Get Fucking Over It
 

I read the earlier discussion, which is why I put the word "unsubstantiated" in my post.

Look, I had no problem with the three recounts in the Vo / Helfin race. I had no problem with the room full of Republicans looking over everyone's shoulders during the recount, after all they're all elected officials who are there to make sure the election goes smoothly. There were 14 Replublicans and 4 Democrats in that room during the recount. And Vo still managed to win.

I have a problem with the fact that not a vote has been singled out as having been cast in error, and they still have asked the legislature to put the election results aside and declare Heflin the winner or call for a new election. The closest thing to an allegation of voter fraud that Andy Taylor (Heflin's lawyer) has been able to come up with is that some voters did not reside in Harris county, which, unfortunately for Andy Taylor, is perfectly ok under state election law.

I also object to the challenge of the election of Houston state Sen. Mario Gallegos by his ex-mistress, who ran a write-in campaign. I sort of understand that one a bit better though.

Get Fucking Over It
 

Rossi won the first count by hundreds.

Rossi won the recount by 42.

Gregoire won the second recount by about 200. During that recount, several thousand "lost" ballots were "found". Democratic election judges examined ballots again, for "intent", and switched quite a few to Gregoire, including quite a few in which BOTH candidates' names were blackened. ("She voted for a Democratic city hall candidate, so she MUST have meant to vote for Gregoire.")

It's a little . . . . strange.

Motherfucking asshole (cont'd)
 

Wait - am I to understand that Tom DeLay will be proposing legislation to outlaw televangelists?

Kewl.

Get Fucking Over It
 

Well, they are saying that 260 people voted who don't live there. But, that's . . . okay . . . . where you are?

Get Fucking Over It
 

Something like that, I think. I haven't followed it. I recall seeing new vote counts keep trickling out, in supposedly Dem hotbeds, that put them over the top. I was being lazy in terms of looking up the facts, so maybe I'm geting all of this wrong, but really i was looking for the justification advanced by the "get over it" crowd for a case where the GOP side was not getting over it and instead asking for a revote. Do you think a close election result is grounds for a revote, as opposed to a recount? Those strike me as far different reactions.

Get Fucking Over It
 

Frankly, I think we should go to the British system on recounts. Which is - there are none. (Of course, that is partly because there are no long transition periods between British governments in which recounts could take place.) In any election where the margin is sufficiently slim that a recount could matter, the results probably fall within the margin of error, and the recount itself will just produce other results that fall within the margin of error. And, since most recounts are done by hand, they tend to be less accurate than initial automated counts, and thus have an even larger margin of error. And, if there are recounts at all, the losing side has an incentive to keep asking for multiple recounts until they get one favoring their side. Which they eventually will, just as a statistical probability. And that result will be no more legitimate, and very probably less legitimate, than the original tally.

Get Fucking Over It
 

§ 11.004. VOTING IN PRECINCT OF FORMER RESIDENCE. A
registered voter who changes residence to another election precinct in the same county, if otherwise eligible, may vote a full ballot in the election precinct of former residence until the voter's registration becomes effective in the new precinct if the voter satisfies the residence requirements prescribed by Section 63.0011 and submits a statement of residence in accordance with that section.

And that number keeps changing AND not a single person has been named as an illegal voter. Taylor won't tell anyone who he thinks voted illegally, though he supposedly has a list.

Get Fucking Over It
 

So, the 260 all moved away but came back to vote?

I wouldn't think that the people who voted per that statute would be a large group.

But it IS Texas . . . .

Get Fucking Over It
 

Something like that, which inherently gives at least some support to a challenge, assuming there were substantial reports of problems at polling places. If even a tiny percentage of those reports is accurate, that could be decisive. This is like the situation in Florida in 2000 -- a very small margin, and lots of reports of problems (going far beyond the "old people too stupid to vote right" issue).

I'm Over It
 

Awright, now you made me google:
"Then King County happened to find over 700 ballots which hadn't been counted. They were absentee ballots which had been received by the county, rejected, and locked in a cage in a warehouse. It turned out they were rejected because the voters' signatures hadn't been scanned into the county elections board's computer system. Procedure in these cases is to get the voter registration form and manually check the signature using that. However, the staff members verifying the signatures had just rejected the ballots instead. The County recognized its error during the recount and started validating signatures."

So these weren't ballots found floating in the bay, SF-style. Erroneously rejected seems different than "lost" to me, but I am relying on one admittedly one-sided website.

Voter intent was assessed in GOP counties too (and checked by canvassing boards, so they weren't just relying on the integrity of single partisan officials). Assessing intent seems like a easy way to invite fraud charges to me, but that's how it was laid down in the election laws and by the WA Sec of State.

I don't care to take up much more bandwidth on this, so anyone else can have the last word.

A couple of problems in here: the election is likely to lead to a definition of a limited number of major regional players who will be factors in the "civil" war, not a unified government ready to take a position as "the" government. Iraq's parties are not going to be parties in the western sense, but instead collections of regional or religious interests. Don't be surprised if there some split in the armed forces/police along similar lines, at least practically. There will then be a number of similar factions outside the government in varying degrees of outright warfare.

Also, if there is a complete election, there is a not insignificant chance that the winners would be anti-American or at least anti-occupation; America needs to have its allies win, so it will be in our interests to exclude or minimize the role of some players in this election. It's going to be interesting to see the role the Iraqi government plays in American disengagement, and the fight that erupts between our clients, who have their hold on power much strengthened by our presence, various nationalist and regionalist groups, and various internationalist groups (e.g., allies of Iran).

I think the analysis is right when it says that we uncorked a civil war that is now inevitable. But we're going to try to determine who wins that civil war, and that little bit of messiness is not going to be pretty.

What the hell were the Neocons thinking?

Get Fucking Over It
 

Rossi ran for office in Harris County, Texas? No wonder he lost in Washington.

(In other words, I think your response to RT may be misdirected.)

Get Fucking Over It
 

Does this mean you can't vote at all (statewide and national elections included) unless you vote in your old precinct? Seems to me that if the registration isn't effective in the new precinct yet the person would be effectively disenfranchised without this provision, which may be an answer to Bilmore's surprise at how many people were doing this.

This would have made more sense as a reply to bil but I also wanted to commend you on your Butters quote sig line. It cracks me up every time I think of it.

Get Fucking Over It
 

260? Who are these 260 people, I wonder. You would think that they would have been highlighted and discarded during the recount.

Get Fucking Over It
 

He was also quoting club's subject line from way back when we were talking about the congressional battle over the Ohio electoral votes. I think this is the posting version of a movie montage.