| For Immediate Release Nov 12, 2001 |
Contact: Press Office 202-646-5172 |
Independent Audit Showed Bush Victory in Recount of Undervotes Changing Standards, Potential Fraud Also Uncovered by Judicial Watch (Washington, DC) Judicial Watch, the public interest law firm that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today welcomed the results of the media recount which confirms Judicial Watch�s analysis of disputed ballots in Florida�s presidential election. Judicial Watch hired the accounting firm of Johnson, Lambert & Co. to conduct an independent review of so-called undervotes. The accounting firm concluded that even the inclusion of these undervotes would not have changed the outcome of the presidential election in Florida. In fact, Bush would have picked up at least 116 votes if a statewide recount of undervotes had been conducted. After last year�s presidential election, Judicial Watch led the way in the investigation of the Florida election controversy. Just three days after the election on November 7, 2000, Judicial Watch sought access under Florida�s �Sunshine Laws� to the presidential ballots. Following Judicial Watch�s lead, media organizations also sought access several weeks later. As the election results were being litigated by representatives of both the Democratic and Republican parties, Judicial Watch saw the need for an independent, non-partisan analysis of the ballots at issue and the process used to count those ballots. Both political parties sought to block Judicial Watch�s access to the ballots; Al Gore and the Democrats in Palm Beach County, and George W. Bush and the Republicans in Broward County. Judicial Watch was pleased to work with media organizations also seeking ballot access to combat and defeat the vested political interests who sought to keep these public documents away from the American people. Judicial Watch�s accounting firm tried to critically analyze the recount procedures used by the key counties of Broward and Palm Beach. The accounting firm found that the counties� procedures resulted in numbers that were unverifiable. As for the �dimple mystery,� Judicial Watch used a sample voting machine and ballots from Broward County in an attempt to test how the observed dimples there were created. Judicial Watch could not recreate, using the machine, the types of dimples seen on many of the Broward County ballots. These unexplained dimples raise the specter that the dimples were created by someone other than a voter. Judicial Watch also found that changing standards by the Broward County canvassing board during the recount may have worked to Mr. Gore�s benefit. A complete copy of the independent audit report of the Florida presidential ballots is available on the Internet at www.judicialwatch.org (Click here for report). Judicial Watch has created a �Voter Fraud Project,� run out of its Southwestern Regional Headquarters by Russ Verney, Judicial Watch Southwestern Regional Director and former chairman of the Reform Party. | |