Postscript

Postscript:

The Republican incumbent in Virginia is refusing to concede his senatorial race (surprise!). I see his point, he's the lone holdout for a Republican majority in the Senate. This quagmire is ironic on several fronts. One, oh how the Elephants bitched about the Dem’s call for recounts in Florida after the 2000 Presidential election. What with hanging chads, allegations of voter intimidation and fraud, and two outrageously obvious cronies (the Prez’s brother and Katherin e Harris, ambitiously salivating for a D.C. appointment) basically policing the recount, the Dems had some pretty good reasons to suspect favoritism if not out-and-out fraud. And remember how so many of us felt that electronic voting machines providing absolutely no paper trail were a really bad idea? Well, here we go. Since the G.O.P. won’t concede this race, they’ll need a recount.

But first, let’s notice something about this Virginia Senate loss (yup, I'm calling it a loss)s—the Republican incumbent is the "gentleman" who referred to a Webb (his opponent) campaign volunteer as “macaca over there” (source: TheStar.com - GOP won't concede Virginia). Oh, and Allen is also the guy whose Jewish grandparents were a family secret, only revealed to him this year! Ouch, the karmic backlash of racism! Anyway, there is a 7,200 vote lead in the Virginia contest, a narrow margin yes (what is the matter with Virginians—they passed the ban on same sex marriage and domestic unions), but a margin that still, according to a CNN analyst last night, has never been made up in a state recount.

I’m not sure how much, if any, of Virginia polling locations utilize electronic machines, but my question is, how do you recount in the instance of electronic voting? Word is that the lack of a paper trail in electronic voting (you know they could provide a trail if designed to do so) was a budgetary concern, the machines simply don't accommodate this. Check out this link for some reported problems with electronic voting during this election, and then think back to 2004.

I, for one, am glad to live in a state that votes with mail-in ballots.