Shameless

Let's get this straight right off the bat. Ohio 2004 is NOT a repeat of Florida 2000. There is no comparison between the two. Florida had a margin of about 1,500 in favor of Bush when Gore asked for his first recount. With a margin that small, asking for a recount was entirely reasonable. So they recounted the whole state and Bush's margin went down to about 500 votes. That's where Gore should have stopped, but let's not get into all that.

With all precincts reporting, Bush leads Kerry in Ohio by about 136,000 votes. Obviously, no recount is going to overcome that. So the Dems are trying to say that there are 250,000 "uncounted" votes in Ohio. I'm sure they're talking about provisional ballots.

Provisional ballots are ready made for voter fraud. If you show up at the polls and they don't let you vote because your name isn't on the list, or it shows that you've already voted or whatever… you can get a provisional ballot. You "vote" with that provisional ballot and it goes into a pile for later inspection and verification. So what we apparently have here is a bunch of Democrats who, knowing that Ohio would be close, maneuvered within the system to make sure there were a bunch of "uncounted" ballots out there. Now they're going to repeat the refrain from 2000 that "every vote should count" even though the vast majority of those provisional ballots are probably fraudulent. It appears that they're going to hold up the entire American election process with their army of lawyers once again.

If this is indeed the Democratic strategy, it is a shameful piece of electioneering. The most important number right now is the exact number of provisional ballots issued in Ohio. If it's really 250,000, this could be another nightmare. I want to know exactly how many provisional ballots are out in Ohio, and how many were out by comparison in 2000. Maybe, just MAYBE... Kerry will have the grace to give this thing up before he makes a complete disgrace of himself. We can always hope, I suppose. But if this goes on past noon today, and the Dems are still crying about provisional ballots, then they are trying to steal this election.

This election has been decided. Bush has won the popular vote by 3.5 million votes. He has already won Ohio, and he is going to win Iowa, New Mexico and Nevada. The final electoral margin is most likely 290-248. Like it or not, that is a decisive Bush win. If Kerry and the Democrats refuse to accept that fact and continue to contest this election over provisional ballots, then they are putting their own desperation for power ahead of the interests of the country. But did you really expect anything less from these guys?