Howdy you Americans

[Lucern]

Funny to see the local Fox channel talk about how the Democratic party is in such shambles. Ohio looks doubtful, the popular vote is for Bush, they took some gerrymandered districts in Texas for the House, as well as some close races for the Senate for a majority (probably). Shambles though? C'mon, worse case scenario: a close race, no Bush mandate, and about 50 million people saying No to Bush. Not enough of course.

btw just heard on NBC that 90% of provisional ballots were valid in another race, as some other stations reported 7-20% could be valid. They also painted Ohio red in "Democracy Plaza" hours ago (literally - they have a big map).

Some good news for American progressives - looks like Pete Coors lost in Colorado. Barak Obama also buried Keyes in Illinois, though no surprise there.

Good news for American regressives (snicker, I kid) - Tom Dachle - Democratic leader - may have been unseated by Thule in South Dakota

[Azred]

Well, Lucern, what number should constitute a "clear mandate"? 100,000? 500,000? 1,000,000?

Fox News seems to be placing Ohio as a Bush victory but CNN is not. Either way, they'll have to wait those long 11 days until all the provisional ballots are counted.

However the vote turns out, allow one recount and then declare a victor. I am so sick and tired of all the wolf-crying by both sides in regards to voter/election fraud. What makes this worse are the stories of personal attacks against opposition party members/vechicles that have allegedly been perpetrated; that is immaturely infantile and gives everyone a black eye. It's only politics, people, not personal.

[Faceman]

CNN called Wisconsin for Kerry, so this leaves only Ohio to decide. I'm going to sleep.
At this point I'd have loved for Dubya to win New Mexico and Wisconsin not because I like him (I don't) but just for this thing to be over

[Donut]

Waiting 4 hours to vote is ridiculous. Surely the answer is to simplify the ballots.

Given that you are voting to elect the most powerful man in the world why not vote on all the other issues on a different day?

[Faceman]

This was not covered on any channel, but I just realized comparing the current standing to the 2000 results that though the Democrats have by now the only ones able to "swing" a state (New Hampshire) their still down compared to 2000, as the "red" states (Texas, Florida,...) seem to have had a larger population increase than the blue states (New York, Pennsylvania) and thus now carry more electoral votes.

Carrying New Hampshire Gore would have won the
election, while today it would not be sufficient for Kerry even if he won New Mexico (like Gore did in 2000).

[Azred]

I can see that few hours of sleep changed nothing. [img]graemlins/laugh3.gif[/img] Apparently the entire election depends upon the provisional ballots in Ohio; the number of such ballots seems to range from 135,000 to 200,000. *sigh*
True to form, both CNN and FNC are showing their colors. FNC is showing Bush 269 Kerry 242 (total 511) while CNN shows Bush 254 Kerry 252 (total 506). They aren't even arriving at the same electoral total! Either they aren't receiving the same poll results or ....

[Cloudbringer]

Just a few notes to correct some misconceptions some folks seem to be under :

Not all voting is done by 'computer'. In my polling place there are mechanical polling machines. In others it's paper ballots etc etc. The voting is easy enough and if you are new to the machine/type of casting your ballot there are people there specifically to make sure things go smoothly and to show you how the machine works (at least in my district!) My husband hadn't used a voting machine like ours before so someone SHOWED him how it works before he voted.

We didn't wait more than the five minutes it took to sign in and show our identification to the clerks and were told that it had been like that most of the day. It did get busier later in the evening, but no hours+ waits, I assure you. Things like that are more the exception than the rule.

All that said, I AM unhappy about how some places are doing absentee ballots. My friend's mom is in Vermont and they allowed her to get an absentee ballot even though she was NOT going to be out of town and was capable of driving or getting driven TO the place she votes! She didn't want to wait in any lines of have to go and park etc... now that's a set up for serious disenfranchisement if ever I saw one...and it surely makes the counting slower if you have MORE absentee ballots from people who could have walked in to vote with everyone else...

[Attalus]

Bush is ahead by 145,000 votes in Ohio. There is no way that even 200,000 provisional votes are going to break that.

[Davros]

Someone has been listening to Fox and Friends [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Sigmar]

Originally posted by Attalus: Bush is ahead by 145,000 votes in Ohio. There is no way that even 200,000 provisional votes are going to break that.

Yeah, I think Kerry oughta throw in the towel and bow out gracefully.

It's over...

(hoping someone will have the oppertunity to use the ol' "They think it's all over...and it is now" line )