Not enough provisional ballots to win

[MattNC]

"The Ohio Secretary of State's office has released an official talley of provisional ballots issued in each county of the state yesterday. The total is 135,000. Bush's current margin in the state is 136,000, and many overseas (largely military) absentee ballots haven't been counted.

I'm sure people better informed than me are triple-checking these numbers, but we can all do the math."

Per http://www.newdonkey.com/

[wabeewoman]

1. Count the votes!

That's all I want-just count all the damn votes and don't concede early.

[michigandem2]

2. count the votes...count the votes...

[stepnw1f]

3. That is BULLSHIT!!!

I don't care what he says. That fucking shill is not deciding the fate of this election.

[AlCzervik]

4. sorry, the secretary of States word isnt near good enough

[NVMojo]

5. Damm right, count the votes!!!

[pf99]

6. I heard that No.

It was base upon 77 of OH's 88 Counties.

Final No due by 2:00

[osaMABUSh]

7. BS the counties haven't had time to count the PBs

[Village Idiot]

8. Not enough for an ouright win -

more than enough for a legal recount...

[soothsayer]

10. yes!

[Catfight]

9. Yes, count the votes, even if it makes the Bush margin better, everyones

vote should count if they bothered to vote.

[LittleClarkie]

11. The surprise will be when they count the military ballots

Those are NOT Bush votes. They'd better not assume those are Bush votes. There is more support for Kerry in the military than anyone realizes.

[Lone_Wolf_Moderate]

12. It's time to concede.

The numbers just aren't promising, and it only hurts the country to drag this thing out for too long. Although, you never know, there still could be hope.

[Name removed]

17. Deleted message

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[VolcanoJen]

13. COUNT THE VOTES. Even if we don't win, I want a FINAL TALLY.

Count them!! What is the freaking hurry?

Bush will be the President until January 21 anyway. We've got all the time in the world. I don't think it's going to go our way, but those provisional ballots must be counted and a final Ohio tally must be reached.

If we concede now, those ballots will disappear forever, and we'll never, ever know how close we came.

[Amaya]

14. COUNT THE FUCKING VOTES

Why is this so difficult to understand?

[ALago1]

15. I trust Blackwell about as far as I can throw him...

...and with my bad back I shouldn't be throwing anybody

[MercutioATC]

16. As an Ohioan myself, Blackwell (Ohio's SOS) is a Repub tool.

(emphasis on "tool")

I really don't know if there are enough uncounted ballots to make a difference or not. I'd expect there's not. However, Blackwell's word is not to be trusted.

[leftyandproud]

18. I said this 4 hours ago.

Some people just don't want to accept reality.
Time to move on.

[regnaD kciN]

19. The amazing shrinking provisional ballots...

...as of last night, Blackwell confirmed that there were 175,000 of them. Then after the count concluded with Bush up 136,000, the number of provisional ballots was found to be only (how convenient!) 135,000.

Why do I suspect that, between those two times, they were making sure that a sufficient number of those ballots, shall we say, "disappeared?"