For sharpening the debate until the choices bled, for reframing reality to match his design, for gambling his fortunes—and ours—on his faith in the power of leadership, George W. Bush is TIME’s 2004 Person of the Year

You need a Time subscription to read the full story, but you can catch the excerpts here.

The Nevada Appeal reports that Nevada elector John Marvel said he and other electors got letters from Democrats urging them to defect and switch their votes to Kerry:

“I filed my letter you know where,” he added.

From California Yankee.

The Washington Supreme Court has issued an order rejecting the petition of the Washington State Democratic Party to order a reexamination of previously disqualified absentee and provisional ballots in the recount for Washington’s gubernatorial election.

The Associated Press reports the court said that under Washington law, “ballots are to be ‘retabulated’ only if they have been previously counted or tallied” thereby excluding those ballots that had been disqualified by canvassing boards.

From California Yankee.

The Associated Press reports that one of Minnesota’s 10 presidential electors cast a vote for John Edwards, Kerry’s vice presidential running mate:

Most electors chalked the vote up as a mistake rather than a purposeful political statement.

“I’m sure somebody made a mistake,” said elector Michael Meuers of Bemidji. “I’m certainly glad that the Electoral College is not separated by one vote.”

I don’t see how it could be a mistake. According to the Associated Press, the Minnesota electors wrote their candidate’s name on an 8½-inch-by-11-inch sheet of paper and put the ballots in a pine box.

From California Yankee.

In a totally expected move, the North Carolinian Electors through their 15 Votes to President Bush.

William Trotter (R-9th district elector) stated, “It’s a great historic occasion, one that’s very important to me, to get to vote for our President George W. Bush.”

While Trotter cast a vote for the Charlotte area, Judy Keener
(R-13th district elector) cast the first-ever vote for North Carolina’s new 13th Congressional district.

“We should be very thankful for our process and the freedom that
we have to do all this," Keener said.

In somewhat related news, the voting machine problem in Carteret County, which should end up causing a complete re-vote for the position of Secratary of Agriculture, has been discussed in terms of a complete overhaul of the way voting is performed in NC. The Commission is looking for a more uniform system.

Cross Posted at the Pirate’s Cove.

The Associated Press reports that the Elections Director in Seattle’s King County said Monday that hundreds of absentee ballots were mistakenly rejected in the heavily Democratic County:

Logan said election workers mistakenly rejected 561 absentee ballots because they thought signatures on the ballots did not match original voter registration records.

However, he said that the signatures simply were not on file in the county’s computerized voter registration system and that original registration records should have been checked.

“We need to correct the error and count those votes,” Logan said in a statement.

From California Yankee.

Bernard Kerik, the man tapped by President Bush to head the Department of Homeland Security, has withdrawn his name from consideration, saying he wants to avoid a political battle over the immigration status of his former housekeeper.

“I am convinced that, for personal reasons, moving forward would not be in the best interests of your administration, the Department of Homeland Security or the American people,” the former New York police commissioner wrote in a letter to Bush.

Kerik’s letter to the president did not mention the immigration issue. In a statement, however, he said the questions arose as he was completing documents required for Senate confirmation.

Read more…

The Associated Press reports that Al Sharpton was paid $86,715 travel and consulting fees by the Democratic National Committee to campaign for Kerry and other Democratic candidates.

From California Yankee.

The Associated Press reports that a survey conducted by the Quinnipiac Polling Institute found that former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani was the favorite among Republicans and U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton were Floridians top choices for the 2008 presidential race.

From California Yankee.

The New York Times reports that Hillary Rodham Clinton faces a problem that has dogged her since her days as first lady: an entrenched bloc of voters simply do not like her:

One poll after another shows that roughly one of three New Yorkers has an unfavorable opinion of Mrs. Clinton, a statistic that has not changed since she took office in 2001.

Nationally, her standing is worse, even as her aides prepare for what is emerging as a possible bid for president in 2008. Roughly 4 of 10 Americans disapprove of her, according to a recent poll by the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion.

The voters who disapprove of Mrs. Clinton are numerous and unshakable, and they have been around so long that they even have a name in political circles. Hillary haters.

From California Yankee.

Well I sure hope that was a X amount of dollars spent by the Democrat Party as evident here and at John Kerry’s own site

You can find the recount data for Ohio State here

Now I’m going to compare data with CNN’s Election 2004 November 2nd Count here

Bush Nov 2
2,796,147
Bush Recount
2,858,727
Bush gain in recount
+62,580

Kerry Nov 2
2,659,664
Kerry Recount
2,739,952
Kerry’s Gain in recount
+80,288

Vote Differences between the two candidates Post-Recount
Bush over Kerry by 118,775
November 2 Differences
Bush over Kerry by 136,483

So reviewing all that data, Bush’s lead has slightly declined but Kerry would still have not won unless he had won almost 100% of the provisional votes. Now, my democrat friends, please stop calling for recounts, it only come back to bite you in the ass (Gore 2000 and now Kerry 2004).

Thank you and good day.

resident Bush will nominate former New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik as the next secretary for homeland security, FOX News confirmed Thursday.

Bush is expected to name Kerik in an announcement Friday.

If confirmed by the Senate, Kerik, who was chosen to train the Iraqi police force after Saddam Hussein’s departure, will be responsible for running a collection of 22 disparate federal agencies with more than 180,000 employees.

Read more…

This came via email … check it out and draw your own conclusions.

The Washington Post reports that on Tuesday the Kerry presidential campaign asked an Ohio judge to allow it to join the legal fight over whether one county can decline to participate in the state’s impending recount:

A pair of third-party presidential candidates, who said that reports of problems at the polls on Election Day are not being addressed, are forcing the Buckeye State to recount its entire presidential vote. But David A. Yost, a lawyer for Delaware County, just outside Columbus, won a temporary restraining order last week blocking any recount there. He told the Columbus Dispatch that a second count would be a poor use of county resources. President Bush won the mostly Republican area handily, unofficial results show.

Lawyers for the Kerry campaign asked to join Green Party presidential candidate David Cobb, Libertarian candidate Michael Badnarik and the National Voting Rights Institute in the fight to force the county to participate in the recount. “If there’s going to be a recount in Ohio, we don’t want it to exclude Delaware County or any other county that might decide to follow Delaware County’s lead,” Kerry lawyer Dan Hoffheimer said. “It should be a full, fair and accurate recount.”

From California Yankee.

The NC State Board of Elections has made a decision regarding the Nov. 2nd election problems in Carteret County, where a voting machine did not record thousands of votes. Memory set incorectly. They have "voted 4-1 to allow allow participation in the special  election by early voters whose ballots were lost, along with those  who did not vote Nov. 2."

By a 3-2 margin, board members initially
voted down motions to allow a revote by the Carteret voters whose
ballots were lost and to hold a new agriculture commissioner election
in that county.

Board members then voted 3-2 in favor of calling
a new statewide election for agriculture commissioner. But because four
votes were required for passage of that measure, it also failed.

That left the board at an apparent impasse and members called a recess. They
later returned and cast the final vote in favor of the special election
in Carteret County.

This is good news. No full North Carolina re-vote. Will only happen in Carteret County, and, in my opinion, that is the way it should be. Furthermore:

The board also rejected a protest over
ballots cast outside voters’ precincts and unanimously certified
Democrat June Atkinson as the winner of the race for state
superintendent of public instruction. Atkinson led her race by 8,535
votes over Republican Bill Fletcher.

However, it is going to be a long, drawn out court battle on that one.

Cross posted, no spin, same story, at the Pirate’s Cove.

The Associated Press reports that Dino Rossi was certified as the winner of Washington’s race for governor, but the contest isn’t over:

“A recount is almost a certainty,” said Secretary of State Sam Reed, the state’s chief elections officer.

Reed declared Rossi defeated Democrat Christine Gregoire by just 42 votes out of 2.8 million cast. But on Friday, the Democrats are expected to request a hand recount of some or all of the ballots. That could extend the uncertainty until Christmas.

From California Yankee.

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge is resigning, FOX News confirmed Tuesday. He is expected to announce his decision at a 2:45 p.m. EST press conference.

In an e-mail circulated to senior Homeland Security officials, Ridge praised the department as “an extraordinary organization that each day contributes to keeping America safe and free.” He also said he was privileged to work with the department’s 180,000 employees “who go to work every day dedicated to making our company better and more secure.”

Government officials, speaking on grounds of anonymity because a formal announcement was pending, confirmed his resignation.

Ridge was responsible for the implementation of the Homeland Security Advisory System.

The Bush administration - since its Nov. 2 presidential election victory - has already accepted the resignations of Attorney General John Ashcroft, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Commerce Secretary Don Evans, Education Secretary Rod Paige, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham.

Update:

Among those mentioned as possible candidates for Ridge’s replacement are Bernard Kerik, interim Minister of the Interior for Iraq and former New York City police commissioner, former Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Joe Allbaugh and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Mike Leavitt and White House homeland security adviser Fran Townsend. Others are also believed to be interested in the job, including Asa Hutchinson, undersecretary for border and transportation security in the Homeland Security Department.

The New York Times reports that President Bush nominated Carlos M. Gutierrez to be Secretary of Commerce:

President Bush on Monday nominated Carlos M. Gutierrez, among the most prominent Hispanic business executives in the United States, to be his commerce secretary, as the president continued with what Republicans said would be a broad overhaul of his cabinet.

Mr. Gutierrez, 51, has been chief executive of the Kellogg Company, the cereal maker, for more than five years, and has built a reputation as an innovative and forceful business leader with broad international experience. But he has little background in public policy, leaving him largely unknown in political circles and untested by the demands of a high-profile job in Washington.

“He understands the world of business, from the first rung on the ladder to the very top,” Mr. Bush said, with Mr. Gutierrez at his side in the Roosevelt Room at the White House. “He knows exactly what it takes to help American businesses grow and to create jobs.”

From California Yankee.

David Cobb (G) and Michael Badnarik (L) have filed to recount NM and NV.

There’s a detailed count of the provisional OH ballots (not related to the OH recount) here.

The GAO has agreed to investigate election irregularities.

AP’s Ohio Election Still Contested

(Same report here as “One Month Later, Fight Over Ohio Continues”; Keith Olbermann comments here.)

Olbermann’s previous report (11/21) includes the following concerning the Berkeley study:

Also, a less biased source might want to investigate the claims made in “Voting Machines Count Backwards in Okla.”

And, from NE’s WOWT: “Sarpy County election officials are trying to figure out how they ended up with more votes than voters in the general election. As many as 10,000 extra votes have been tallied and candidates are still waiting for corrected totals… Johnny Boykin lost his bid to be on the Papillion City Council. The difference between victory and defeat in the race was 127 votes.” An interesting computer error may be involved.

The Boston Globe reports that John Kerry plans to set up a federal campaign committee, Friends of John Kerry, which would allow him to seek a fifth term in the US Senate in 2008 while not precluding another run for president that year.

The Committee will be a vehicle for fund-raising for either campaign.

According to the Globe, Kerry transferred all the money from his previous committee to his presidential campaign committee after retaining his Senate seat in 2002 and Kerry could do the same should he decide against seeking reelection in favor of a second bid for the presidency.

From California Yankee.

The State Board of Elections certified nearly all results from the Nov. 2 election on Tuesday, but withheld approval of the outcome of two statewide races that are the subject of protests.

In a five-minute teleconfernce, the board members signed off on the final results for scores of races, including President Bush’s victory over John Kerry and wins by Gov. Mike Easley and Richard Burr for U.S. Senate.

The board declined to make final the results in the races for agriculture commissioner and superintendent of public instruction. Also still pending are certified outcomes of two District Court races and one legislative race.

Here is the kicker:

Protest hearings on those and other contests have been set for Nov. 30. The elections board could call for a new election, either just in Carteret County or statewide, to resolve the disputed Council of State races. The board also could seek a re-vote by people in Carteret County whose ballots were lost.

A new election would not be held until late February at the earliest.

Considering that a new statewide revote would cost over $3 million, let’s go for a re-vote in only the disputed areas, particularly Carteret County. And, it looks like a re-vote will only include the positions that are disputed. It will not be a general election.

Cross posted (exactly the same, not spinning this, rather cut and dry) at me Dreadnaught.

A private jet that was en route to Houston to pick up former President Bush clipped a light pole and crashed Monday as it approached Hobby Airport in thick fog, killing all three people aboard.

The Gulfstream G-1159A jet, coming into Houston, went down about 6:15 a.m. in an undeveloped area 1½ miles south of the airport, officials said. The former president had been scheduled to travel to Ecuador for a conference.

“I was deeply saddened to learn of the plane crash this morning,” Bush said through spokesman Tom Frechette. “I’d flown with this group before and know them well. I join in sending heartfelt condolences to each and every member of their families.”

Read more..

From the Boston Globe:

SALISBURY, N.C. — A community college instructor who was suspended for showing “Fahrenheit 9/11” in class the week before the presidential election is offering no apologies and says he was unfairly punished.

Davis March showed the Michael Moore documentary critical of President Bush to his film class. Administrators pulled the plug on the movie with about 20 minutes left when March tried to show it to English composition students.

“This story is now about academic freedom . . . the movie is ancient history,” said March, who served a four-day suspension and returned Nov. 2 to Rowan-Cabarrus Community College, about 45 miles northeast of Charlotte.

School officials said March disobeyed orders by refusing to meet with administrators before showing the film, but March said no instruction to seek permission had been issued.

Was this even legal to show it? There is a disclaimer on the video that restricts “unauthorized reproduction, distribution, or exhibition of copyrighted motion pictures, videotapes, or videodisks.”

Cross posted with spin at me Corsair.

From their press release:

ComputerWorld has a report similar to the press release here. The study gets dismissed here.

The study itself is available here. Perhaps someone who’s familiar with statistics can weigh in.

UPDATE: CalInsider publishes a reader email about the study here. Keith Olbermann discusses the study here.

UPDATE 2: Wired has a report including a few quotes here. The blog Who Really Won? is covering these topics. The 11/20 entry here (no permalink) raises potential problems with the study. This says the CalInsider letter is from Dafydd ab Hugh, an author. There’s a MetaFilter thread on the study here.

The study is discussed from a statistics perspective here; perhaps someone who’s familiar with the field could give a summary. That last link includes several other links, charts, etc.

Potential statistics-oriented problems are presented here, here, here, and here.

The AP’s report is “Academia still fixated on November 2”. CNET reports on two academics have different views of the study in “Report: Florida data suggests e-voting problems”

Conservative Republican senators on Thursday unanimously supported moderate Republican Sen. Arlen Specter as the next chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, ending a grueling campaign Specter waged both publicly and privately to guarantee his seat.

The effort followed a weeks-long controversy that erupted when Specter made comments concerning judicial nominees that seemed to suggest President Bush would have a hard time getting his choices confirmed.

“Arlen Specter will be our next chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. We are pleased to support Arlen in this matter,” said outgoing chairman, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.

Read more..

From Drudge: Ohio To Go Through Statewide Vote Recount After All

A statewide recount of the presidential vote appears inevitable after a pair of third-party candidates said they have collected enough money to pay for it.

The recount would be conducted after the election results are certified in early December.

Libertarian Michael Badnarik and the Green Party’s David Cobb said on Monday they raised more than $150,000 in four days, mostly in small contributions.

Ohio law requires payment of $10 per precinct for a recount, or $113,600 statewide.

Badnarik and Cobb said they aren’t trying to overturn President Bush’s 136,000-vote victory in Ohio, but just want to ensure that all votes were counted properly in the face of concerns about Election Day irregularities.

Turns out that the recount will cost the counties (and thus taxpayers) about $1.5 Million. Awesome!

Sarcasm aside, given 5.5 million votes in Ohio, it’ll cost each voter 27 cents (less when you consider that voters < taxpayers), I figure this is a reasonable amount to pay - as long as the process highlights the need for a more reliable, honest, and accountable voting system.

This from a PR agency email:

Here’s the story: A research team at UC Berkeley will report that irregularities associated with electronic voting machines may have awarded 130,000-260,000 or more excess votes to President George W. Bush in Florida in the 2004 presidential election. The study shows an unexplained discrepancy between votes for President Bush in counties where electronic voting machines were used versus counties using traditional voting methods. This is the first time that an academic institution has formally challenged the e-voting system, and the University is calling on local voting officials in Florida to investigate. The research team – which comprises some of the top minds in voter research – will disclose full results of the study and the raw data at the press conference tomorrow.

I’m not going to be able to make the press release, but we’ll try to have it covered …

It looks like there is a possibility that a faulty voting machine in Carteret County, NC (if you are looking at a map, it is a county just to the north of where Jacksonville, NC is) could cause a new state wide election:

Elections workers and reporters crammed themselves into a tiny storage room Tuesday and angled for their best views of a black metal box the size of a large briefcase.

And then they studied a three-word electronic message — “Voter log full” — that some in the room, deep down, had hoped wouldn’t appear.

The warning message indicated that a computer tallying votes in coastal Carteret County had reached its limit at 3,016 electronic ballots.

If only someone had seen the same message a few weeks ago, when the votes actually mattered.

Tuesday’s exercise was the latest in an investigation into an embarrassing, and possibly costly, voting problem. Because of problems with the county’s voting machine, North Carolina may have to hold another statewide election to pick an agriculture commissioner.

Should make those who are calling for recounts, and yelling “fraud!” on the leftist websites, such as the DU, mucho happy. But, and there is always a “but,” it seems like that most of the votes lost were Republican votes. Many have gotten a kick out of the company who made the faulty machine, UniLect Corp. Plus, it could cost $3+ million, and may include a full revote for all positions, including President, Senators, Gov, etc.

Cross posted with some spin over at me sloop, the Pirate’s Cove.

The closest governor’s race is now at end. The Secretary of State has certified Dino Rossi as the winner of the 2004 Governorship Election for the State of Washington. He won over Attorney General Gregoire (who works in Vancouver where I live) by 261 votes. Of course, under Washington State law if the vote is less than a 2,000 vote margin, there must be a mandatory recount. Now I’m expecting the Democrats in my state to get into a fit over this.

Meanwhile, I’m glad that Dino Rossi won. Because I know Gregoire’s reputation and it’s not that great to me. My friend used to work for her office and he was fired for wrong reasons. Thus giving me one of the reasons to vote against Gregoire for the Governorship. Plus the Democrats have too long controlled the governorship of Washington and I feel that there needs to be a change to a Republican Governorship which there hasn’t been one since 25 years ago.

Now, I would assume Lonewacko will go find some DU stuff about “Irregularities” in the Washington State Governorship. As I’m assuming he has the notion that all elections are perfect but 2004/0 and there has been no history of voter fraud. Psst, my mother works for the election in Washington State. And as evident by his blog, I’m assuming he’s going to keep doing the “Irregularities” post going until Bush is sworn in.

Funny thing about Washington’s Election was that Clark County had a history of voting for Democrats overwhelmingly over Republicans but this election proved that otherwise. Since that most Republicans are in the country area surrounding Vancouver/East Side vs the Democrats in the cities/North/West/South Side

2000 Election Locke won Clark County 54.2-43.3, Bush won 49.6-45.6
2004 Election (See Clark County)
Rossi won 52-44, Bush won 52-46

So it was quite a turnaround from a Leaning Democrat County to a Leaning Republican County.

From the press release UC Berkeley Study Questions Florida E-Vote Count: Research Team Calls for Immediate Investigation

See the link for the call in number.

Ohio provisional ballots seem legitimate: Of the 11 counties that have completed checking provisional ballots, 81 percent of the ballots are valid, according to an Associated Press survey Monday. Counties that have completed partial tallies also said most of the provisional ballots were being counted…

Ohio finds possible double votes, counts

Lawsuit questions ‘discovery’ of 78,000 absentee votes in Broward

Bush won Iowa by 10,000 votes

“Vote fraud investigators visit Volusia [County FL]”: Representatives of a Seattle-based organization investigating possible election fraud visited the Volusia County elections department Tuesday after being provided reprints of voting machine records instead of originals. The reprints issue is explained in the “Volusia County on lockdown” section here.

From 11/1’s “Computer Chip Blamed For Voting Problem In Volusia County”: A computer chip is getting the blame for some voter problems in Volusia County. Those ballots will have to be re-fed. The defective chip was found Monday morning as poll workers fired up the machine for the last day of early voting… The chip was escorted by deputies to Daytona Beach and is in use right now.

Conspiracy Theories Abound After Election quotes a spokesman for a trade organization: “The fact is, electronic voting machines worked great … this is an enormous success story.” It also quotes John Fund of the WSJ: “There are 200,000 precincts in this country … there are going to be problems. You know, there was a computer in North Carolina that actually ate 4,500 votes… There are genuine problems but we shouldn’t be distracted, if we can, by Internet fantasists.”

Did lawyer-observers on Election Day miss fraud incidents? says Kerry lawyers were only trained to look for voter intimidation and similar incidents, not possible computerized fraud.

Justice through Music is offering a $100,000 reward for evidence of vote fraud. See the site for the fine print.

33,000 ballots lost in shuffle: