On Fri, 10 Nov 2000, Max Sawicky wrote:
> I think this is dead-on.
I think both the Gore and Bush camps think the same thing. The Gore camp bases their certainty that they are going to win the hand count on of the size of the disparity between the exit polls and the result. The exit polls showed Gore leading all day by 4%. That's why the networks called it early for him. Those same exit polls were accurate in every other state. But here, the voted result came out different. When we are observers on elections in other countries, that's precisely the sort of evidence we use to assert irregulaties. And the existence of thousands of underpunched ballots was exactly what they were hoping to find. It simply confirmed the strong hunch that sent them their in the first place. They feel it's only a matter of time.
The reason I think the Bush camp accepts the same reasoning is because they filed the injunction. This destroyed their strongest political theme, which was anti-legalism. I don't think the people around Bush are dumb enough to do that by mistake. I think filing the injunction was a sign that they decided they were going to lose the hand count and switched into scorched-earth mode.
BTW, FWIW, I heard the 6,000 underpunched ballots had been found in Broward, not Palm County, which hasn't confirmed it's going to make a hand count yet.
Michael
__________________________________________________________________________ Michael Pollak................New York City..............mpollak at panix.com