DID YOUR VOTE COUNT?
The election is over, uncontested, non-problematic, right?
Not quite. Some "issues" are bubbling to the surface.
* The Ohio Problem?
Officials in Warren County, Ohio, "locked down" its administration building to prevent anybody from observing the vote count there. County Commissioners confirmed that they were acting on the advice of their Emergency Services Director, Frank Young. Mr. Young had explained that he had been advised by the federal government to implement the measures for the sake of Homeland Security. (Cincinnati Enquirer)
http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/11/05/loc_warrenvote05.html* The Florida Problem?
While the heavily scrutinized touch-screen voting machines seemed to produce results in which the registered Democrat/Republican ratios largely matched the Kerry/Bush vote, in Florida's counties using results from optically scanned paper ballots - fed into a central tabulator PC and thus vulnerable to hacking - the results seem to contain substantial anomalies.
Countdown w/ Keith Olbermann broadcasts LIVE at 8 pm et, and the count is never complete without you. Join us.
* The only thing more depressing than potential vote-count problems..... Santa can't get a flu shot.
Nick Pallotto, 62, who plays Santa Claus in malls, turned up at a flu clinic in Colorado Springs and was denied a shot because he wasn't 65 or suffering from a chronic health problem. "They asked me if I was 65, and I said, 'No, but I am Santa," he said.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/11/08/santa_claus_cant_get_a_flu_shot/ He is our guest tonight.
Here are some of the other stories we're working on for tonight's show.
* The fight for Fallujah.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6403689/* Who will replace John Ashcroft?
Countdown Home:
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/