We've all heard the confidence coming from McCain about winning Pennsylvania, despite the clear and consistent lead that Obama has had in the polls. So whence this confidence? It's outrageously similar to Bush's confidence about Florida in 2000, and the same confidence about Ohio in 2004. It's only reasonable to conclude that it comes from the same place - knowledge that the counting of the votes is controlled by Republicans.
more after the fold...
In Florida, you had Katherine Harris and John Stafford. In Ohio you had Ken Blackwell. In Pennsylvania, you have ... we don't know, because we don't know who programmed the DRE machines. With the voting machine companies controlled by Republicans, the vote totals could be anything, and there is no way to validate the result. I will never be satisfied with the output from a computer controlled by people who have so flagrantly demonstrated their contempt for democracy. Scratch that. I will never be satisfied with the output from an unaudited machine, period. And by audit, I don't mean running the ballots through a tabulator a second time, as in Florida. I mean an audit where the ballots are counted by humans; a partial recount at the least.
Add in the lack of early voting, and the likelihood of a stolen election is even greater.
There is a narrow twisted path to an honest election in Pennsylvania, and it lies in the (thanks to the courts) decision to use emergency paper ballots when 50% or more of the machines don't work. IMO, It would be better for this country if a large number of machines simply went kablooey (roving microwave trucks, anyone? /snark). Failing that, there is an opportunity to demonstrate the statistical likelihood that the election is stolen, by comparing the results from paper with the results from the machines. But that will require Obama's campaign to act immediately.
If McCain wins the machine vote, and Obama wins the paper vote, there are two possible conclusions. 1) The state of Pennsylvania disenfranchised the areas of the state that support Obama, by sending defective machines to Obama strongholds, or 2) the machines are rigged. (Yeah, I'm sure there are other possible conclusions. Those are mine, and I'm sticking with 'em). And if the machine vote and paper vote within the same precinct consistently favor McCain, I'm throwing out option #1.
Unfortunately, AFAIK there was no decision to mandate the use of paper ballots when the lines get extremely long. As long as too few machines are sent to the Obama areas, the (in Rachel Maddow's phrase) new poll tax will probably succeed in suppressing the vote. Three guesses where the lines will be longest.
If the COM is declaring Pennsylvania a McCain victory tomorrow night, I really hope the Obama campaign challenges the result.