Put aside for a moment Ken Blackwell's manipulation of the electoral process, with deliberate shortchanging of pro-Kerry precincts on voting machines, ten-hour long lines at pro-Kerry polling places, outside in a driving rainstorm throughout the state, plenty of voting machines in the Republican suburbs, "security" lockdowns keeping neutral observers out, etc.
Focus on those ballots Ohioans managed to cast despite the numerous obstacles Republican officials put in their way. Considering only punchcard undervotes; uncounted provisional ballots; punchcards for one precinct used in punch machines for another precinct, with a different odering of candidates; and other ballots actually cast, might a recount conceivably find enough extra Kerry votes and wrongly counted votes for Bush to overcome Dubya's certified 119,000-vote lead?
That is the proposition Cliff Arnebeck must demonstrate in his filing to the Ohio Supreme Court before Ohio electors meet tomorrow.
What do you think?
From
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/comment/story/0,14259,1368855,00.html?gusrc=rss"Jesse Jackson: In Cleveland as in Kiev
The Guardian Wednesday December 8, 2004
Ohio is this election year's Florida. The vote in Ohio decided the presidential race, but it was marred by intolerable, and often partisan, irregularities and discrepancies. US citizens have as much reason as those in Kiev to be concerned that the fix was in....
there was a stark disconnect between the exit polls and the tabulated results - the former favouring John Kerry, the latter Bush. The chance of this occurring in these three states, according to Professor Steven Freeman of the University of Pennsylvania, is about 250 million to one.
Ellen Connally, an African-American supreme court candidate running an underfunded race at the bottom of the ticket, received over 100,000 more votes than Kerry in four counties. She ran better than Kerry in areas where she wasn't known and didn't campaign, than she did where she was known and did.
There should be a federal investigation of the count in Ohio and a recount should be done where possible, supervised by neutral officials...."