It's very possible we will not know who won for weeks after

[HeldsBelds]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10554-2004Oct29.html

One of the biggest problems may be provisional ballots, which will be given to voters whose names do not appear on election rolls -- and which are being mandated for the first time nationwide by federal election reform legislation.

Hundreds of thousands of such ballots are expected to be cast nationally. But election officials cannot count those ballots until they have been reviewed for voter eligibility after Election Day. States provide different deadlines for conducting those tallies.

In Ohio, officials are predicting nearly a quarter of a million provisional ballots, and local election boards have until Dec. 1 to count them all. In 2000, Bush won Ohio by 165,000 votes.

"If it's close, you are likely not to know the winner for a month," said Carlo Loparo, a spokesman for Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell (R).

The special ballots caused delays in one race in 2002, setting back for five weeks the declaration of a winner in a Colorado congressional race.

[swag]

1. Everything has to be real Freepy up around Freeperville,

to cop some phraseology from Charles Manson.

[Raster]

2. Nope. It's gonna be a LANDSLIDE. There will be NO QUESTION...

...in anyone's mind who the legally elected, legitimate President of the United States is. That's going to be $hrubco's problem. The people will speak so loud and clear their voice will not be silenced. No amount of smoke and mirrors will obscure the results. Bring it on.

[ProudDad]

3. or MONTHS if it's close

We have an appallingly undemocratic system anyway. We're the laughing stock of the civilized world because of it.

I'm afraid that it'll probably take a near revolution to change it...

:shrug:

[NAO]

4. A Serious Rout could be called...even without Provisional Ballots

If Kerry's lead is greater than the number of outstanding provisional ballots, he could be declared the winner before the provisional ballots are reconciled.

Similarly, if Kerry has taken more than enough states to win, Bush could challenge 3 or 4 and be granted those states, but leaving Kerry with 270+ EV.

This is what I'm hoping for...