Katherine Harris calls Iranian election for Ahmadinejad

Former Congresswoman & Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris declared that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had carried Florida in Friday's election. Photo credit: UPI

June 14, 2009 — TEHRAN – Tonight former Florida Congresswoman and ex-Fla. Secretary of State Katherine Harris declared that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had won re-election to another term as president of Iran in an election held Friday, beating back a challenge from reform candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi. Although the results had been announced on Friday evening by Iranian authorities on Iranian State Television, according to Harris, her certification makes it official.

She made her announcement at a hastily called news conference at the Tehran Grand Hotel in Tehran’s central business district.

“In accordance with the laws of the State of Florida, I hereby declare President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad  the winner of Florida’s 25 electoral votes for the President of the Iranian Islamic Republic.”

When asked about tainted ballots, hanging chads, under counts and overcounts in Palm Beach County, Tehran and other areas of Florida and Iran where Mousavi was expected to lead going into the election, Harris dismissed all questions.

“Give voters a pencil and a piece of paper and they can do anything they like,” she says, pointing out how many ballot papers had to be invalidated because reformist voters tried to vote for someone else as president besides  Mousavi.  “Does that mean that Mousavi voters are generally more stupid than Ahmadinejad voters?” a reporter asked. Ms. Harris doesn’t answer the question directly but proclaims that, “these Mousavi votes couldn’t possibly be counted. I had those people ‘cleansed’ from the voter rolls a few months before the election, just ask Theresa LaPore. And to those who said there is a conflict of interest between my role as chairwoman of Floridians for Ahmadinejad and my duties as the former Secretary of State of Florida, I say, ‘Baloney’ “.

Ms. Harris was joined at the podium by Former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker.

“This was a free and fair election,” Baker remarked. “Never once did we trail Mir Hossein Mousavi. And who knows how many votes we lost when the networks called Florida for Mousavi before all the polls were closed on election night. But more important than all that is that the system worked. There were no tanks on the streets. This peaceful election in the most emotional and trying of times is a testament to the strength of the Iranian Constitution and to Iranian people’s faith in the rule of law,” Baker stated.

“Oh, and since this is the Middle East, it’s always about oil. It’s just like Texas out here. Ask Poppy.”