Will There Be Major Litigation?

03 Nov, 2004 by John Hawkins

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I tend to doubt it because the margins are too big. It’s one thing to try to go to court in a state like Florida when there’s a 1000 vote spread and you’ve won the popular vote, but I don’t see Kerry trying to steal a win in a situation like this.

For one thing, people REALLY don’t want a repeat of 2000 and their tolerance level for legal games isn’t going to be all that high. And, given that Bush won the popular vote this time and the margins are pretty large, I think there would be a big backlash against Kerry if he tried to flip some states in the court system.

I mean come on, Bush won Florida by more than 350,000 votes and Ohio (which wasn’t finished by the time I went to bed) was in Bush’s column by more than 100,000 votes. I just cannot imagine Kerry overcoming that in the court system.

So I expect Kerry to concede later today rather than try to start an unwinnable legal battle that’s going to be a public relations nightmare for the Democrats.

*** Update #1 *** Maybe I’m wrong,

“Boston, MA – Kerry-Edwards campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill released the following statement:

“The vote count in Ohio has not been completed. There are more than 250,000 remaining votes to be counted. We believe when they are, John Kerry will win Ohio.”

Currently, with 91% of the vote counted, Bush is up by more than 100,000 votes.

*** Update #2 *** According to Fox, Kerry is talking about challenging in New Mexico and Ohio. But again, if Bush wins Ohio by 100,000 votes and Kerry tries to challenge that in the courts, he’s going to look like a scumbag who’s trying to steal an election in the courts. The margin is just going to be too big…

*** Update #3 *** So John Edwards came out at 2:30 AM to say “We’re going to fight for every vote”? I think that’s the polite way of saying, “We’re going to try to steal the election in the courts”.

These guys are just ridiculous. There’s no way they can overcome a 100,000 vote margin in Ohio (and it may be 125,000+ by the time it’s done) without doing something crooked. If they don’t come to their senses and they go forward with this, get ready for the sleaze…