Today is the day! (1 Viewer)

[Latex lizzie]

..no not yo la tengo..the election of the century. I just hope (like millions of others around the planet) that reason prevails in the land of the free and Kerry wins. The polls at this point have it at a dead heat of 49% to 49%
Couldn't be more close. After this is all over whoever wins America has a big job of healing the divide. Lets hope they can manage it without too much of a struggle. God bless the U.S.

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-13244609,00.html

 

[SadieOutlaw]

To African Americans:

First of all, let’s just acknowledge what you already know: America is
a country which still has a race problem, to put it nicely. Al Gore would be
president today had thousands of African Americans not had their right to vote
stolen from them in Florida in 2000.
Here is my commitment: I will do everything I can to make sure that
this will not happen again. And I’m not the only one making this pledge.
Thousands of volunteer lawyers are flying to Florida to act as poll watchers and
intervene should there be any attempts to deny anyone their right to vote. They
will NOT be messing around.
For my part, I have organized an army of 1,200 professional and amateur
filmmakers who will be armed with video cameras throughout the states of Florida
and Ohio. At the first sign of criminality, we will dispatch a camera crew to
where the vote fraud is taking place and record what is going on. We will put a
big public spotlight on any wrongdoing by Republican officials in those two
states. They will not get away with this as they did in 2000.
In Ohio, the Republicans are sending almost 2,000 paid “poll
challengers” into the black precincts of Cleveland in an attempt to stop African
Americans from voting. This action is beyond despicable. Do not let this stop
you from voting. I, and thousand of others, will be there to fight for you and
protect you.

from the latest michael moore letter (thanks pete)
does anyone know anything about these "poll challengers" in Cleveland?

 

[Pantone247]

PANTONES PREDICTION:

I have a horrible feeling Bush is going to take it, it'll be in the supreme court and it'll be all done by lawyers and judges killing each over false ballots, sticky out 'chads' and lord knows what other bollox... I don't like it, I just think it.

Here's hoping I'm wrong.

 

[Latex lizzie]

You will most prolly be right. I little bit o me hopes the pollsters are wrong and at the back of it all the majority of america knows that bush is a fucknut and when they are alone in the booth will do the right thing. Come on america lets see you shine like we know you can!

 

[billygannon]

Where did I read that if it is a draw, then Bush will be president and John Edwards will be vice-president.

What do people think of Edwards? My Dad said he was one to look out for last year. I think he was right. He's got a Southern drawl and a winsome smile, and I think he could be aaaaalllllllright.

Kerry, on the other hand, is on the other hand. The two of them together results in a clap.

Anyway, Texas should split from America.

 

[Pantone247]

You will most prolly be right. I little bit o me hopes the pollsters are wrong and at the back of it all the majority of america knows that bush is a fucknut and when they are alone in the booth will do the right thing. Come on america lets see you shine like we know you can!

Well to be honest I think Kerry WILL get the majority of the votes... and the college electorate too... I just don't think he'll win. The Repbulicans, and all of the big business behind them have it too sweet to let it all go because the pesky people say so.

 

[jane]

Here's what will be happening all over the country in a few hours:

Man in voting booth: [To self, in redneck drawl]: Well, lemme see here. Four years ago, ah had a nice house and a good truck, and my wife was pregnant with our third child. And that bastard Clinton was gettin' head like ah never did. Now, ah gots no job, an' ah los' my TEE-vee, an mah truck's up on blocks in the yard, 'cept ah don' own mah house no more.

Hmmmm.....do ah...Kerry? Bush......?

Bush promised me three hunnerd dollar, an' ah bought me a new trailer hitch, which ah didn'a have unner Clinton. Nope, ah never had a trailer hitch 'til Bush.

Kerry promised he'd trah to bring mah son back from Iraq, and make sure my daughter gets a new leg, and maybe ah'll gets me a new job.

Hmmm....do ah....Bush? Kerry?

Well, lemme see now....Kerry likes fags and Jews....fuck that shit. I ain' votin' fer no fag-loving, Jew-humpin' Yankee! Who does he think ah am!?

Yeah, das right. I get three hunnerd dollars, and a new trailer hitch, and a promise to keep that 'L' in our beloved country's flag.

C'maaaaaawn, Dubya! Yee HAW!

And that will be that.

 

[SadieOutlaw]

PANTONES PREDICTION:

I have a horrible feeling Bush is going to take it, it'll be in the supreme court and it'll be all done by lawyers and judges killing each over false ballots, sticky out 'chads' and lord knows what other bollox... I don't like it, I just think it.

Here's hoping I'm wrong.

this is exactly what will happen.............again.
i'm sure bush is relying on all these tricks already and he's had four years to figure out ways to make it less obvious than last time.

 

[Latex lizzie]

How bleak. You sound almost Irish in your opinions today!

 

[jane]

How bleak. You sound almost Irish in your opinions today!

Who, me?

 

[Pantone247]

this is exactly what will happen.............again.
i'm sure bush is relying on all these tricks already and he's had four years to figure out ways to make it less obvious than last time.

BBC4 were repeating My Travels with George, from 2000... and when they go to the bit about the 30 day wait to see who had actually won, I suddenly remembered how depressing it was, how the Whitehouse was basically robbed and how blatantly wrong the whole thing was.

Then I flick over to CNN and some whitehouse suit is crapping on about how absentee ballots don't count and dodgy ID systems .... and it all just sorta went !bing

On the upside I am enyoying Janes raging monolouges here and on the Tee Vee licenece thread, more of this I say!

 

[Latex lizzie]

Who, me?

Naw Janeyhead.

 

[snakybus]

yes "gong farmer", if it's a draw the house of reps picks the president - so it'll be Bush, as the Republicans have the majority, and the senate picks the VP, and if Democrats gain two Senate seats today, they could well pick Edwards

I reckon the two would get on well, they could compare hairdos

actually, maybe it'd be good if Bush got back in, like Bob the Builder getting to number 1 or Mick McCarthy being left in as Ireland manager - the ridiculousness of the situation would fuck things up so badly that it would tear at the very heart of the system that put them there in the first place

the US economy would collapse, prosperity and power would be shared more equally among nations, and we'd all be happy

well maybe not bob the builder

 

[cookiemonster]

from the latest michael moore letter (thanks pete)
does anyone know anything about these "poll challengers" in Cleveland?

read a bit about them on the guardian website here -
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/story/0,13918,1341560,00.html

As the polls opened, the Republican party scored a psychological victory in the key state of Ohio as a federal appeals court ruled that thousands of Republicans could challenge the eligibility of voters at polling sites.

A three-judge panel overturned decisions from two lower courts that had barred the presence of voter challengers in the state, where 20 electoral college votes are up for grabs.

The ruling came as a blow to Democrats, who argued that the presence of voter challengers will intimidate minority voters. The practice of challenging voters is allowed under Ohio state law but has been rarely used. However, parties are resorting to any tactic they think will help.

 

[brikelly]

I drove my wife to our local polling place in New Hampshire this morning. She's a US citizen, but I still only have my Irish passport, so all I could do was watch :-(

Regardless, it was insane. It took me 10 minutes just to get a parking spot, and then she was in line for 30 minutes. We live in a pretty quiet area too. I overheard an older lady outside the building saying that she has never seen any turnout like it.

In comparison - during the presidential primaries she voted at the same time (7:30 am) and there about 4 people in the hall voting at the time. Today there were hundreds.

Kerry will wipe the floor with Bush's smug face.

 

[taubstumm]

the election will be won or lost on turnout. i sincerely hope that this...

Kerry will wipe the floor with Bush's smug face.

...comes true, but it will depend a lot on whose get-out-the-vote machine is better.

what the hell do "poll challengers" do? stand beside people and go "hey! don't vote!" or something?

 

[spiritualtramp]

can someone explain this to me (Jane?).

over here you are on a list of voters , you give your ID and when you vote your name is crossed off - easy enough and there is no fraud reported.

is there some other system in the US, which is why people are challenging voters? what is all this about cartoon characters and dead people being registered?

 

[brikelly]

over here you are on a list of voters , you give your ID and when you vote your name is crossed off - easy enough and there is no fraud reported.

is there some other system in the US, which is why people are challenging voters? what is all this about cartoon characters and dead people being registered?

There are ways to fraud the system, and they include:

- Registering and then voting in multiple states (multiple registrations are not illegal, but multiple votes obviously are!)

- Impersonating a dead voter

- Impersonating a non-existent voter

- Voting without the right to vote (non-citizen, under 18, etc.)

Most problems come from the fact that each of the states rarely communicate with each other, and each fraud except the first listed required fake ID or other such machinery to work. Different counties in different states have different ID requirements too. Ugh!

There is no big country-wide federal registration list, and as such fraud can happen. To curb this, a system of "challenging" has been created to allow for a 3rd party to challenge a voter on the day at the polling station. I think what happens after a challenge is that the challengee gets to vote a "provisional" ballot which is counted once their voting rights have been cleared. I believe that these provisional votes may not be counted by COB today.

However, the "challenges" being applied have been typically quite worrying: some GOP representatives have challenged en masse - for instance, in one county in New Mexico, Republicans got the list of 30-something thousand Hispanic voters last week and challenged the lot. It was thrown out of court, but it's just one example of this "challenge" system being completely up its own arse. Yesterday the Supreme Presidential Selection Court decided to allow Republican challengers into Ohio polling booths to perform personal one-on-one challenges.

Despite all this shite, Kerry is still going to kick Bush's narrow ass.

 

[sarah]

Despite all this shite, Kerry is still going to kick Bush's narrow ass.

I hope so

 

[spiritualtramp]

this site is good

http://www.electoral-vote5.com