Another election year, another Election Day gone by without knowing the results and who will be President of the United States for the next four years. I watched the coverage until 2am last night/this morning, then woke up full of energy at 7am today, eager to see if Kerry’s been holding on in Ohio. And he has, forcing Bush to cancel plans for a victory speech. Keep on cancellin’, Bush.
The current results, according to the San Francisco Chronicle map, stand at 252 electoral votes for Kerry, 254 for Bush. Ironically, Bush seems to have a strong lead in the popular vote with 58,149,401; Kerry holds 54,610,545. Now wouldn’t that be the ultimate karmic feedback if we can pull this off despite trailing in the popular vote?
I’m proud to say that the city of Saratoga Springs favored Kerry 7,017 to 5,353 and that 70% of voters turned out.
The outcome this time around will fall on the shoulders of Ohio, letting Florida off the hook. The current standings show Bush with 2,794,346 and Kerry with 2,658,125. With a difference of just 136,221 votes, there could be up to another 250,000 outstanding votes to count (provisional and absentee ballots), enough to give Kerry the needed edge.
But we may not know for another 11 days, according to election law in Ohio. “Take a deep breath and relax. We can’t predict what the results will be,” Ken Blackwell, Ohio Secretary of State, said last night about the tight race in his state.
Honestly, I question the legitimacy of all those Bush votes. Can we really trust electronic voting machines that don’t create paper confirmation and are manufactured by a company that openly supports Bush and last year promised to “deliver (Ohio’s) electoral votes to the president?” Not just that, but wasn’t Florida supposed to be close? The Bush-run state full of electronic voting machines seemed to be too easy a win.
Let’s just hope Bush gets a taste of his own medicine this time around.
