The conspiracy theories have begun. The latest blog-toe-mail-to-blog on the Internet is that the vote was suppressed and/or not counted in Ohio and Florida during this election.According to some Web sites like BlackboxVoting.org and Votergate.org, the votes nationwide need to be audited. How many times does a vote need to be counted? Well, for those who don?t support Bush, the answer is simple: as many times until there is a Kerry victory.
Another argument is that electronic voting is always wrong and problems will always exist. It is true that in certain counties in Ohio using electronic voting had trouble, but the mistakes were caught and corrected and the proper votes restored. This incident sparked the blog-fest, which has now evolved into a massive conspiracy that has called for the Democratic leadership to react. According to democrats.org, DNC chairman Terry McAuliffe said, “This is in no way an effort to question the outcome of this election, but to ensure trust in the outcome of every election going forward.”
The Kerry campaign is also investigating the results of the election. Just this past week, the Kerry campaign sent lawyers to check into the outstanding provisional ballots. Dan Hoffheimer, the Ohio state counsel for the Kerry campaign said, “We are not trying to challenge the election but are only carrying out Kerry?s promise to make sure that all the votes in Ohio are counted.”
The problem exists between the Democratic leadership and Kerry supporters. On Nov. 3, Kerry conceded the election; he did so because he did not have the necessary votes in Ohio to win the election. There are 155,337 provisional ballots outstanding, of which only about 140,000 would be valid. That means Kerry would have to win all of the provisional ballots.
Even if he were to win 97 percent of them, he still would be 200 votes shy of Bush?s 136,000 lead. For Kerry to win 97 percent is statistically impossible. Kerry, his lawyers, his legal analysts, and the Democratic leadership realized this fact and decided to concede the election.
Kerry and McAuliffe are not stupid people; they would not just throw their hands up at the election unless there was a chance of them winning. The Internet bloggers? persistent push for a check on a so-called invalid election proves only to be a slap in the face for Kerry and the Democratic leadership. As I?ve stated earlier, Kerry and his colleagues are not idiots.
If you are a Kerry supporter and are still skeptical of the outcome, follow the footsteps of your leader and accept the outcome of this election; he has. Blogging only further represents the disillusionment and the detachment the Democrats have with their supporters: people voted for Bush and not for Kerry.
Jason Maleski is a senior majoring in literature.