Republicans won the other two races in VA by a slim margin -*Diebold*

[Tony_FLADEM]

I mean what are the chances both would be within a few thousand votes?

[thinkingwoman]

1. they were planning to win the gov race too

but the margin was too large to overcome.

[tritsofme]

2. It must be fraud

That's the only way Republicans can possibly win any election anywhere in the country.

Everyone knows that.

[rwheeler31]

4. Make them explain that .

nt

[truthisfreedom]

3. maybe some of the 'thugs running were scared of getting caught after all

of the negative exposure that diebold's had.

[Awsi Dooger]

5. The attorney general race is still possible

It will be recounted. I don't pretend to know what's going on there. The numbers have changed several times today even when they don't show any precincts being added. Still 3 precincts outstanding, two in a marginal GOP area and one in a heavy Democratic area so I'm guessing the margin will decrease somewhat prior to the recount. The drift has been in our direction, down from a 3000 vote margin this morning to roughly 1600.

http://sbe.virginiainteractive.org/

Regarding fraud, I agree with tritsofme. In fact, Mondale won.

[flowomo]

6. We win: yay! They win: fraud!

getting tired of that.

[AverageJoe]

8. So, what are your thoughts on Diebold?

2000?
2004?

Just askin'.

[flowomo]

9. don't like machines.... not a "they stole it" believer

[Awsi Dooger]

10. I agree, and IMO unfair to lump 2000 with 2004

In 2000 we obviously got screwed. Gore won that state by at least 25,000 to 50,000 if voter intent had matched actual tallied votes. It was a combo or forfeit and theft, the latter especially when you include the "cleansed" voter rolls.

In theory, machines should actually help us. That was the conventional wisdom post-2000 and why I'm reluctant to cynically denounce them. Who knows how many elections we lost via discarded punch card ballots. Ohio had plenty of that in 2004. In fact, if actual numbers were known and could be unveiled tomorrow I'd love to bet anyone on this board we lost more Ohio votes to punch cards than Diebold flipping. I'd have so much the best of it, it would be hysterical.

Of course machines should be paper verified and software checked. No one here would dispute that, I don't think. I prioritize the aspect that the machine counts every vote over any fear the vote will be nullified or switched. The vast percentage of DUers obviously disagree.

Two major factors after the 2000 sham: 9/11 and Republican improvement in GOTV emphasis and strategy. IMO those impacted the 2002 and 2004 results, not machines. We lost bigtime in party identification as a result of 9/11 and the ground game edge we had in '96 thru '00 was emulated and perhaps improved upon.

On edit: it really is incredible to me the Diebold fervor around here. Right now on the front page in General Discussion there is an Ohio thread with the original poster asking Ohioans to rummage through trash cans and even general dump sites, looking for evidence of vote tallies. And those are atop the list of priorities, not secondary.

[flowomo]

7. oops... didn't mean that as a reply to your post, but the OP