Old Guy,

First of all, these people are not telemarketers, because they are not engaged in marketing. They are campaign callers, and they are an important tool for BOTH parties and more or less all political campaigns today. I'm not denying that Gore had these calls made, I just don't think it's relevant.

The Bush campaign had many of these callers, some of whom savaged John McCain during the primaries.

I'm also never sure what foolish allegations you're trying to make, Old Guy. For example, what about:

"Within minutes of the filing for a problem presumably just discovered that day, pre-recorded phone calls from Jesse Jackson poured into St. Louis telling people they could vote late."

So you're saying, what? They were planning it all along and had Jackson record a message two weeks in advance because recording technology takes so long these days? How long do you think it takes to record a voicemail message, Old Guy? (Just how old ARE you anyway?) If you look at the companies that do this, such as

http://www.notifyquick.com/get-out-the-vote.htm

you'll find that they have 24/7 system readiness. All Jackson had to do was pick up his cell phone wherever he was, record a voicemail message, forward it to the campaign, and it was on the wires. If it was a thirty second message, it would take about 5 minutes.

Finally, you haven't addressed the actual issue: WERE the voters voting for wrong person by mistake? If so, what difference does it make who designed the ballot? What difference does it make if there were telemarketers or not? Isn't it better to have an election in which people vote for the person they intend to vote for?

The only possible rationale for preventing this from being investigated is...you want Bush to win, whether or not that reflects the desires of the voters. Fine, we can all tell that is your position. But don't blame us for not being convinced.

Also, your sources are now one individual claim on "a cable news channel" and "the editorial." Well, NOW we know it must be true.