Flip-Flop Watch

More Kos stuff:

Burns press release, 11/28/2000:

On November 28, 2000, when the Florida election results were certified, Conrad Burns said Gore "appears more and more like a man who wants to win at any cost." Burns added, "It is time, as some have said, for Vice President Gore to stop being a litigant and start being a Patriot. The good of our nation is greater than any one man, and it is time for Mr. Gore to end these challenges and bow out gracefully."

More Burns in the 11/30/2000 Great Falls Tribune:

At the end of November 2000, Conrad Burns said he would like to see an end to Gore's legal efforts in Florida. Burns said, "Mr. Gore should step aside and let the Bush team begin its orderly transition to the presidency."

And Allen on the Today show 11/8/2000:

The morning after Election Day 2000, when Florida was counting absentee ballots, George Allen said, "we'll need to move America forward as soon as those votes are cast."

Everything changed on 9/11, right boys?

George Allen Conrad Burns Recounts

Looking Good in Virginia

From Raising Kaine:

Senator-Elect Jim Webb currently leads by 7046 votes with 99.84% precincts reporting.

The SBE website has the following outstanding precincts:

1. James City County Absentee (C003)
2. One of two precincts in James City County called "Roberts B (0502)"
3. Raynor in Isle of Wight County.
4. Fairfax City Central Absentee Precinct (C011)

Now, I just spoke with the James City County registrars office. I was told there are no voters left to count in their county. Long story short, all of the voters in James City County live in Virginia's first district. The uncounted "precincts" of that county that are in VA-03 are part of the James River. There are no more votes for anybody outstanding here.

The last two districts will - at best for Allen- add only a few dozen votes for him. Based on '04 turnout numbers, Raynor only had 170 total voters (+17 for the GOP) and Fairfax City absentees went heavily for the Dems. Most likely, Webb's lead will grow slightly.

Expect Sen.-Elect Webb's current lead to remain largely unchanged - he will be certified the winner of this Senate seat. After that, Allen will be allowed to call for a recount.

I'd rather be Webb than Allen for many reasons. The fact that Webb won the election is only one of them.

George Allen Jim Webb 2006 Election Recount

Make Them Take it Away

Daily Kos has a DSCC press release:

Both Jon Tester and Jim Webb have won their races in Montana and Virginia but want to make sure that every vote is counted. We expect to have official results soon but can happily declare today that Democrats have taken the majority in the U.S. Senate.

Montana Vote Situation: Jon Tester leads Conrad Burns by approximately 1,700 votes (as of 11am EDT) and counting. In Silver Bow County (Butte), a Democratic stronghold, votes are still being counted but Tester is winning there with 66% of the vote. We expect to gain the majority of these uncounted votes and to add to Tester's margin.

Montana Process: When the counting phase is completed, a canvass will verify the vote tallies. That process could take as long as 48 hours, and must begin within three days and end within seven. Unless the canvass shows the margin to be within ¼ of 1%, there is no recount. As the loser, Burns would have to request the recount. When the votes are all counted, we expect to be outside that recount margin.

Virginia Vote Situation: Jim Webb is up by approximately 8,000 votes and once the provisional ballots are counted, we expect Webb's margin to increase. (Please note that VA absentees were included in the tallies from last night.)

Virginia Process: A canvass is underway to verify the results and we expect that process to finish within a day or so. To be in recount, the margin needs to be less than 1% and Allen (as the loser) would have to request it. Because of Virginia voting laws, the margin would have to be much tighter than it currently is to see any change in the outcome. Given the current margins, that is highly, highly unlikely.

Credit to the DSCC for handling this correctly. When the votes show that you're winning, declare victory and make the opposition try to take it away from the less powerful position of having fewer votes.

It would be better to put the candidates on TV and have them say something along the lines of "there are still votes coming in but I'm confident that the people of Virginia/Montana have chosen a new direction for America," but this will do.

In another time when Democrats were less confident (4 or 5 months ago) this sort of press release wouldn't have come out. Dems would have been concerned about 'looking dumb/over-confindent/elitist/liberal/pro-terrorist or whatever. Democrats were scared for so long that they became scared to do anything because it might backfire.

It's nice to see they've move (a little bit) past this.

It may take a month for their claims to be validated, but it's good that Tester and Webb have claimed victory.

2006 Election Jim Webb Jon Tester Recounts

New American Tradition

Though it was a pleasant experience to wake up knowing that every candidate I voted for won (for me it was the first time any candidate I voted for won) and that the Democrats had taken the House and made gains in the Senate, one part of my morning-after-election-day experience was very familiar: I woke up not knowing what the full results were. The New York Times says I might not know for a while:

Virginia's election laws allow an apparent loser to request a recount if a contest's margin is less than 1 percent - and the margin in the preliminary results of the state's Senate election stood this morning at about one-third of 1 percent.

While a recount seems likely, though, if it comes it will not come quickly.

According to a statement issued this month by the state's Board of Elections, no request for a recount may be filed until the vote is certified, which is scheduled to happen this year on Nov. 27th.

After certification, a losing candidate has 10 days to file a recount request in the state courts. The petition will be considered by a panel made up of the Chief Judge of the Circuit Court in Richmond and two judges appointed by the Chief Justice of the state Supreme Court. Those judges then set out guidelines for conducting the recount.

November 27th! That's a long time! I don't know if I can wait that long to find out if Democrats take the Senate.

The article notes that Virginia's last recount didn't see much 'wiggle room' created. In a race for state Attorney General, the margin was 323 votes out of more than 1.9 million cast. If a recount doesn't close that gap, the likelihood that it will make a difference in a race with a margin of just under 8,000 seems small.

That said, we may be waiting a while for the official results. For the next few weeks, Virginia is for Lawyers.

Don't forget that it would be perfectly legal for the sitting Republican Senate to declare Allen the winner and technically the whole problem would go away...

Virginia Senate Recount George Allen Jim Webb 2006 Election