Now, is that “Fucking Shit!” in a good way or “Fucking Shit!” in a bad way?
David
The Bush juggernaut is now up to a 926 vote lead in Florida.
I can see it now, Gore wins the vote, and Bush wins the election. Maybe then someone will finnaly support a constitutional amendment repealing the electoral college.
With Bush clinging to a 997 vote lead, I wonder how many of the 140,000 people who voted for Nader or one of the other canidates in Florida want their vote back.
An interesting turn of events. There were a couple of SDMB threads about what would happen if Bush won the popular vote but Gore had the numbers in the Electoral College. Turns out it might (just) be the other way around. 
Have no idea about US elections but in Australia in 1961 the Government retained office by a single seat (Morton, Qld). Jim Killen (later Sir James) won by, IIRC, correctly 13 votes, which according to folklore were the preferences of members of the local branch of the Communist Party. This was exquisitely ironic as the centre-right Menzies Government would alway bang the Communist drum - “Better dead than Red” when under electoral pressure.
http://www.qld.liberal.org.au/history/federal/biogs/killen.htm
I’m over in Paris and had to vote by absentee ballot (but to Georgia, not Florida). Since they had to be received before the election (DHL sent them for free), I’m sure Florida has been able to include them in their counts.
This election will probably turn into a great debate if Bush wins - because of the Nader effect (man, they may have to redefine the term “spoiler”), and also if Gore wins - there will be lots and lots of claims about voter fraud which allegedly always favors the democratic party…
I’ll bet Al Gore won’t be sending Nader any Xmas gifts this year…
I’m going to have to do a lot of explaining today to the French about how the electoral college works again (they’ll say things like - since it’s so close, why don’t they just split the electoral votes for Florida and have a runoff election (sort of like they do in France)).
Gore takes Wisconsin, 11 electoral votes, not that it matters. National polls now put Gore’s lead at over 200,000.
What a night. Lead changes, retractions, recounts, oh my! First Lady wins senate, as does the corpse of Mel Carnahan. Whoever wins this one is gonna have his work cut out for him. Can you say “coalition government”?
Let’s hope that next time voter turnout is up, way up. In the long view I’d settle for that silver lining.
According to NBC, there may have been some ballot problems in Palm Beach County. Apparently the ballots were set up differently in that area, and some elderly people who thought they were casting votes for Gore actually voted for Buchanan. I’m not sure exactly how that could have happened, but I’ll try to find a cite.
If anyone’s curious, I just heard that 96,000 people in Florida voted for Nader.
From the Associated Press:
I also heard that the amount of Buchanan votes in question is near 4,000. If 95% of those are actually for Gore…Gore will win the election. Either way, I bet an EC amendment runs its course in the next 2 years.
Jman
(Please go Gore, Florida…PLEASE!!!)
And probably to defeat. I can’t imagine a substitute method that would satisfy enough people to pass.
Last I heard Bush has a 1700 vote lead now. As for the thing in Palm Beach, call me cold-hearted but what is the state expected to do because some little old ladies didn’t read their ballots carefully before voting? No state allows you to change your vote after the polls close. As for eliminating the EC, that’ll fail because the small states will vote it down. They benifit from the Electoral College system. What I do support is having California divide it’s electoral votes proprtionately, like Maine does. After all, it is not some big homogeneous block of voters.
What is the Straight Dope on the Palm Beach fiasco? Are there any images on the net of the ballot? I’d be very interested in seeing how this could have duped so many voters. I found a description of the ballot here but the description doesn’t do it justice.
I’m not one to lend much sympathy to someone who flies to Florida to claim the prize they [sub]may[/sub] have won, but if the ballot layout was off enough to swing the election to Bush, I think I am off to GD to ask about what should be done. In the meantime (and since this is GQ) is there an image of the ballot out there? And if it is demonstrable that Buchanan received Gore votes is there anything that could legally (remember, we’re in GQ) be done? Thanks.
Here’s the ballot:
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/DailyNews/ELECTION_WatchdogPart4001107.html
As a Gore supporter, I just don’t see what the fuss is. If you can’t figure out that ballot, you shouldn’t have been allowed to drive to the polling place.
Think Jeb had something to do with the poor ballots?
Hmmm…
Idiots…
I don’t know, but I’ve hear allegations from Tallihassie that some ballot boxes are missing. I’ve posted a thread about this. This is beginning to look like a seriously fraudulent election in the Sunshine State.
I just heard on the local NBC station that there were about 3,500 votes cast for Buchanan in this area, which they say traditionally has voted Democrat.
Twenty-five overseas ballots were returned today, and many more are expected to come in over the next few days. The reporters said that those votes won’t be counted until ten days from now.
I also heard that after the recount in one Florida county, Bush lost four votes and Gore gained four votes.
rhythm… yes, there could be a class action lawsuit of Florida voters who may argue that their voter’s rights were restricted by the confusing ballot. Because voter’s rights generally extend to a clearly understandable ballot. Where it will go from there…?
The area with all the odd Buchanan votes was, I believe South Beach, an area with a large Jewish (and gay) population.
You’ll be telling your grandkids about this one, Dopers.