Items of Special Curiosity
Please email any comments to Jeff Dieffenbach at dieffenbach@alum.mit.edu.

• 1/16: Curious - Humor: image
  Create your own!
  
  
• 1/8: 21 Rules - Humor: article
  
  
• 1/5: Dueling banjos - Humor: lyrics
  
  
• 12/29: Ya'll have fun now... Ya hear? - Humor: lyrics
  
  
• 12/20: Concession - Humor: article
  
  
• 12/15: God weighs in - Humor: article
  
  
• 12/15: Winner - Humor: image
  
  
• 12/14: Santa Claus - Humor: article
  
  
• 12/13: Dubya Dance - Humor: Web app
  
  
• 12/9: Grinch redux - Humor: image
  
  
• 12/9: No Joy in Mudville!  There is no truth to the rumor, it appears, that Gore has requested a manual recount of the Supreme Court's 5-4 ruling halting the statewide recounts in Florida.
  
  
• 12/8: JOY IN MUDVILLE!
  
  
• 12/8: Priceless redux - Humor: image (see also)
  
  
• 12/7: 2004, a Space Odyssey - Humor: article
  
  
• 12/7: Federal Elections Review Commission Act Introduced
  A bipartisan bill, HR 5631, sponsored by U.S. Representatives Peter DeFazio (D-OR) and Jim Leach (R-IA), was introduced on November 15, 2000.  It would establish a nonpartisan, 12-member commission to examine the advisability and feasibility of proportional voting systems, instant runoff voting, cumulative voting, and other election-related issues -- including the electoral college; voter registration options like same-day registration and universal registration; ballot access issues; mail-in balloting; internet voting; polling place closing times; ballot design; voting system technology; presidential debates; early voting; and other issues.
  
  Membership on the commission would include a broad cross section of regional and political perspectives, and would include experts in the fields of federal election law, the U.S. Constitution, and United States history.  The Center for Voting and Democracy provided assistance and suggestions in the drafting of this bill. Passage of this legislation will boost electoral reform efforts nationally.
  
  Members of Congress are starting to pay attention -- let's contact our representatives and get them to co-sponsor this legislation, the "Federal Elections Review Commission Act."  You may contact your Member of Congress at 202-224-3121.
  
  • For full bill text and much more, see: http://www.fairvote.org/index.html
    
  • To find/write your representative online, click here: http://www.house.gov/writerep/
  
  
• 12/6: Far Out - Humor: image
  
  
• 12/6: Time's Man of the Year - Humor: image
  
  
• 12/5: Boxing - Humor: image
  
  
• 12/5: Mini-Me - Humor: image
  
  
• 12/5: Mayberry RFD - Humor: image
  
  
• 12/4 (Black Monday): Survivor - Humor: image
  
  
• 12/4 (Black Monday): Regardless of whether you support Bush or Gore, and regardless of whether you think Gore should concede, the following is true or PROBABLY true.
  • A majority of citizens in Florida intended to vote for Al Gore, as evidenced by:
    • A large number of non-votes in Palm Beach County
    • A large number of double votes in Palm Beach County
    • A large number of Buchanan votes in Palm Beach County
  • In Palm Beach County, due to 1) a poorly designed ballot or 2) their own stupidity, they failed to do so
  • The margin in the initial vote was less than 0.5%
  • By Florida law, a machine recount was completed
  • There were questions about the accuracy of the machine count
  • The Gore campaign legitimately asked for a hand recount in several counties
  • The Bush campaign did not, but went to court to block the hand recount
  • A flurry of legal skirmishes ensued
  • To date, only two counts, both by machine, have been completed
  • Neither campaign appears to have done anything particularly unethical
  • Should Bush win, he will probably lucked his way into office
  • It's better to be lucky than good
  
  
• 12/4 (Black Monday): Sore Loserman - Humor: image
  
  
• 12/4 (Black Monday): Palm Beach Pokey - Humor: poetry
  
  
• 12/1: Election diversion - Article
  
  
• 11/29: In contrast, Canada's Prime Minister election on 11/27 went smoothly, in part because of a national standard for ballot size, material, and lettering. Of Canada's 20 million eligible voters (compared to 10x that amount in the US), 63 percent voted (50% in the US). All ballots were marked by pencil, counted by hand at polling places limited to 500 voters, called in to a central computer, and entered into a computer. Results were available within minutes of the close of polling.
  Source: Boston Globe, 11/29/2000,
  Article 1, Article 2
  
  
• 11/29: For 17 days in January, the Democrats will control the Senate (assuming that Maria Cantwell's slim lead in Washington holds). During that period, any 50-50 ties would be broken by current Vice President Al Gore. Democratic leaders in the Senate say that they have no shenanigans planned.
  
  
• 11/29: Texas is one state that allows ballots with dimples to be counted. In 1997, Texas Governor George W. Bush supported this law.
  
  
• 11/29: Our choice.
  Source: Boston Globe, 11/29/2000,
  Nationwide:
  • Bush was not the choice of women (by 9 percent)
  • Bush was not the choice of blacks (by 82 percent)
  • Bush was not the choice of Hispanics (by 33%)
  • Bush was not the choice of Asians (by 13 percent)
  • Bush was not the choice of those under 29 (by 2 percent)
  • Bush was not the choice of those over 60 (by 4 percent)
  • Bush was not the choice of Easterners (by 17 percent)
  • Bush was not the choice of Westerners (by 2 percent)
  • Bush was not the choice of those who didn't finish high school (by 20 percent)
  • Bush was not the choice of those with post-graduate education (by 8 percent)
  • Bush was not the choice of Roman Catholics (by 2 percent)
  • Bush was not the choice of Jews (by 60 percent)
  • Bush was not the choice of familiers earning under $50,000 per year
  • Bush was not the choice of those from big cities (by 45 percent)
  • Bush was not the choice of those from small cities (by 17 percent)
  • Bush was not the choice of first-time voters (by 9 percent)
  • Bush was not the choice of the unmarried (by 9 percent)
    Article
  
  
• 11/29: More Suess, with a decidedly partisan tilt - Humor: poetry
  
  
• 11/22: Al Gore I am - Humor: poetry
  
  
• 11/22: How the Grinch Stole the Election - Humor: article
  
  
• 11/22: Huh, huh - Humor: image
  
  
• 11/21: Modified Electoral College - Letter to the Editor
  
  
• 11/21: Most Americans are not aware that the rules of succession (President, Vice President, Speaker of the House, Senate Pro Tem, ...) go quite deep into elected officialdom. So deep, in fact, that I was just notified by telegram that by virtue of my position as an elected School Committee member, I am 945,317th in line for the presidency.
  
  
• 11/20: From the 15 November 2000 Onion (www.onion.com)
  Recount Reveals Nader Defeated
  TALLAHASSEE, FL-- A third recount by Florida election officials has "definitively determined" that Green Party candidate Ralph Nader was defeated in the state. "There was a very significant 25,603-vote discrepancy between the first two counts, with Nader losing by respective margins of 2,812,339 and 2,837,942, so we decided to conduct a hand recount," Florida Attorney General Jim Smith said. "We now know that Nader lost by precisely 2,821,278 votes." It is not yet known whether Nader lost to Gore or Bush.
  
  
• 11/20: ...and more Onion
  Nation Plunges Into Chaos
  Pro-Bush Rebels Seize Power in West; D.C. in Flames
  WASHINGTON, DC--Presidential-election-related violence continued to spread across the nation Tuesday, with Day Seven of the battle for the White House claiming another 1,200 lives.
  
  In Bush-controlled Tennessee, news of Gore's call for a sixth recount in the disputed territory of Florida sparked full-scale rioting, with Republican militiamen setting fire to Gore's heavily fortified Nashville compound. It is believed Gore running mate Joseph Lieberman was trapped in the blaze, though his whereabouts and status were unknown as of press time...
  • Humor: full text
  
  
• 11/20: According to a story on National Public Radio over the weekend, electoral ties in New Mexico are broken by a single hand of poker: 5 card stud, to be precise. Apparently, 2 recent local elections have been settled this way, including one in which the winning hand was an ace-high flush.
  Article
  
  
• 11/20: Bush, no, Gore, no, Hastert, no, Thurmond, Albright, no, Summers, no, Cohen, no, Reno,... - Article
  
  
• 11/17: Square peg, round hole - Humor: image
  
  
• 11/17: Viagra - Humor: image
  
  
• 11/17: Priceless - Humor: image (see also)
  
  
• 11/16: Voting for Dummies - Humor: image
  
  
• 11/16: "I'm sorry that I ever invented the Electoral College."
  - Al Gore 11/8/2000
  
  
• 11/15: God's honest truth, a real candidate for President (Worker's World party) had the Clintonian name of "Monica Moorehead."
  THE ballot
  
  
• 11/15: At least we saw record voter turnout, right? Not exactly. According to a piece on NPR, overall turnout this year was just over 50%, and only 2% better than Clinton's 1996 thrashing of Dole. This stellar performance ranks us a spectacular 140th among Earth's democracies.
  
  
• 11/15: A random walk through the statistics of vote count - Article
  
  
• 11/15: Take your turn at controlling the candidates - Humor: web application
  
  
• 11/15: England responds - Humor: article
  
  
• 11/15: The Bush-Cheney ticket may not be valid given that both are inhabitants of the same state, in possible violation of the 12th Amendment to the Constitution - Article
  
  
• 11/13: Should Gore end up winning, Lieberman might STILL stay in the Senate - Article
  
  
• 11/13: Bush's lead in Florida (388) was less than my win for School Committee in April of this year - Humor:: image (what voters saw)
  
  
• 11/13: On Monday, Bush's lead in New Mexico was 4 (!) votes.
  
  
• 11/13: At one point following the election, Fidel Castro offered to send in independent election observers.
  
  
• 11/10: With the exception of Iowa, all of Gore's wins are in "edge" states - Electoral Map as of 11/14
  
  
• 11/8: During the first week of November, the Republican Leadership Council ran ads in Washington and Oregon...supporting Nader.