Last night Virginia's (not-so) great junior Senator, the (not-so) brilliant George Allen, prior to introducing the (not-so) triumphant Jerry Kilgore for his (not-s0) humble concession speech, declared that both Bill Bolling and Bob McDonnell had won their races.Whoa, George, hold up there just a minute cowboy!
As of this morning, the margin between the Bob McDonnell and Creigh Deeds was less then 1%. I watched the vote totals all day today, as the margin fluctuated from 1,900 votes to 2,100 and down to 1,400. As of 6:07 pm tonight, the margin was around 1,500 votes.
Currently outstanding are two districts in James City, which went narrowly for Tim Kaine yesterday. Included is a group of absentee voters.
By the way, as we await the REAL results of this election, I think it's important to keep in mind that "Taliban Bob" McDonnell outraised Creigh Deeds by $4.6 million to $2.5 million, yet still couldn't manage more than a tie. All that funny money, and McDonnell couldn't even buy a win? That's amazing. It's also an extremely impressive showing for Deeds, his staff, and all of his supporters. Congratulations to all of them for running a great race, despite the financial disadvantage.
Meanwhile, Deeds has put together a team for a recount. Deeds has the right to call for a recount if the margin of his loss is less than 1%. Currently, the margin is 0.08%, much less than required. Once results are certified later this month, the recount can begin.
For every person who supported Creigh Deeds - and for ever Virginian, for that matter -- I sure hopes he does request a recount. We need to make sure that every vote is counted here in Virginia. We need to make sure that each vote matters as much as any other. We also need the pleasure of watching George Allen and Bob McDonnell eat their presumptuous, arrogant words!
I remember people saying this in Florida in 2000. In fact, I protested at W's first inauguration, waiving a sign that said "Count All Votes" with thousands of my closest friends.
The reality, however, is that the recount in Florida if it had proceeded would not even have picked up for Gore the 800 votes that he needed.
It defies belief that a magic 8000 votes that no one saw before are going to turn up.
And don't forget. We do not have paper trail voting machines in Fairfax County. A recount will simply give you the exact same number as the initial count.
Somehow this situation does not seem very promising for Deeds.
Remember Ellen Sauerbrey, the Republican candidate for governor in Maryland? She insisted for years later that she had actually won, even after members of her own party were laughing at her.
Sometimes it is hard to let go.
Deeds spent $0 to win the (nonexistant) Democrat Primary.
Subtracting those numbers from the total raised, McDonnell had an advantage of about $100,000.
A money advantage it is, but "HUGE" it isn't.
Wow, looks like less than 1% to me.
A recount will be coming.
No should be claiming victory yet.
I would like to know more about the irregularities with voting machines in Roanoke County? What is up with that. I suppose they are looking into it, but how easy is to tamper with the machines?
This is an interesting article on the problems with these machines.
http://newstandardnews.net/content/?action=show_item&itemid=2585
The longer people look for these errors without finding them, the more likely that no further errors exist.
It may be that the easiest errors to identify get found first. The easiest errors to identify are the biggest ones, because the biggest ones are the most likely to produce anomalies.
Finding onesies and twosies here and there cannot help Creigh.
That says everything right there!!!