Reply #45: reply to ..you got it!!

[flyarm]

a reply to your statement...
"Actually, they could have split the third-party votes by the same proportions and just added the absentees. (The federal absentee ballots from prior elections in Florida tended to lean Republican."

i am from pinellas..and i can tell you there was such a huge push for dems to vote absentee,..because of the fear of fraud by the machines, we began that push very early on..and we had huge blocks of absentee votes..( the dems that is)
we sent out record numbers in my county of absentee ballot requests..i worked at kerry headquarters, and kerry sent down field reps specifically just to do the data and keep impecable records on this process..kerry sent down hired canvassers just to go door to door to get people to fill out applications for absentee ballots..we even had lots of cell phones to call people who we filled out applications to make sure the people got them and if they wanted them picked up by kerry field folks...
we daily entered info on the absentee ballot applications into huge data bases..we checked them over singly..with the soe lists we had on computers...many a day i would check these applications over with the soe list , and enter the data for j=kerrys data base..and i would be doing it 15 hours straight..we kept incredible records!! if there were mistakes on peoples application we sent canvassers back to the peoples homes to make the corrections! it was a huge process and undertaking!

one thing that was suspect was the soe didnt put on many of the envelopes the number of stamps nessesary to mail the ballots in which caused many problems at the post office..we were encouraging that we pick them up and hand delever them, and we did alot of that...but it became alarming days before the election when we were calling people in specific areas we were going to be in ,with people to pick them up..we were hearing that some unknown people were going to these same homes ..and telling the people they were dems to pick them up..when we had no one at that time in that area to pick them up..and whoever was picking them up had no dem i.d...this was very alarming to us!! we never found out who it was, we asked people to call soe and see if their ballots had been turned in..but after election the office ( kerry)was disbanned and no follow ups were called in or out...

i know this as i worked on the data bases for 1 1/2 months and i made many of the calls to voters for setting up the pick up lists for the canvassers.

so the kerry folks and dems had a huge push on for dems to vote absentee...and we had an unpresedented number of absentee balloting this time, like never before!!..and the replys on the phone were almost all the same..the dems i spoke to by phone said they did not trust the machines..specifically the african americans i spoke to!!fly