that the democratic leadership in that county signed off on. the butterfly ballot had punch holes for al gore and ultra conservative pat buchanan located dangerously close to each other. just asking for mistakes. i can tell you that the people came out of the voting booth into the hundreds, knowing, realizing they had punched pat buchanan s number thinking it was al gore. had the butterfly ballot not happened, al gore would have been president of the united states. no doubt in my mind, period. a big glitch that after election day left gore scrambling to fix the unfixable. they had a real argument to make about that ballot but only
i can tell you that the people came out of the voting booth in the hundreds knowing, realizing that they had punched pat buchanan s number thinking it was al gore. had the butterfly ballot not happened al gore would have been president of the united states, no doubt in my mind, period. a big glitch that after election day left gore scrambling to fix the unfixable. they had a real argument to make about that ballot but only before the election. they didn t have it afterwards. the democrats signed on it. the republicans signed off on it and it was designed by a democratic elections director in palm beach county. he had very few options to fundamentally change the outcome after that. so how and how hard to fight? questions that would dog and divide the democrats. when you re in a fight the first person who stops fighting always loses.