Elaine North
Writer, Editor, Lecturer
Author of
Time Travelers: Quantum Magic, science fiction (published April 2011)
Adventures of Nebraska Wade, a historical cowboy novel
(published 2004)
Election 2000 Enchantment (published 2002)
Stonefield, Screenplay, a detective science fiction
IL
ph: 312-543-9919
writerch
Election 2000 Enchantment
a political romance novel
by Elaine North
PRESS RELEASE AND EXCERPT
P R E S S R E L E A S E
"Election 2000 Crisis Told in a Political, Romance Novel"
Election 2000 Enchantment
by Elaine North
Chicago--November 1, 2008--A political, romance novel has been written that depicts the whole story on the 2000 presidential election crisis in Florida. With all the upheaval and mystery that abounded during the 2000 election, author Elaine North has written Election 2000 Enchantment, a fun-filled romance novel about the 33-day election. Thirty-six famous attorneys and Elaine North initially wrote books about the 2000 election crisis. North’s book blends all the important, memorable, day-by-day events that took place during the derailed election into an entertaining novel through the lives of two young women. Jennifer McCloud and Robin Booth become ballot recounters during the election crisis and encounter intrigue, romance, passion, danger and deception as they meet a number of people from across the country that converge upon Florida due to the election crisis.
Both Jennifer and Robin are 21. Jennifer becomes romantically involved with Alan Scott, a dashing young Democrat television news reporter from New York, and Robin meets a tall handsome young Democrat black attorney, Damon Shuttlesworth, from Chicago. Damon and Robin have a sweet romance until she tells him that she voted for Ralph Nader, and they argue and break up. Jennifer and Robin also meet Dick Johnson, a habitual criminal and thief, who descends upon Florida to steal ballots and con money from people by telling the lie that he can steal votes from the ballot recount to help a candidate win.
The main topic of the book is the election, yet the writer artfully weaves the romances and the crimes of Dick Johnson to tell the entire story of the 2000 election crisis. Jennifer and Robin encounter fun and adventure as they experience all important events of the election crisis. When Republicans storm the Miami-Dade county building to stop the ballot recount, Jennifer and Robin are there. They cheer with a crowd when they see the Ryder truck speeding along the highway taking the ballots to Tallahassee. Jennifer and Robin also go to Washington, D.C. and are in the big crowd during the U.S. Supreme Court hearing that deliberated the election.
Minor characters in Election 2000 Enchantment include Jennifer’s two nerd little brothers, Wyler, age 17, who is trying to build a voting machine to enter the Perfect Voting Machine Contest, and 12 year old Truman, who is also a genius and analyzes the details of the election crisis like an expert. Robin’s mother, Sandra Booth, is a most vivid minor character, who is a strong woman and a staunch Democrat constantly complaining about what is happening with the election.
Election 2000 Enchantment was published in 2002. Elaine North has written six books and four screenplays.
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EXCERPT
ELECTION 2000 ENCHANTMENT
by Elaine North
CHAPTER 4
The Butterfly Ballot
The city bus slowly rolled along the streets of downtown Miami making stops at every corner. The bus waited for minutes at each bus stop, where some passengers climbed off and more passengers were loaded on. When the bus stopped before the county building, Robin Booth stepped off, now humbled without the big Buick. Driving from Honeyside to Miami took only thirty minutes by car, but was a long one and a half hours journey by bus.
A large crowd was before the county building to Robin’s surprise. She crossed the street making her way to the crowd. She was wearing a turquoise summer dress. Robin had gotten a call from Jennifer at 9:00 that morning asking her to come here. It was Friday, three days after the election, and still there was no winner in the presidential contest.
Robin was bewildered, wondering why the crowd was here. She had seen on the news on television large crowds of people protesting in West Palm Beach, Florida since the day after the election. But she had not known that a large crowd of protesters was also in Miami. The many protesters were holding signs and chanting slogans.
"Recount! Recount!" shouted a large crowd of democrat protesters.
"Gore Get Lost! Gore Get Lost!" screamed a group of republicans.
When Robin reached the crowd, she noticed that some politicians, county officials and many reporters were also before the county building.
Standing in the midst of the crowd, Robin tried to read all the different signs the protesters were shaking. "Gore Won! Gore-Lieberman! Election Unfair! Recount the Votes! Count Every Vote! Revote!" were some democrat signs.
Republican protesters were also carrying signs: "Bush Won on Election Night! The Election is Over! Bush-Cheney! Sore Loser Gore Get Lost!"
Robin easily saw Jennifer in a bright red dress holding a Bush-Cheney sign. Robin joined her.
"What the heck is going on!" said Robin, looking around confused.
"Florida’s votes are still undecided. Both Gore and Bush need Florida’s votes to win the election. And some people in West Palm Beach County are saying that they accidentally voted for Buchanan, that right wing third party candidate, when they really intended to vote for Gore. They claim that the Butterfly Ballot was tricky and fooled them to vote for Buchanan. Some of them are saying they want to count the Buchanan votes as Gore votes, which would give Gore enough votes to win the election."
"How can they do that!" said Robin.
"I don’t think they can. It has to be totally illegal to give one candidate’s votes to another candidate."
"But why are they protesting here in Miami, if the problem is with the Butterfly Ballot in West Palm Beach?" asked Robin.
"Today, Gore requested hand recounts in four counties where the Butterfly Ballot was used, and Miami-Dade is one of them."
"But isn’t there going to be a statewide machine recount of all the votes, because the election is close?"
"By Florida state law there has to be an automatic machine recount. But Gore is also requesting that some counties do hand recounts. That’s when county officials have some people manually look at each ballot one by one to count the votes. Gore requested the hand recounts in four counties which voted mostly democrat, West Palm Beach, Broward, Volusia and Miami-Dade counties."
"But the election is supposed to be over," said Robin.
"Not this time. Bush has only a 1,784 vote lead in Florida. Gore does not want to concede. He wants to try and find the votes to win where the Butterfly Ballot was used."
Robin looked at all the protesters shaking their signs and chanting. She was still puzzled. "So, this is all because of the Butterfly Ballot. Wait a minute. How can someone accidentally vote for the wrong person? All they have to do is punch the hole by the candidate’s name. I did it. And after I punched my ballot, I checked it making sure that I voted for the presidential candidate I had intended to vote for."
"Voters, mostly in West Palm Beach County, are saying that the way the Butterfly Ballot was designed it confused them. Usually candidate’s names are written on one page. But this time some county officials there wanted the names printed bigger to help senior citizens read them, and candidates’ names had to be listed on two pages. This meant that all the punch holes for both pages were in one column between the two pages, intermixed. And some voters there are saying that they intended to vote for Gore, but accidentally punched the hole for Buchanan’s name on the Butterfly Ballot."
"This is confusing," said Robin.
"It looks like someone needs to invent a new voting machine with a whole new uniform ballot that’s clear for everyone to read. In West Palm Beach some people are saying that the Butterfly Ballot was purposely designed to confuse them and help Bush win."
Robin said, "But all the voters had to do was find their candidate’s name and follow the arrow beside it which points to the punch hole for the candidate."
"I wish they had," said Jennifer. "Then we would not be in this predicament. This is big."
"Yeah, big and messy," said Robin. "Why are the people out here protesting. Why don’t they go inside and hand recount the votes? Maybe Gore did win more votes in Florida."
"It’s not so easy as all that. It looks like no one here really knows what to do," said Jennifer.
Robin again looked at all the people before the county building. Angry protesters vigorously waving signs and shouting, embarrassed county officials trying to bring order and solution to the election crisis, and smiling reporters having a heyday covering one of the most important news stories in American history. Reporters were interviewing various people there. It was all amazing to Robin that the election was not finished and had become a kind of dilemma. Before long she saw a limousine stop before the county building. The men who stepped from the limousine wore fine tailored suits and looked like prominent businessmen from the north. They entered the county building.
"I think they are lawyers for Gore," said Jennifer.
"Lawyers?" said Robin. "What are they here for?"
"After Gore requested the hand recounts, Bush filed a suit in federal district court to bar the hand recounts."
"Do you mean this election is going to be in court!"
"Bush had better do something for himself, or Gore will steal this election off of him," said Jennifer.
"My mother said that Bush is stealing the election off of Gore, if Gore doesn’t fight the election results."
"He’s certainly fighting. Gore has brought in an army of those big city lawyers. I guess they can help him get the hand recounts he wants, that Bush wants to stop. With hand recounts it’s easy for people to steal votes and steal the election."
Robin was even more astonished now that she realized that the country’s presidential election was in a state of crisis. She again observed all the protesters converged there and read more signs.
Jennifer turned with surprise when a young reporter stopped before her.
"Aren’t you the lady I spoke with in Honeyside on election night," said Alan Scott.
"So, I see that you are still around here," said Jennifer.
"I'll be around here for a while, until the election ends anyway. I’m from New York, and work with WANC News. My television network predicted the election returns well, but not this part." Alan looked at the large crowd, and even more protesters were arriving before the county building.
"What’s really going on?" asked Jennifer. "Some people are saying they want to vote again in the four democrat counties Gore pointed out. Can some voters revote. That seems like cheating if some people can vote again when they will already know the election results."
"It’s unlikely that a judge will allow people to vote again, and for sure not only people in four counties selected by one candidate. But no one knows what might happen in this strange election."
"And why should Gore only point out democrat counties to recount votes."
"Because he’d have a better chance of finding more democrat votes in strong democrat counties."
Jennifer said, "I think some of those voters who claim they meant to vote for Gore but accidentally voted for Buchanan really wanted to vote for Buchanan. On the news this morning, I learned that thousands of people in West Palm Beach County voted for Buchanan when he ran for president in the last election, and thousands of them voted for Buchanan in the primary this election. But now that they see how close the election is, Gore lost, and they wasted their vote on Buchanan, they are talking about they want to revote, so they can change their vote to Gore and he can win the election."
"This should be over soon, in a few days. If it lasts much longer than that, I may be around here for some time." Alan smiled at Jennifer. "And that means I may get a chance to see you smile. You look so serious right now. I don’t know this area well. I was only here once. Do you know a good place where I can have dinner tonight."
"There are plenty of restaurants in Miami, and some very good ones at Honeyside Resort. Very nice seafood places."
"Would it be appropriate if I invite you to dinner?"
Jennifer was hearing what she had hoped for. "Well, I have to be at work at 11:00 tonight. But before that I can join you, stranger."
Alan laughed. After he gave her his business card, and she gave him her phone number, he said, "That’s fine. Thanks. I see Gore’s campaign manager and some black leaders have arrived. I’d better get back to work. I’ll call you at 6:00. You pick the restaurant." Alan walked away.
With the important people arriving, the crowd before the county building became louder and held their signs higher shaking them wildly. Many more protesters arrived on the scene.
Jennifer was smiling, when she found Robin in the crowd.
Robin turned to her, and asked. "What’s going on now?"
"I’ve got a date tonight."
"I mean with the election. Look at all these people here now."
They both looked around. They noticed the number of important looking lawyers with the democrats. The many journalists and television cameramen were crowded before the campaign manager, black leaders and lawyers, holding interviews.
A black leader stood before the many reporters and cameramen. "It looks like plenty of people across Florida did not get the opportunity to cast their ballots for the candidate of their choice. Additionally, many black people went to their polling places and were told that their names were not on record there, and black students and other minority citizens were stopped by state troopers as they were going to their polling places, keeping them from voting. We want a revote in the disputed counties... "
As the dignitaries stood before the cameras, protesters were standing behind them shaking big signs with hopes the signs would be seen on the national news.
Robin turned to Jennifer, and said, "Where is all of this going to end?"
"I don’t know. It’s phenomenal." Jennifer noticed Alan Scott working. He was quickly posing questions to the county official he was interviewing.
Jennifer said, "He’s the bomb, isn’t he, Robin?"
"I know you are talking about the reporter we saw election night, and not any of those politicians he’s interviewing."
They both laughed.
Robin asked, "You said you have a date. Who with? The reporter?"
"Yeah."
"That’s great, Jennifer. He’s really cute and classy."
When all the dignitaries went inside the county building, Jennifer and Robin headed for Jennifer’s Camry across the street. It was in a large parking lot, which was filled with cars with the many people who had come to protest before the county building that day.
* * *
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THE LATEST BOOK BY
ELAINE NORTH
(published April 2011)
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