The margin in Florida is a matter of 6,000 votes. Two heavily Democratic districts have yet to be counted. Keep your fingers crossed everybody. This one is going down to the wire.
I am glued to the tv as I type this…dammit, why didn’t we put Florida down as our State of legal residence?!? I don’t think my absentee ballot is going to make any difference in Tennessee, but in Florida…
Arghhhh. I’m just too upset to make any sense right now.
It ain’t over yet!!!
Even the National vote is separated by less that 200,000 votes, What a frickkin’ horse race!
Last Florida count has them separated by less than 700 votes. (12:35 AM PST)
The Govenor of Floridia says the count is seperated by 600-700 votes. Good googly goo!!
CNN reported that Bush’s people feel they have 2,200 votes in hand. The AG of Florida (a Dem) called Gore’s people and told him not to concede.
Could it get any weirder than this?
Aren’t there half a million absentee ballots in Florida yet to be counted?
I think the figure is more like 50,000 absentee ballots. Many of these will be for military personnel. It is fairly safe to assume that the military will be voting Republican.
The sick thing is that Jeb Bush would have a seat on the recount committee. How ethical is that?
Keep your fingers crossed.
All the absentee ballots except the military ones have been counted. Last election, 2,300 of these came in after the election day (the federal government got sick of dealing with 50 different laws, and declared one law for the military, allowing 10 days for the votes to get in, as long as they are postmarked on time). Even with the higher turnout this time, it’s nowhere near a half million (that’s probably total absentee ballots, most of which have come in), or even 50,000.
My bad. I blame the CC display at the bar.
http://www.uselectionatlas.org is calling FL in favor of Bush:
Bush 2,817,912 49.25%
Gore 2,762,911 48.29%
With 98% reporting. That gives Bush 271, according to Dave Liep. I swear if I see some putz riding around with a “Don’t Blame Me, I Voted For Nader” bumper sticker I’ll be forced to kill…
Bush/Cheney
2,905,723
Gore/Lieberman
2,904,932
difference
791
From: http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2000/results/index.president.html
Florida
Bush… 2,909,136… 49%
Gore… 2,907,351… 49%
Difference: 1,785
Still undeclared pending a recount.
Nationally
Gore… 48,241,297… 49%… 260 EVs
Bush… 48,019,239… 48%… 246 EVs
This may be a dumb question, but do these national numbers include the Florida numbers already, or do they not throw those into the pot until the EVs in that state are decided?
If Florida’s popular vote is already included in these national numbers and they end up standing after a recount, that would make Bush the EV winner and President-elect of the United States in spite of Gore having won the popular vote nationwide. Will the Gore campaign then start demanding recounts in other states that were close but went to Bush? What on earth will be the ramifications if this happens?
I am truly frightened.
Is it too late to give Florida back to the Spanish. Sure would solve alot of electoral problems.
About as ethical as Florida AG Bob Butterworth, who is Gore’s Florida campaign chairman, being on the committee also.
Fine get both of them off the frickin’ council!
Even more disgusting is that at least some of the Florida ballots listed Gore’s name second yet required the voter to punch the third hole on the ballot. WTF??? In a state with such a large senior population, something so misleading should have been red flagged long before this. I think a complete recount and challenge of all of these questionable ballots should be the order of the day.
Couldn’t we have another debate or something, or have them each be given a list of countries and tell them to give us some key facts for that country? I.e. France is not Francians, nor is their capital the Marne . . . Serbia is not serbianese, and their capital is not serbiaville.
Jeb Bush recused himself from any activities involved with the recount. I would assume Butterworth did the same, but him being a Democrat, I wouldn’t bet on it 
As far as the recount goes, CNN reported that the counting has stopped for the day, and that Gore has picked up a net of +8 votes from the 10 counties re-tabulated. Tough to catch up at that rate.