In the meantime, we go to work, and watch the Iraq war destroy what is left (perhaps two years) of this presidency.

If the early voting lines, especially in FL, were so long, and the voting lines on Tuesday in southern FL (and all across states like VA, and OH) were the longest anyone had scene since 1960, why then was the total popular vote the same as 2000?

Was the vote really high in Florida but just super low in NY and CA to even out the popular vote?

Why were the exit polls giving Kerry an extra 4% all across the battleground states (FL, OH, NJ, NC, VA)?

Is it possible that in Red states, the state machinery didn't count all the Kerry votes.  Maybe the touch screen systems were "programmed" to drop every fourth Kerry vote and do so only when the date equaled 11/2.

I can't quite figure out how this conspiracy could be done, but on the other hand, the visual evidence seems to suggest there were more voters than would equal the same popular vote number from 2000.

Or maybe Rove really did kick our collective asses fairly - it just smells fishy.  We'll probably never know.

Any thoughts from people who saw these lines?

You can win it, even if you're down two runs at the bottom of the ninth.
You can win it, even if you need two touchdowns at the two-minute warning.
You can win it, down 5 points with the shot clock off and no timeouts.

Hey GWB: Just because you've won the first three games, that doesn't mean you go to World Series.  Not when you're playin' Boston.

Karl, it ain't over till the last whistle blows and the fans go home.  Karl, I got news - we're still here!  We're not gonna have another four years of your home=team-SCOTUS-called-a-rain-out pResident.

Don't tell me its game over.  We're not even to extra innings yet -- we haven't tallied up the score for the first nine! This isn't overtime - it's GAME TIME.

GAME ON, you GOP fascists - GAME MUTHA-F####N' ON!

1. Fight the election results and blame any loss on Republican "cheating." If you recount enough counties Kerry may pick up some votes. In the meantime this effort will continue to erode confidence in our election system and the world view of our elction process.

2. Concede the election and fix the problems within the party. It wasn't just within the Presidental race. The 2002 election was unheard of giving the president in power more seats in congress, now this election only adds on to it. I would argue much of the problems stem from the DNC and DNCC leadership. The next election is only two years away. As the Eagles would say - "Get over it". At this point Kerry will been seen as the instegator if the election turns to the courts.

Overall I would argue the RNC won in the GOTV campaigns in many key areas. Bush exteneded his leads in many red states with a possible pickup in Iowa and NM, while the Kerry camp did good in PA and took back NH, but kept thier states at or below the 2000 level. Overall the popular vote tells the alot of the story.

I just emailed every organization that was campaigning for Kerry telling them to please let John know that we DO NOT wish for him to concede.  CNN seems to be pressuring Kerry to concede.  It is important that we get the message to John that we DO NOT want him to concede until after all the provisional ballots are counted. If the provisional ballots bring the separation to within the .25% margin for a recount, then we need to wait until the recount is completed.  

As hard as it may be to understand. Bush's power over people comes
from fear. This is how he controls. Democrats have got to tap into this.

The other thing is that the Democrats are going to have to find a way
to handle the Christian-right. Many people were discussing this very
thing at the Kerry/Edwards party last night here in Knoxville, TN.

According to the media, the Latino vote in FL didn't help matters. I
really think those Cuban-Americans need to decide whether or not they
live in America or in Cuba with Castro. They are always worried about
Castro, sometimes I think they need to go back to Cuba and live with him.

Here is why!

As a canvasser in Florida, and a Florida resident, I saw the huge turnout in African American communities. I saw police cars parked in front of precints. I was at a precinct where AA voters were challenged using felon lists that were not supposed to be used. I believe there is a discrepancy between the huge voter turnout and the results. The numbers don't add up.

Secondly, if we let them get away with this, then it becomes standard operating procedure for every single election in the future. We let them do it in 2000 and look at the results? Diebold machines with no paper trail!!  Are we going to lie down and let it happen again?

John Kerry and his people could do something great for this country, regardless of whether Kerry wins. They could push REAL election reform. Kerry could wait and NOT concede until every single vote is counted and until there is a thorough investigation of irregularities in Ohio and Florida..and maybe other states as well.  If they do an investigation, something will be found...no matter how minor...and that will be added to the list of reforms we need.

If we let the bullies win, the bullies become MORE bullies. We have to stand firm.

The argument that this isn't good for our country is bull..sorry. Our country is so divided already, it will not hurt to wait to concede. In fact, it will totally destroy what is left of the faith in our system if we don't make sure we know everything before we give up.

I speak as a mom of 4 kids and someone who wants her kids to live in a true democracy where their vote counts.

Bush is truly a pin-headed idiot backed by lizard people, and I think that will become obvious to many more people in the course of the next year or two. Yes, he will probably win this one (fairly or not), and the soldiers, the economy, etc. will suffer, but many of the misled people who still believe in his goofball rhetoric will slowly come to realize that they were wrong.

On to Diebold. Remember this? "I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year." This was stated by Diebold's CEO, Walden O'Dell. Everyone is talking about counting the provisional ballots, but what about the ones we can't count? We have entrusted that job to a company that refuses to tell people exactly how its hardware and software works.

Voting machines are not digital magic. Coming up with a machine that goes "Click" -> one for this guy, "Click" -> one for that guy is not complicated. I mean, these are the people you trust your money to every day (ATMs). However, when you use an ATM, you have a paper receipt and bank records to confirm every transaction. In most cases, there is not receipt or record (available to the public) that shows that every Diebold vote was counted accurately.

I've been listening to the radio all morning, and no one is mentioning this. The provisional ballots  are important, but so are the touch-screen votes.

Blackboxvoting.org sums up one of the major problems (besides the overall open-source issue): "The central servers are installed on unpatched, open Windows computers and use RAS (Remote Access Server) to connect to the voting machines through telephone lines. Since RAS is not adequately protected, anyone in the world, even terrorists, who can figure out the server's phone number can change vote totals without being detected by observers."

For non-geeks, let me translate: "THIS IS BAD."

First of all, they are using Windows. When you think of "security", do you think of the word "Windows"? Yeeaaaahhh . . . . Notorious for crashing, full of security flaws, and closed source, so we can't find the errors and fix them. We just have to trust that the vendor will do it. It would not be that difficult to come up with a Linux-based machine that would be cheaper, more reliable, and that would have source code that any developer could review.

This does NOT mean that open source voting software would be less secure. On the contrary: since anyone can review it, holes are reported much more quickly, and patched more quickly. The developers become MUCH more accountable than closed-source vendors are.

So why didn't we do it that way? $$$$$, ignorance, and fear.

I've yammered on enough for now, but I would very much like to see what everyone else thinks of this issue.