A recount of thousands of early voter ballots is now officially underway in St. Lucie County, Florida despite Democrat Patrick Murphy’s attempts to stop the recount. Allen West requested, and received, assistance from the U.S. House Administrative Committee to oversee the recount process.
(Allen West won’t back down from this, or any fight. Win or lost – God bless him.)
_________________________
EXCERPT (wptv.com)
St. Lucie County recount starts; Murphy camp says it filed injunction to halt it
FORT PIERCE — St. Lucie County election workers began recounting ballots Saturday morning at the county Supervisor of Elections office as they prepare to recount eight days of early voting ballots that could impact the tight District 18 congressional race between Patrick Murphy and Allen West.
Shortly before 10 a.m. Murphy lawyer Liz Howard publicly informed the county Canvassing Board the campaign filed for a preliminary injunction Saturday morning to prevent the recount from going forward.
However, Assistant County Attorney Heather Young said she had not yet received any court orders and the recounting of early voting ballots commenced.
Mowery said the presence of law officers was because there were open ballots in the room that needed protected.
In addition to observers from both Murphy and West campaigns, there also was a contingent from the U.S. House Administrative Committee. One of those observers, Mark Braden, said they had been called to Fort Pierce by the West campaign.
Braden said the District 18 contest was one of about a half-dozen races nationwide to which committee observers had been called. He was not able to immediately recall the others.
In a prepared statement issued this morning, West for Congress campaign manager Tim Edson said, “In a last-ditch effort to suppress the vote, Murphy’s lawyers submitted sloppy and incomplete papers to the Court this morning to try to strong-arm the judge into preventing today’s retabulation already underway.
…On Friday, St. Lucie County Judge Dan Vaughn denied West’s motion to order a recount of all 37,379 early ballots. Vaughn ruled he didn’t have authority to call for a recount, but said his decision didn’t “bind the canvassing board from doing what they think is appropriate in these circumstances.”
A subsequent seven-hour canvassing board meeting Friday, however, resulted in the board deciding to recount all of the ballots, despite questions about their legal authority to do so. LINK
________________________
While we must be cautious regarding the hopeful outcome of Congressman West’s challenge in his Florida district, if this case indicates abnormalities in the early voting election results for this particular race, it will certainly then place justifiable concern that other similar abnormalities took place throughout the country. While there have been several reports of surprisingly strong pro-Obama voter turnout in specific swing states, Congressman West’s challenge would be the first real verifiable example of possible election tampering in the presidential race. And if that is the case…oh my.
And once again, a much deserved thank you to White House Insider who was the first, I believe, to indicate the numbers in and around St. Lucie County were just not adding up right:
To give you a taste of what I’m doing now I’ll share this with you. I’m using a Florida outcome in a specific district to try and wrap my head around all of this. -White House Insider: November 7th. LINK
Now I have no idea if WHI has any hand in helping Congressman West in his fight – but I like to think so. I know they are distraught at the election outcome, and perhaps this fight is offering them some semblance of hope and solace for a battle that was, more than any of us can fully appreciate, well fought. Perhaps in the future, I can once again offer the readers the commentary of this interesting, perhaps even in their own way, brilliant political tactician.
I certainly hope so. -UM
_____________________
UM
The WHI said if Obama wins they stole the election
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/11/when-the-nerds-go-marching-in/265325/
Obama’s Nerd team
exerpt:
Harper Reed after the election (Photo by Daniel X. O’Neil).
I spent a lot of time “hacking” doing all this stuff, building websites, building communities, working all the time, ” Reed said, “and then a lot of time drinking, partying, and hanging out. And I had to choose when to do which.”
Part of that process was Reed, a technologist’s technologist, learning the limits of his own power. “I remember at one point basically breaking down during the campaign because I was losing control.
The success of it was out of my hands,” he told me. “I felt like the people I hired were right, the resources we argued for were right. And because of a stupid mistake, or people were scared and they didn’t adopt the technology or whatever, something could go awry. We could lose.”
And losing, they felt more and more deeply as the campaign went on, would mean horrible things for the country.
They started to worry about the next Supreme Court Justices…. while they coded.
“There is the egoism of technologists. “We do it because we can create”.
I can handle all of the parameters going into the machine and “I know what is going to come out of it,”
Reed said. “In this, the control we all enjoyed about technology was gone.”
UM and RI: seems someone is beginning to have an effect. http://www.theblaze.com/stories/does-the-gop-need-to-get-with-the-times-a-few-top-republicans-think-so/
Putting aside many pandering-related ideas put forth in this article–it IS the AP and a bunch of squishes after all–there was this nugget:
“To hear some Republicans tell it, the Grand Old Party needs to get with the times …upgrade antiquated get-out-the-vote systems with the latest technology. Teach candidates how to handle the new media landscape.
Thanks for the link. It makes RI legit for me. When WHI would say something I would wait and then see the media start to echo it and so I knew he was probably behind it. Now the same thing with RI. Cool. And I totally agree with the idea the Republicans need to get more modern with the approach. Get with the times. Use the new media like RI is telling us needs to happen. Totally agree with that.
Amazing how many suits you can dress the “by all means necessary” statement with.
The votes are the votes and the winner gets the majority of them. That’s the definition. Let’s count them to make sure the numbers are accurate.
So how telling is the attitude of this wannabe new Congressman! No respect for the process from the get go. You can tell he intends to be all about honor and values if he gets his way. (snac)
And how telling WHI zoomed in immediately on West race.
Hopefully, like many of us he is getting back to his old self after this punch in the stomac of election. Hope to hear from him again.
By the way, some good friends are receiving family from Colorado. Same gutt feelings over there. Numbers do not add up. Liberal environment which had turned big time against Obama. Many had expressed to them they would vote this time, or they would vote for Romney this time. Yet the numbers for Obama came up even better than in 2008. Something very wrong went on the the key states.
And I have yet to be explained why in NC the polls were pretty much on target, while in Virginia next door, they were so much off!
Yes I believe it is no accident at all that WHI jumped all over the St Lucie votes numbers right off the bat. He is all over this. How wonderful it would be if he can actually help with a win against the demonrats! I miss hearing from him. UM, do you think we might get another interview with him again? I am liking RI a lot, but WHI really earned my trust and admiration. I really hope he comes back and talks with you.
We all know there was voter fraud. Look at how many of the computers were ‘malfunctioning’, missing ballots to a lot of people voting more than once. I pray that West will uncover the truth.
For a chuckle, we need it.
The headline should read. Obama startles Secret Service.
This link leads to a story about the Secret Service encountering lizards in Thailand ahead of the faux leaders visit. (he is not my President).
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2012/11/15/Lizards-startle-US-Secret-Service/UPI-75261352995046/
Well, here’s another site to sign petition for recount (Congress):
http://www.petition2congress.com/8222/petition-recount-on-2012-presidential-election/