Another 2000?

[Lemon Drop]

I suspect this one will not be over on election night.

With Florida and Ohio so tight, I'm expecting it to rain hanging chads, voting machine malfunctions, hand recounts and who knows what else.

[$tevie]

I am not singling you out by any means, but I just don't want to get into this terrible state of foreboding and despair that seems to be sweeping the Democrats all of a sudden.

[Lemon Drop]

$tevie wrote:
I am not singling you out by any means, but I just don't want to get into this terrible state of foreboding and despair that seems to be sweeping the Democrats all of a sudden.

Just looking at the reality of the numbers. I'm not despairing, I still expect and certainly very much hope that the President will win, but not by much. I voted for him today, as a matter of fact.
Only a fool would feel strongly confident of a win at this point.

[Lemon Drop]

http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com...e-florida/

Catching up on Nate - he suggests Obama concede Florida and focus on Ohio and other places instead.

[graylocks]

Lemon Drop wrote:
I suspect this one will not be over on election night.

With Florida and Ohio so tight, I'm expecting it to rain hanging chads, voting machine malfunctions, hand recounts and who knows what else.

earlier today i was having similar thoughts. i do think - hope - Obama prevails but it will not be a slam dunk, it will be a very long night, and it could come down to hand counting votes. my despair concerns the state of the electorate because there is no way a reasoning person should be voting for romney.

[J Marston]

I believe Obama will win, but not by much. If there is a repeat of 2000 (popular and electoral vote discrepancy) it is likely to work in Obama's favor. Both sides are running extremely technical elections, looking at the county level--and the last time this happened, in 2000, we got a very technical outcome. A deadlocked electoral college seems unlikely, but the House would give it to Romney in a small landslide (something like 32-18).

Abolishing the electoral college is long past due, and I would accept almost anything that would lead to its elimination.

[Black]

graylocks wrote:
[quote=Lemon Drop]
I suspect this one will not be over on election night.

With Florida and Ohio so tight, I'm expecting it to rain hanging chads, voting machine malfunctions, hand recounts and who knows what else.

earlier today i was having similar thoughts. i do think - hope - Obama prevails but it will not be a slam dunk, it will be a very long night, and it could come down to hand counting votes. my despair concerns the state of the electorate because there is no way a reasoning person should be voting for romney. I am confident that the reasoning people will not be voting Romney. Whether they make the effort to get their butts to the polls in sufficient numbers is another story...

[rankandfile]

I think the despair stems, in large measure, from the shameless Republican efforts to suppress voting, i.e., ID laws, trashed and altered registrations, reduced voting hours, misallocation of voting machines, incorrect voting information in print and over the phone, ownership of voting machines by Republican contributors (and now in Ohio and elsewhere by Romney's son and other Bain people), etc. The list goes on. And that's just what we know about.

We know Ohio was stolen in 2004; Florida in 2000. I won't recount the facts on those now.

Jimmy Carter says that voting in the US does not meet minimum international standards for integrity and transparency. We have the worst system in the developed world. There are third world countries that could give us lessons in real democracy. We have privatized our voting process, but it's in the hands of a small number of people, not "We the people".

[(vikm)]

Black wrote:
I am confident that the reasoning people will not be voting Romney. Whether they make the effort to get their butts to the polls in sufficient numbers is another story...

I agree with the first part of this. My concern is based on the fact that there may not be enough reasoning people to counter to fools.

[swampy]

Not to worry, rankandfile, the UN will be observing polling places across the land.

http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/263...raud-group

The observers, from countries such as Germany, France, Serbia, Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan, will observe voting at polling places and other political activity.

“They [will] observe the overall election process, not just the ballot casting,” said Giovanna Maiola, spokeswoman for OSCE. “They are focusing on a number of areas on the state level, including the legal system, election administration, the campaign, the campaign financing [and] new voting technologies used in the different states.”

In a follow-up e-mail, Maiola noted that it is a limited election-observation mission. She said “the OSCE has regularly been invited to observe elections in the United States, in line with OSCE commitments.”