People, People, People.
I hate to go all tin-foiled hattish here, truly I do, but Damn!
Karen Handel, the Georgia Secretary of State, is a Republican.
A Republican Secretary of State.
And not only that, an award-winning Republican Secretary of State.
Yep, she was the ignonimious loser of the 2008 Katherine Harris Award, duly conferred by none other than our election reform activist in residence, the incomparable georgia10.
To sum it up, short and sweet, Handel is a political hack at best and for all we know, is engaged in active criminal fraud at this very minute.
Oh, and because Georgia is a red state, the election officials in most of the 159 counties are Republicans and the officials at the State Board of Elections are Republicans.
And the Republicans really, really, really want to send Saxby Chambliss back to the United States Senate.
Flop the flip with me, please.
Okay, so, here is the deal: Everyone is now apparently assuming Democratic candidate Jim Martin will be proceeding to a run-off against the odious and vile Republican incumbant Saxby (ChickenHawk) Chambliss.
Jim Martin is apparently assuming it, given this email to supporters, such as me:
Subject: We're in a Runoff!
Dear David,
We now know that there will be a runoff on December 2nd between Saxby Chambliss and me. With your continued support, I am confident that we will prevail.
America has elected Barack Obama President, and now is the time for all of us to help him succeed. In the Senate, I'll do what's best for Georgia, what's best for our country, and what's best for the middle class folks who've been ignored the past eight years.
I think that starts with helping Barack Obama succeed, not undercutting him for partisan advantage or to protect special interests. And that's the difference in this runoff election. I will do everything I can to help Barack Obama change Washington and get our economy moving again. Saxby Chambliss will do just the opposite.
This runoff will be over in the blink of an eye. We can return this Senate seat to someone who will follow in the traditions of Russell, Nunn, and Cleland, rather than someone who, for the past six years, has been a rubber stamp for George Bush and Dick Cheney. But we will only be able to do so with the support of friends like you.
snip
Our excellent frontpager, brownsox, is apparently assuming it, boldly announcing just a few hours ago: "Georgia Senate is "definitely" going to a runoff ..."
Multiple others are apparently assuming it. Here. here. here. and here. For example.
Let us please consider some facts:
The official website of the Georgia Secretary of State has not been updated the actual vote count on this race since early this morning, which was (as I recall) the first and only update since sometime around 10:30 last night, and presently reflects the following:
96% of precincts reporting
Saxby Chambliss Republican 1,838,908 49.9%
Jim Martin Democratic 1,721,098 46.7%
Allen Buckley Libertarian 126,003 3.4%
Totals 3,686,009
Now, if you have been following this story, you probably have already heard that for some strange and totally unexplained reason, there seems to be a small problem having to do with the issue of actually, you know, Counting the Freakin' Votes.
The esteemed AP - November 5, 2008 12:14 AM ET - said:
But vote counting hit a snag late last night as early voting numbers were slow to trickle in. Secretary of State Karen Handel's office said early voting totals from Fulton and Gwinnett counties had yet to be counted. Early voting numbers in those two counties alone totaled more than 275,000 votes.
In this morning's print edition, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported:
With nearly 90 percent of the state’s precincts reporting, McCain had a huge lead: 56 percent to 44 percent for Obama and less than 1 percent for Libertarian Party nominee Bob Barr, the former Georgia congressman. But those figures included few results from metro Atlanta and apparently none of the ballots cast in metro Atlanta during massive early and advance voting. As many as 600,000 ballots cast before Tuesday in Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett were to be counted after the live Tuesday votes.
A full day has now passed.
So, surely, by now, this small problem has been fully addressed, remedied and all is well, fair and square, and just dandy fine.
Right?
Well, I dunno. Maybe.
But where is the evidence?
The Gray Lady has just posted an article, reporting:
Elections officials were racing on Wednesday to count thousands of mail-in ballots in Fulton County and hundreds of military, overseas and provisional votes across the state in the razor-thin election. By 3 p.m. on Wednesday, county officials said, 14,000 absentee ballots had still not been counted and more than 40,000 votes had not been announced.
Odd, I thought the problem was early votes having not been counted in Metro Atlanta.
Now, admittedly, it is possible that maybe I'm missing something here, slightly, but I truly do not think so.
The liberal voters in Metro Atlanta early voted in astounding, record numbers.
So, where the hell exactly are those votes?
Have they been counted or not?
If yes, why have the votes not been reported to the SOS?
Or, if reported to the SOS, why has the SOS not posted the updated vote totals?
In all seriousness, I smell a big stinkin' rat.
Please, people, wake up.