November 3, 2004

It's getting late  

Edwards spoke a while ago, and it looks like the outcome of the election will hinge on a count of the provisional ballots and any absentee ballots which were received over the weekend. It's a long shot for sure, given the vote totals the networks are reporting, but it's at least mathematically possible, and I'm glad the Kerry campaign is insisting on reviewing it -- it also will give them time to challenge on other points, if there are any.

I didn't sign on to Steve's pledge, and my inclination at this moment is to think there's too much at stake here not to see this process through and have every vote counted. I'm not suggesting that irrational or baseless legal action be taken, and I'm well aware that I said just the other day that a legal battle could "destroy the new president's legitimacy, further polarize the electorate, and drag on for some time." But I also think that stability and conciliation will be pretty much impossible during a second Bush presidency anyway, so the tradeoff there doesn't look all that bad.

A side note: I think the networks that called Ohio have done a tremendous disservice to the American electorate. For as much talk as there's been in the last four years about the need for precision in the reporting of election results, not to mention all the talk in the past couple weeks about the importance of Ohio, the announcement came without any consideration of the question of the possibility provisional ballots. The result is that any challenges will appear to be less meritorious than they actually are, and will therefore be more politically divisive.

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