The gist: “Bush won Ohio by 136,483 votes. In the United States, about 3 percent of votes cast are voided—known as “spoilage” in election jargon—because the ballots cast are inconclusive. Drawing on what happened in Florida and studies of elections past, Palast argues that if Ohio’s discarded ballots were counted, Kerry would have won the state. Today, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports there are a total of 247,672 votes not counted in Ohio, if you add the 92,672 discarded votes plus the 155,000 provisional ballots. So far there’s no indication that Palast’s hypothesis will be tested because only the provisional ballots are being counted.”
See http://www.tompaine.com/articles/kerry_won_.php
After some of the claims from that website have been proved to be incorrect or lies, I believe nothing that comes from there. Verify your source before you believe it. (yes its been debunked here on the SDMB but I’m too lazy to find the threads. Its in a thread about the election, shouldn’t be too hard to find 
)
Check out this site. 4,000 vote error in one precinct.
It doesn’t matter. Kerry conceded. Let it go.
Jiminy freakin’ Christmas, that’s stupid. At least they caught it.
Well, no need to jump to any conclusions there, giraffe. It’s not a matter of me “letting it go”. Just wondering if anyone had any comments. By the way, a concession isn’t legally binding.
Even if all the numbers in the OP are correct, Kerry would still have to carry 78% of the discarded and provisional ballots to eek out a 1 vote win. Not a reasonable expectation.
I agree there.
Now I’m not one to get into the conspiracy theory of Bush stealing the election but when they showed him and his entire family once (where he asked Barney if he had anything to say), he just had this Look of total happiness and clamness like he knew.
Go figure.
that should read calmness.
I estimate there were about 40 different conspiracy theories posted on this board throughout the year. I won’t try to recall them all, but here’s a few that were supposed to happen:
Evil Bushco entered into a deal with the Saudis and oil prices would drop in the late summer, causing cheap gas in September and October, resulting in throngs happily voting for Bush. Didn’t happen.
Evil Bushco had captured OBL and would produce him for inspection in October, resulting in throngs happily voting for Bush. Didn’t happen
Evil Bushco was going to raise the terror alert level right before the election, resulting in fearful throngs voting for Bush. Didn’t happen.
Evil Bushco was going to declare a national emergency and cancel the election. Didn’t happen.
Evil Bushco would pull a third world type coup instead of relinquishing control of the country to Kerry on January 20th. We’ll never know.
This leaves us with one remaining theory: That Evil Bushco would rig the election. Since none of the other claims proved true, there’s no reason to believe this one either. You’ll have to prove it, and I’ve seen nothing that even smacks of proof, only a continuation of a previously expressed paranoid conspiracy theory. Sorry.
vanilla, I liked clamness better.
If I am not mistaken, Diebold did “promise” he would deliver Ohio for Bush, much like bro Jeb promised he would deliver Florida last time.
So…the idea is not all that wild or hairbrained.
Rove isn’t stupid, just evil. He could have made a few phone calls from the White House and ensured that those rural precincts had huge voter turnouts, whether or not they actually did.
And there is that little problem with all the exit polls showing Kerry winning - when there was a paper trail, but showing him losing when there wasn’t.
blah blah blah…ho hum…
When there was a paper trail? What? I never got a receipt of whom I voted for. I have no idea what you mean.
And polls are often off target. That’s why we don’t just take a poll and use it to elect people.
Also it depends where the polls are taken, I heard reports that the exit polls were taken in areas expected to go to Kerry.
Polls can be also used to influence the vote as well, I suspect that’s why it was anounced that Kerry was way ahead.
Dmark stop listening to lies and find out for yourself. There have been several threads either quoting or infering from an article on Tompaine.com that the exit polls from Ohio did not match the results. Conspiracy theories are flying. Trouble is it didn’t happen unless you don’t believe that right-wing orginizationCNN. Their exit poll shows Bush winning Ohio.
The exit polls only showed Kerry leading early in the day. I guess Pubbies sleep later than Demmies.
The exit polls taken early in the day indicated Kerry was ahead. By the time the day was over and all exiters were counted, the exit polls looked about the same as the final election results. At least that’s what CNN and several other sources are saying.
Anyway, what’s the old saying that goes something like: “Unusual claims require unusually strong proof”?
Unless somebody has a recording of some member of Evil Bushco doing evil things to the election process, there’s nothing to talk about except from a paranoid’s perspective.
Sigh All this and I don’t even like Bush! Those who favor conspiracy theories have a way of putting me over the edge.
Slight sidetrack regarding exit polls: Is there evidence that announcing early exit poll results actually influences the final election returns? In other words, if you support Smith, and you hear that Smith is ahead, are you more or less likely to stand in line for a couple hours after work to add your vote for Smith? On the other hand, if you support Jones, and you hear he’s running behind Smith, are you more likely to make a special effort to go out and vote for Jones? Personally, I would like to see a little less news coverage while the polls are open–not a blackout, necessarily, but an end to idle chatter and speculation.
All the exit polls, or just the ones in Ohio? I have trouble believing a news organization wouldn’t factor something like this into its sampling.
That dastardly media again. It never ends, does it?