The real story is how could anyone running against George Bush loose?

Like I have said all along - why would Americans reward Kerry with an election victory when he offers them nothing different to Bush?

Save the stolen election song. It’s a diversion. It misses the real point about the need for an electoral alternative that expresses the feelings of the anti-war majority.

ps and it ain’t General Wesley Clarke just in case Michael Moore is reading this.

As usual the media are simplifying the most complicated electoral system in the world and you're right - utter bull is being spoken. This time round it seems that the momentum is towards a "result" almost immediately, regardless of several chronic problems which CNN/Fox are incapable of addressing.

Florida is dubious, but Ohio is worse.

Consider. at time of writing the votes stand at about 2.5m for Bush and 2.35 for Kerry, a gap of around 150,000.

Now, for Andrew Card this early result was enough to declare outright victory, which CNN, the Beeb, everyone really has taken at face value. But in a state where actual turnout is probably around 7m this time out, clearly all the votes haven't been counted.

175,000 provisional votes - maybe 250,000 could easily swing this one but we don't yet know how many were cast (it could be 500,000 to a million). But assuming that 250,000 were cast and the absentees split 50:50 or even 60:40 bush, then i think Kerry would still close the gap. These Provisional votes are mostly people who failed to show up on the electoral rolls - ie/ african americans wiped because of "clerical errors", those who hadn't registered before or had been in prison last time out. They will, probably, split 80:20 in Kerry's favour (if not more).

If their votes are counted, that is - and despite the Help America Vote Act, the procedures for getting an individual vote checked are labyrinthine. Ashcroft has also been agitating to deny the individual right to file suit under HAVA. Most of all, however, under Ohio state law, the decision to even count provisional ballots is taken by local election commissions - half republican half democrat. But a 3:1 majority is needed to initiate a count, 11 days after the election has closed, ensuring that, in the interests of acceptance, stability, continuity and democracy - these thousands of marginal, poor, non-white votes will be quietly tossed out, burned, eaten - however the monsters at GOP HQ reckon will be most satisfying.

So, amidst all the bull being spoken - there IS a chance for Kerry in Ohio.

Don't hold your breath, and if you're american, get to Ohio and protest immediately outside those election committee offices! If not, the decision will be taken for you.

Sour

Grapes

.. we are hurting - no doubt.

But pride comes before a fall ..

[and I am washing my 'I told you so tee shirt', thinking of geting a spare for when it wears out]

In the words of the chimp ..

.. bring it on ..

The confrontation was brewing, is enivitable and will happen .. everybody read sun tzu - the art of war.

Today is a good day to die.

Alright, let them stew in their own juices. The muppet conceded, before a provisional vote was counted (and we still dont actually know how many provisional votes were cast despite the 147,000 figure thrown around by CNN).

We were non-partisan poll monitors in Pennsylvania and if what happened at the 2 polling stations we saw happened elsewhere - and all reports indicate that it did - then there is no doubt in my mind that the result was at least heavily influenced. Can't say whether that swung it but hey, it was a close one right? here's some of the stuff we saw:

1) The polling judge was ill so a paid republican poll watcher claimed to be the polling judge, helped blind/disabled people vote, etc etc, and no one realised he wasn't the actual judge for the 1st two hours of the day, by which time 24% of voters had already voted.
2) Another paid republican poll watcher was caught outside the polling station at 7.30 pm telling people that the voting machines were broken so they should go home, we have no idea how many people he had turned away doing that.
3) EVERY SINGLE PERSON in our neighbourhood that we asked (and that's a majority of them) - a poor black area - received phone calls telling them that they could vote over the phone (so not to go to the polls as their vote had now been recorded), that they shouldn't bother voting as reports had showed that the democrats had already won so overwhelmingly that even if everyone remaining voted republican, the democrats would still win, & that there were police at the polls waiting to arrest anyone on the lists who hadn't paid their child support, phone bill, etc.
4) Flyers we saw from the non-existent Black Voters League offered some ‘‘warnings for election time’’, including the false claim that anyone who voted in a primary election could not vote again the general election, and ‘‘If anybody in your family has ever been found guilty of anything, you can’t vote in the presidential election,’’ the flyer read. ‘‘If you violate any of these laws, you can get 10 years in prison and your children will get taken away from you.’’
5) You have to show 2 forms of ID if you're a 1st time voter but not if you've voted before. About half the names on the 1st time voters' list in our precinct were there wrongly - many had been registered for years, but they were on the list and because they came without ID, they weren't allowed to vote. People working in the polls were from that community so they were looking through the lists and recognising loads of previously registered voters. But, if they wanted to come back with ID they would have to miss more work and wait on line for longer and many of them couldn't.
6) The guy who makes the Ohio voting machines said that he would do 'everything in his power to deliver the Ohio vote to Bush' - no independent or democrat body was allowed to test the machines to check they didn't have a bias, and the exit polls (asking people as they left what they voted) showed Kerry with a clear lead, while the voting machines registered a Bush win.
7) Republicans had 'voter challengers' with lists of African American names at the Ohio and Florida polls who could close down the polls for up to an hour by challenging the legitimacy of any voter they wanted to.
8) Other flyers were also around aimed at suppressing the vote, here's one I read: ‘‘Due to the immense voter turnout that is expected on Tuesday, Nov 2, Pennsylvania has requested an extended voting period,’’ it looked really official and said that Republicans were supposed to vote on Tuesday (official election day), Democrats a day later — after polls were closed.
And have you seen this from Ohio?
'An error with an electronic voting system gave President Bush 3,893 extra votes in suburban Columbus, elections officials said. Franklin County's unofficial results had Bush receiving 4,258 votes to Democrat John Kerry's 260 votes in a precinct in Gahanna. Records show only 638 voters cast ballots in that precinct. Bush's total should have been recorded as 365.'
If this happened in one county, is it so unlikely that it's happened elsewhere?

Here's some other facts:


In Baker County, for example, with 12,887 registered voters, 69.3% of them Democrats and 24.3% of them Republicans, the vote was only 2,180 for Kerry and 7,738 for Bush, the opposite of what is seen everywhere else in the country where registered Democrats largely voted for Kerry.

In Dixie County, with 4,988 registered voters, 77.5% of them Democrats and a mere 15% registered as Republicans, only 1,959 people voted for Kerry, but 4,433 voted for Bush.

The pattern repeats over and over again - but only in the smaller counties where, it was probably assumed, the small voter numbers wouldn't be much noticed. Franklin County, 77.3% registered Democrats, went 58.5% for Bush. Holmes County, 72.7% registered Democrats, went 77.25% for Bush.

It really breaks my heart.