Special Report's Grapevine #4: The Internet Election Fraud Fever Swamp
Reported by Marie Therese - November 15, 2004 -
BRIAN WILSON (11/12/04): In the wake of Election 2004, many Americans are still wondering whether there were instances of voter fraud, miscounted ballots and equipment malfunctions. Well, the truth of the matter is yes, there were. But not enough to alter the outcome of the election and many election experts now fear that internet hysteria about a stolen election will bury legitimate concerns about voting problems.
FOX News Correspondent Major Garrett: Welcome to the fever swamps of post-election conspiracy theories, dark internet stories of a stolen Presidential election, allegedly curious voting patterns in Florida, suspicions that hackers shifted votes from electronic voting machines. All this intrigue helping to President and hurting John Kerry. Are the bloggers on to something?
VIDEO CLIP OF KEN GROSS, ELECTION LAW ATTORNEY: There are irregularities, irregularities did occur in this election. We can't pretend that, because it wasn't razor-thin in the decisive states of Ohio and Florida, that there were not problems. (End clip.)
GARRETT: But were these problems deep enough to catapult the President to re-election and steal the White House from John Kerry.
CLIP OF KEN GROSS: It's not credible that the election was stolen. With a margin of victory in the two states that really mattered and that was Ohio and Florida. (End clip.)
GARRETT: The President's Florida victory margin: 391,000 votes, not enough to calm conspiracy theorists, who wonder how Bush carried central and north Florida counties, where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans. Answer: Conservative Democrats in those counties regularly vote for Republican Presidential candidates. They even did so in 1996 for Bob Dole.
CLIP OF KEN GROSS: "Registered Democrats but at the national level are voting Republican and, I think, just - that's the only evidence we need. Something more than that ... (End clip.)
GARRETT: Ohio: The President's margin - 130,000 votes. Officials in all 88 counties are now counting more than 155,000 provisional ballots.
CLIP OF KENNETH BLACKWELL, OHIO SECRETARY OF STATE: We are veterans of the provisional ballot counting process. We've been doing this for over a decade, so this is not a new occurrence in the State of Ohio. We know how to do it. And we do it fairly. (End clip.)
GARRETT: Skeptics point to one Ohio county where the President wrongly received nearly 4,000 votes due to a voting machine error. Local officials corrected the error almost immediately. (End clip.)
CLIP OF KENNETH BLACKWELL: We had some anomalies in the system that were caught at the county level and corrected. The fact of the matter is there is no evidence that this will change in any significant way the result. (End clip.)
GARRETT: Kerry's lawyers say no Ohio laws appear to have been broken and Kerry was not deprived of victory in this pivotal battleground state. Even so, Democratic groups will, in the coming days, hold two hearings on the Ohio election. Also, the Libertarian and Green parties are trying to raise money to pay for a statewide recount, even though no one expects it to change the outcome.
COMMENT
During Garrett's comment about the Ohio county with the 4,000 phantom votes, FOX aired a clip of a man at a podium pointing to a map of Ohio counties. At first glance you expected it to be a Democrat or a state official. However, on the podium prominently displayed were the words "Republican Party." Subliminally, this sends the message that the Republicans were also very concerned about fraud in Ohio. Clever move, FOX!
