How to Steal an Election: The Inside Story of How George Bush's Brother and FOX Network Miscalled the 2000 Election and Changed the Cour [Paperback]

David W. Moore (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 28, 2006

This is the inside story of how Jeb Bush persuaded the Fox network to call the presidential election for his brother George W. Bush on Election Night 2000. It was one phone call to Fox — the details of which are revealed in this book for the first time — that propelled George W. Bush into leading position for 43rd president of the United States. Even though the erroneous statement had to be retracted within two hours, the damage done by this false call to Al Gore's chances of winning the election were incalculable. David Moore, at the time senior editor for the Gallup Poll, makes the plausible and alarming case that, had Fox not made this miscall, the resulting political environment would have been less biased in favor of Bush, and that Al Gore could have won.   On Election Night in 2000, Moore was with the exit poll "decision team" of CBS and CNN, taking notes on how election races were called, and miscalled, around the country — including the two miscalls and two rescissions in Florida. Prior to joining Gallup in 1993, Moore was founder and director of the Survey Center at the University of New Hampshire.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

David W. Moore, a prominent national pollster, is former Senior Editor of the Gallup Poll.

On Election Night in 2000, Moore was with the exit poll “decision team” of CBS and CNN, taking extensive notes on how Warren Mitofsky and Joe Lenski called, and miscalled, election races around the country – including the two miscalls and two rescissions in Florida.

He writes a weekly column (PollTalk) for the Gallup website that deals with controversial polling issues. He also writes several polling articles a month for the Gallup website.

Prior to joining Gallup in 1993, as a vice president and the managing editor of the Gallup Poll, Moore was founder and director of the Survey Center at the University of New Hampshire.

Product Details

• Paperback: 210 pages
• Publisher: Nation Books; 1 edition (September 28, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560259299
• ISBN-13: 978-1560259299
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,256,254 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

David W. Moore is a Senior Fellow with the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire. He is a former Vice President of the Gallup Organization and Managing Editor of the Gallup Poll, where he worked from 1993 until 2006. Prior to joining Gallup, he was a Professor of Political Science at the University of New Hampshire, where he taught from 1972 to 1993. He was also founder and Director of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center. Previously, he served in the U.S. Army for ten years, after graduating from the United States Military Academy in 1962. His overseas tours of duty included South Korea and Vietnam.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Compelling, January 17, 2007

By 

A. Barry - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: How to Steal an Election: The Inside Story of How George Bush's Brother and FOX Network Miscalled the 2000 Election and Changed the Cour (Paperback)

This is a brisk but comprehensive overview of the 2000 election. Despite the inherently democratic bias of the what the book is asserting, the book never comes off as whining and references are plenty. One of the author's main points is that the Fox News channel prematurely called Florida for Bush, and all of the other networks blindly followed suit to avoid being the only network to not have this information. Hours later it was clear the state was too close to call for either candidate, but because all of the networks had called Florida and thus the entire election for Bush, Gore's later contentions were perceived as those of a "loser" trying to overturn a result in his favor, when in fact the reality of the situation was that Bush had never "won" the state to begin with. Had the state never been called, the perception would have been that Florida would simply require some extra time to be tallied and there wouldn't have been the same sort of "Sore Loserman" public backlash to Gore's recount efforts. It's pretty convincing stuff.

Where the author failed to convince me of though was that the "Bushies" made a concious effort to "steal" the election. The author describes what happened as George Bush's cousin John Ellis being encouraged by Florida governor Jeb Bush to call the state. This, of course, turned out to be foolish, but ultimately FOX was sticking their neck out in the call. The author's tone suggests that this was some grand scheme planned out from the beginning, that the Bushies somehow knew exactly how the scenario would play out and that their move would turn public opinion against Gore.

Ultimately though, this was a compelling book and at less than 150 pages, worth anyone's time.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Story in Dire Need of Wider Exposure, May 5, 2011

By 

Thad Komorowski (NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How to Steal an Election: The Inside Story of How George Bush's Brother and FOX Network Miscalled the 2000 Election and Changed the Cour (Paperback)

The pitifully low amount of reviews and rating on Amazon do David W. Moore and his book a great injustice. "How to Steal an Election" is not the incoherent rambling of a leftwing conspiracist, but a meticulously researched and well-written account of the role the media played in the travesty that was Election 2000. In case you don't know, Al Gore actually won Election 2000. So how did George W. Bush end up getting into the White House and turn America into a sinking dictatorship for eight years? Moore doesn't go into every aspect of the Election 2000 fiasco, but he goes into great detail about the most overlooked guilty party in the story: the media. Did you know the guy who made the erroneous call in Bush's favor on Fox News was actually the cousin of George and Jeb Bush? Did you know that Voter News Service was urgently advising all networks that the race was too close to call when Fox went ahead anyway, causing the other networks to follow suit? It's a fascinating story about the inefficiencies of America's media and a warning to what inept journalism can cause. The media screwed up, so we got George W. Bush as president. What more of an incentive does anyone need to do a better job?

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An interesting examination of balloting fraud, November 14, 2011

By 

Burrowing Owl "Speotyto cunicularia" (American Southwest Desert) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How to Steal an Election: The Inside Story of How George Bush's Brother and FOX Network Miscalled the 2000 Election and Changed the Cour (Paperback)

This is one of five books I have read on the subject of how the USA year 2000 elections were manipulated to place Bush2 into the White House. The book has pluses and minuses: overall it is not the best of the five.

Americans will remember many instances of balloting fraud and voter intimidation tactics used by the RNC during the election; they will also remember the Congressional hearings on the subject, where a handful of employees from Diebold and Global Election Systems, testified that they had rigged machines to steal votes from the Democrat Party. What most Americans may not recall are the details in the theft of the presidential election, and this book will provide those details.

Instances of "missing voting machines" were common in predominately Democrat voter districts, where in many cases, in many states, voters were required to stand in line for many hours to vote for Al Gore, but in pro-Republican districts the wait was usually a few minutes. The book explains why, and how, that was allowed to happen.

Instances of ballots being pre-punched for George Bush2 were also common, and reported. Voters who noticed and objected were given tiny stickers to place over the pre-punched holes; voters who did not notice and who voted against George Bush2 had the ballots invalidated because of the extra hole.

There are several instances of balloting fraud that the book should have included but did not. Such as the districts that never had their pro-Gore votes counted; such as voters registered as Democrats being told on the telephone that they would be arrested if they voted; such as the "challenged" Democrat voters who were allowed to vote but their ballots were not counted, pending "challenge review."

All in all this book is a good introduction to the treason committed by the Republican Party at the time, and the overwhelming evidence produced, but there are better books on the subject.