More on Ohio from Fox
From Fox News:
...Iowa, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada and Wisconsin and Hawaii were too close to call at 2 a.m. EST on Wednesday. As of that time, Bush had 269 electoral votes; Kerry had 221. The victor needs 270 to win....
The top Kerry election official in Florida said he knows it's over in the Sunshine State and did not see many litigation prospects there. But, he said, that approach may be applicable in Ohio.
Allegations of voter suppression abounded in the Buckeye State. Kerry campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill said the challenger's camp was not buying the projected tally in the crucial battleground state.
"The vote count in Ohio has not been completed. There are more than 250,000 remaining votes to be counted. We believe when they are, John Kerry will win Ohio," a statement read.
"We're going to count every vote that was cast today and we're going to do it in a bipartisan system … that represents the true will of the people," Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell told FOX News early Wednesday morning.
Blackwell said about 5.8 million to 5.9 million people voted this year — about 1 million more people than 2000. He projected about a 72 percent voter turnout this year, as compared to 63 percent in 2000....
Provisional ballots are not counted until about 11 days after election. If the margin of victory for one candidate or another is comprised of fewer votes than the number of provisional ballots they have, Blackwell said, "that could stretch it out … [But] if it takes two more days, if it takes two more weeks," they will be counted.
Blackwell said about 30 percent more provisional ballots were cast this year than in 2000, estimating that this year's numbers are at about 140,000-150,000 provisional ballots.
Late in the count, the Bush campaign said votes still needed to be counted in Hamilton County, Ohio — a heavily Bush part of the state — and that officials expected their margin to expand, not contract, in the overall raw vote there.
Bob Bennett, Ohio chairman of the Republican Party, said 24,660 provisional ballots were cast in Cuyahoga County. However, the victory by Bush will be so that provisional ballots will not play a role, he said.
Earlier on Tuesday, Kerry spokeswoman Jen Palmieri told FOX News that the Kerry ground force in Ohio had set a new benchmark for any political party. In that state alone, they had 3,200 lawyers and paralegals on standby. Meanwhile, 27,843 volunteers were on standby statewide, 2,829 out-of-staters were in Ohio driving voters to the polls and the campaign had 270 full-time paid staffers in Ohio, as compared with 40 for Gore four years ago....
Comments