JohnG:
OT: I wouldn't count on it, because the likely scenario is:
(1) Those counties doing hand recounts, being Democratic, will thumb their collective noses at the FL SoS and go on with their hand recount.
(2) If the SoS proceeds to certify the overall state results on Saturday w/o the disallowed counties, Bush will clearly win, with or w/o the final absentee totals, because the counties in question comprise the majority of Gore's overall vote total.
(3) The counties will probably finish their hand recount by Saturday, with the likely (but not certain) result being that if those county totals had been included in the overall state totals, Gore would have won. OTOH, if he still loses even with the hand counted results included, he'd better give up, because his only prayer will be to pursue a revote in Palm Beach.
Hardly a satisfactory conclusion, and one which would undoubtedly result in a bunch of lawsuits. And in the unlikely but possible event that Gore winds up taking enough of the absentee vote to have given him the state when added to the first machine recount, even more grist for the lawsuit mill.
This mess is surely not over on Saturday, irrespective of the probable FL SoS attempt to certify the state results w/o the offending counties votes.
JMO.
David T. |
