Reply #15: The power Blackwell Has over recount [View All]

[AnIndependentTexan]

Tuesday, November 16, 2004
by Greg Palast

http://www.alcaabajo.cu/sitio/stop_ftaa/iv_reich/why_kerry_conceded_230904.htm

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After the swindle of 2000, who would have the nerve to keep these machines in operation? Answer: the co-chair of Ohio's Bush-Cheney reelection campaign, J. Kenneth Blackwell, who also happens to have the convenient post of Ohio secretary of state. Blackwell, who makes Katherine Harris look like Thomas Jefferson, concedes the racially bent effects of punch-card voting; but in spite of this -- or because of this -- he refused to replace or fix these machines for the 2004 election.
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WHY KERRY HAD TO CONCEDE

Lacking evidence to refute the hard stats and demographics that the uncounted votes are mostly Kerry's, Manjoo ducks behind this tautological rock: He can "prove that Kerry couldn't have won in Ohio: He conceded."

Kerry did not concede because he did not have the votes. He conceded because he could not get them counted. Kerry would have to demand a hand count of the spoiled punch cards. But the hard fact is that, just as Katherine Harris stopped the hand count of the punch cards in Florida, Blackwell would undoubtedly do the same in Ohio. And face it: In a legal showdown, Blackwell could count on the help of that pus-hole of partisanship, the U.S. Supreme Court. Been there, done that. Add in the ballot-by-ballot litigation required to force a count of all the provisional ballots under rules à la Blackwell, and Kerry, realistically, didn't stand a chance.
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