Kerry's conceded, and legal wrangling won't get us the presidency. Still, we need to document all of the reasons why this election isn't completely legitimate, and then get the word out online, in print, and on the air. If we don't, future elections will have just as many problems with missing absentee ballots, hours-long waits at the polls, and unverifiable counts from machines that leave no paper trails.
Several diaries are already discussing suspicious numbers in OH, FL, and elsewhere; a few of them are:
London Yank
katerina
BuckMulligan
davecarden
Please keep recommending diaries like these and posting additional examples. Also, please post links to groups that are compiling evidence of election problems, and let us know how we can support them.
I agree with everyone who's saying that we need to learn from our mistakes and start regrouping - I just think that while we're doing that, we also need to make sure that the many seeds of doubt about this election's legitimacy get firmly planted in the public mind.
Another reason for us to push the illegitimacy idea is international opinion. I want the rest of the world to be saying, "Bush won in an unclean election," not "Election shows that the US supports Bush." Prior to yesterday, it seemed like much of the rest of the world understood that Bush's actions didn't necessarily reflect the will of the US population. But if they think that Bush really did better in 2004 than in 2000, they may change their minds and write us all off. If that happens, it'll be much harder to work together to solve the global problems, from terrorism to climate change, that we can't tackle alone.
Mainly, though, we need to raise a stink about voting procedures because it's the only way to keep momentum going for election reform. I have faith that we'll organize more effectively from now on, but it won't do us any good if the votes of those we've mobilized don't get counted properly.
Everyone who requests an absentee ballot by the deadline should have one. No one should have to spend hours in line to cast a vote. And no one should have to worry that his or her vote will be miscounted by a machine that doesn't leave a paper trail. Raise a stink about these problems now so that we won't face them in the future.