[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 18]
[House]
[Pages 26039-26040]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                           THE FLORIDA FIASCO

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Kingston) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I am joined tonight in this 5-minute 
Special Order with the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Mica) who, of 
course, has been very involved with this Florida situation. I wanted to 
just start out the evening to ask him, what is the gentleman's home 
county?
  Mr. MICA. Mr. Speaker, I represent Volusia County, Orange County, and 
Seminole County, just above Orlando, in central Florida.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I think we are all learning where all the 
counties in Florida are located. Let me ask the gentleman this: Does 
the gentleman use the butterfly ballot in his county?
  Mr. MICA. No, we do not.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, what kind does the gentleman use?
  Mr. MICA. Mr. Speaker, we use a simple ballot in which you have an 
arrow with a space in-between and you connect the lines.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Now, the purpose of the butterfly ballot is what?
  Mr. MICA. Well, the purpose of the ballot is the same as the ballot 
that we have; but let me tell the gentleman from Georgia, I sat in on 
the review of the ballots in Seminole County, Florida; and I have never 
in my life seen more ways to check a ballot in my life. It seems like a 
simple process to connect the lines, but people circle them, they X 
them, they cross from one to the other, and that is part of the problem 
we get into with some of these ballots. There are mistakes, and people 
submit improper completion of ballots, whether they are in my area or 
in Palm Beach County.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, we keep hearing about these 19,000 ballots 
that were thrown out. A point of clarification. Actually, those are 
only the number of ballots that were discarded, people who did do their 
ballot wrong to step out and say, I messed up, could you give me 
another one, that ballot gets thrown in this discarded bin and then 
they go back in there, and they could do that four or five times.
  Mr. MICA. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman is correct. In fact, in Duval 
County, which is Jacksonville, they had over 20,000 ballots that were 
discarded, a higher number with a lower population and lower voting 
number.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Okay. So Duval County, 26,000 were thrown out. Are the 
Gore people working Duval? I have not heard of the Reverend Jackson 
going down there.
  Mr. MICA. No, but if we get into these court-ordered recounts, we can 
go on. We have 67 counties to choose from, and we can continue this for 
some time.
  We see some of the problem, particularly this subjective evaluation 
of ballots after they have been counted several times.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I think it is important to point out that 
in Palm Beach County, in 1996, 15,000 ballots were in the same 
situation.
  Mr. MICA. The gentleman is correct.
  Mr. KINGSTON. In 1996, 15,000, and this year, 19,000. Duval County, 
which leads Republican, actually 26,000.
  We have, Mr. Speaker, a copy of the actual ballot that was used in 
Palm Beach County, Florida, and here it is. I will tell my colleagues, 
I know people get confused. However, when we think about Veteran's Day 
just passing and all of the people who have sacrificed their lives and 
died and been injured for the freedom of our country, one would think 
that the American electorate would at least take their time to fill out 
their ballot right and not do

[[Page 26040]]

a lot of whining if they made a mistake. Here we have an arrow, George 
Bush for President; arrow, Patrick Buchanan, an arrow; and I understand 
it is absolutely legal to have the names on the right hand and the 
left-hand side of the arrow. Al Gore, an arrow. David McReynolds, an 
arrow, 6, 7; Harry Brown, an arrow.
  I am really confused, Mr. Speaker, as to why this is so hard for 
people to understand. But then again, I know we get rushed on Election 
Day and people are entitled to make a mistake; but that is why they 
simply just walk out, say I made an error, I filled out the wrong 
arrow, give me another ballot; and that is what has, in fact, happened. 
I would ask the gentleman if that is not right.
  Mr. MICA. Mr. Speaker, that is, in fact, what happened, not only in 
Palm Beach County, but in all of the 67 counties across Florida, that 
there were large numbers of ballots thrown out. Under our laws in 
Florida, one cannot vote for two people. Under our laws in Florida, one 
must indicate who one's choice is on the appropriate ballot. We have 
many different formats of ballots throughout the State.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I understand, however, ironically, that 
Mr. Gore's political operative here, William Daley, whose father, 
Richard Daley was notorious for ballot fraud, that is the word for it, 
in Cook County, Illinois, for so many years, his son, and I am not 
saying it is like father, like son, although others have; but his son 
is down here on behalf of Mr. Gore as his point man; and yet this is 
the same type ballot that they have in Illinois; is that not true?
  Mr. MICA. Mr. Speaker, that is correct.

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