Kerry is behind 150,000 votes in OH with 100% precints in. It seems incredibly unlikely that he can win, even his own advisors said they thought they needed to be within 50,000 for the provisionals to stand a chance.
So…should this election be dragged on, or should Kerry (or do you think he will, say around 8am EDT) go ahead and concede? Are there any benefits to leaving it up to OH to recount?
Methinks he should concede. This morning. With grace.
And I voted for him. I can’t stand Bush. What this country has become and is becoming frightens me - if you’re not a heterosexual White Christian, this may be a very long 4 or 8 or 20 years.
I am incredibly disappointed with the results.
But I’m also afraid that what was an aberration in 2000 will become habit in future elections. And that very quickly the Dems will be targeted as the champions not of the people but of the lawyers, and that they’ll be tarred with the brush of trying to “steal” elections. Which could hurt them in the long run.
Let what has been done be done. Fight politics locally. Disagree loudly.
Ohio Kerry voter here. Kerry should concede. All this dragging out will only help make Kenneth Blackwell a “star” in GOP circles. If the Ohio economy continues to lag, the Dems might have a chance in the next governor’s race. Don’t let Blackwell hog the airwaves for two weeks.
Just heard on the news that the Secretary of State of Ohio (Kenneth Blackwell) has said that Bush’s lead is statistically insurmountable, even with the provisional ballots.
For all the talk the Democrats have made the last four years about Bush not really winning because he didn’t win the popular vote, the non-hypocritical thing for Kerry to do would be to concede right now. He has clearly not won the popular vote. Anything he does now to contest the states’ results would make him guilty of all the things he and the Democrats have been accusing Bush for four years.
I think Kerry should concede, but I also think the media and the people should be (just for the sake of completion) calling for re-evaluations on the laws surrounding provisional ballots. I also think that the “dirty tricks” we’ve been hearing about on both sides of the aisle should be investigated by the media, though that’s a dream that’ll never come true.
If the provisional ballots are only a little more than the lead that Bush has, or putting it another way, if Kerry would have to get some absurd percentage of the remaining ballots (like 75% or something) then yeah. Throw in the towel.
If, however, all the provisional ballots are from strongly democratic areas (which I have no reason to believe), then perhaps Kerry would have a small chance of catching up. But if the remaining ballots are from all over and therefore the percentages are going to be more around 50-50 or even 40-60, then he’s not going to get it no matter what, so give it up.
No. I dont care if the whole damn map is red, I want every vote counted. I think it is essential if healing is even possible, to finish this thing completely. I also think it is important to show the respect to each and every person that voted, and actually count their vote.
This country had an amazing turn out yesterday. I worked at had 1000 registered voters and 983 people voted. 246 people registered to vote yesterday. (Wisconsin allows registration on the day of the election.) I am assuming that some portion of the new people moved into the appartments and the people that didn’t come to us registered somewhere else. It seems to me, that those who bothered to show up at the polls should have their votes counted. Whether they were kids in ohio staying up till 3am to get to the end of the line, or the guy who was at the fire station yesterday morning when we got there, they deserve to be counted. We also do not need another four years of people saying it was a corrupted election.
No matter what you hear on TV, the Electoral College vote count is not official until it is counted before a joint session of Congress where sealed envelopes are opened. There is no need to rush hee folks, …this isn’t like Coke v. Pepsi, people!
Let every vote count! Or, don’t we have that right anymore?
So - If Bush is ahead by - let’s say - 125,000 votes, and there are only 50,000 votes left to count… you still say we should wait and respect each person’s vote by tabulating it before we announce a winner?
I want every vote counted as well. Not because I think Kerry is going to win, but because it’s the right thing to do. The people who voted provisionally took time out of their schedules to vote; they believed in their candidates as much as any other voters. They should be counted.
Are we going to count all the provisional votes in all the other states? Some of the other states are really close (even though they’ve been called for Kerry—and rightfully so).
If the odds say that it is statistically impossible for the results to be overturned in a particular state, even with the provisional ballots counted, do you want them counted anyway? Yes or no?
Does anyone know how long it will take, how expensive it will be, for this to be done in all states with uncounted provisional ballots?
Conceding sends a bad message to people casting provisional ballots: it sends the message that their vote didn’t really count, and they shouldn’t have bothered insisting on their right to vote. It’s particularly bad when many will be first-time voters who you weant to have voting again in the future.
Why the pressure to call the election early? As Jinx says, the real vote is some time away, in the Electoral College. Meanwhile, Bush can just carry on in his usual way.
Provisional ballots are not automatically counted in all election. That’s not how the law for provisional ballots works.
Do you want to change this so that, no matter what, all provisional ballots are counted? Do you want provisional ballots counted in, for instance, California, which went strongly Kerry? What, exactly, would be the point? Kerry would still keep California even after the provisional ballots are counted.
Well, for a start the people casting provisional ballots should be put on the rolls for next time, if they are fund eligible, and checking eligibility would be most of the time taken in the process.