Ohio have a new ally: the John Kerry campaign

[bufffbison]

http://www.foxreno.com/politics/3967660/detail.html

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Third-party presidential candidates who want a recount of the vote in Ohio have a new ally: the John Kerry campaign.

A federal court hearing is set for Friday in Columbus on the suit brought by the Green and Libertarian party candidates.

A Kerry campaign lawyer says it joined the suit because it wants any counting to take place statewide. A judge has ruled that must wait until Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell certifies the vote, probably Monday.

The Kerry campaign doesn't dispute his loss in Ohio but says any recount should be accurate and complete.

In addition, a group alleging election fraud says it will challenge the Ohio results. A House committee Democratic staff investigation is probing possible "irregularities" and the Government Accountability Office is seeking another investigation.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. Ahhh...the delightful aroma of...

Frogs in boiling water. Such a feast to partake of. ;-)

[bufffbison]

2. mmmmmm

elephant sure tastes good!

[OldLeftieLawyer]

3. (reloading, smiling)

This is how it starts......

[floridaguy]

4. Double voting should be an issue!

I live in SW Fla where thousands of people own a second home in Ohio. I've heard them joking about voting twice.

Is anyone looking into this? And can someone help me understand why it's perfectly legal to be registered to vote in two states? It's only illegal to VOTE in both states, but all officials admit that NO ONE is checking whether this is occurring.

[BareskinMatt]

6. Was party affiliation mentioned?

Were these dems or repubs that were double dipping?

[texpatriot2004]

5. The Kerry campaign shows up right on schedule...

I don't know the schedule exactly but I expected this all along.

[Imperialism Inc.]

7. But to be clear....

Since there seems to be a whole lot of misunderstanding on this issue I wanted to clarify.

First, I want to say up front that I am thrilled that Kerry/Edwards are getting involved in the Delaware OH case. Their help is certainly needed. Delaware is trying to get out of doing the recount at all and could easily set a precedent for other counties in OH.

However, at this point there is basically zero chance that Ohio will appoint Kerry electors to the college instead of Bush electors.

The deadline that we are dealing with is December 13th. The Cobb volunteers (of which I am one) are going to start training on the weekend of Dec 11 & 12. The reason for this is that the recount will not start until after the vote is certified which is just now occuring here.

In order to start a recount that would finish in time for Dec 13th you have to show that a recount will end up making you win the race. Cobb, with 24 votes statewide (yes 24), obviously cannot and couldn't show that to be the case. Therefore , the Ohio court ruled that he had to wait until after the certified vote to get his recount. The only campaign that could have possibly forced a pre-Dec 13th recount was Kerry/Edwards. They didn't try and now it is too late for that.

Some legal types have said that perhaps Dec 13th is not a drop-dead date after all. That perhaps through litigation they could change that. I have no way to judge that claim. Clearly the plaintiff in such a claim is not going to come out and admit it is a long shot. but it is my lay-person understanding that it is a long shot at best and certainly not the prevailing opinion of the legal community.

At this point it is almost certainly too late to change Ohio but the recount is still important to insure the integrity of the process. And Kerry/Edwards help is still most needed and appreciated.

[Threedifferentones]

8. December 13th is important but not supreme.

Even past the deadline of December 13th, if voting fraud or miscounting is proved it would send the nation into an uproar, and maybe even a Constitutional crisis since the Consitution has no provision (at least I don't remember one) for such an eventuality. This would be powerful since it would not only influence public opinion of Bush and his "mandate", but it could even overturn the results beyond the deadline.

3DO

[Imperialism Inc.]

10. Arnebeck

From an interview I watched with Arnebeck( of Alliance for Democracy )earlier it seems that Arnebeck will possibly be litigating this deadline. He files tomorrow ... well officially today actually Dec 3.

[daleo]

9. Even if this is true, a recount that showed Kerry won

Would make impeaching Bush much more likely, when he gets caught in some criminal conspiracy in the second term. If the population knows he was the Accidental President again, they would be much more on their guard. As well, it would reduce his sense of mandate, and perhaps reign in his crazier supporters.

Well, it doesn't hurt to be optimistic.

[Moderator]

11. Duplicate

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1034449