He's been talking about it for years. Today, New York Attorney General Elliot Spitzer threw his hat in the ring for the 2006 NY Governor's race. Is he a shoo-in? I don't know, but he sure is popular.

The Ohio vote tallys from November 2 are now in. Bush's margin is less than previously reported--Ohio officials say Bush won by 119,000 votes. John Kerry, through his campaign, is joining in a request for a recount--but is not seeking to overturn the results. He just wants an accurate accounting:

President Bush's victory over John Kerry in Ohio was closer than the unofficial election night totals showed, but the change is not enough to trigger an automatic recount, according to county-by-county results provided to The Associated Press on Friday.

Bush's margin of victory in the state that put him over the top in his re-election bid will be about 119,000 votes, which is smaller than the unofficial margin of 136,000, the county election board figures showed. That means Kerry drew closer by about 17,000 votes.

The difference is attributed to provisional and overseas ballots not included in the original tallys.

Three million voters propelled Bush to victory over Kerry in November. Conservatives claimed this was a mandate for Bush and his policies. Not so. The newest CBS/New York Times poll shows Americans are non-supportive of his agenda:

At a time when the White House has portrayed Mr. Bush's 3.5-million-vote victory as a mandate, the poll found that Americans are at best ambivalent about Mr. Bush's plans to reshape Social Security, rewrite the tax code, cut taxes and appoint conservative judges to the bench. There is continuing disapproval of Mr. Bush's handling of the war in Iraq, with a plurality now saying it was a mistake to invade in the first place.

And it's not just Democrats who disagree with the President:

Nearly two-thirds of all respondents - including 51 percent of Republicans - said it was more important to reduce deficits than to cut taxes, a central element of Mr. Bush's economic agenda.

...The poll reflected the electoral feat of the Bush campaign this year. He won despite the fact that Americans disapproved of his handling of the economy, foreign affairs and the war in Iraq. There has been a slight increase in the number of Americans who believe the nation should never have gone into Iraq. A majority of Americans continue to believe the country is going in the wrong direction, traditionally a warning sign for an incumbent.

by TChris

As TalkLeft has noted, despite the absence of mainstream media coverage of election irregularities, there remain unanswered questions about the 2004 presidential vote. In light of a new study of the Florida vote count, it's time to start demanding answers.

A nationally renowned expert on statistical research and a team of graduate students at UC Berkeley yesterday sounded another alarm bell about the Nov. 2 elections, releasing a study suggesting that irregularities in electronic voting machines in Florida may have awarded hundreds of thousands of “excess” votes to George W. Bush.

The report, published by the Berkeley Quantitative Methods Research Team, said Bush picked up 130,000 to 260,000 votes the group’s statistical analysis can’t explain from three heavily Democratic south Florida counties that used touchscreen voting equipment this year. The probability of such a discrepancy arising by chance is less than one in a thousand, according to Michael Hout, professor of sociology at the campus, member of the National Academy of Science, and leader of the research team.

New York Senator Charles Schumer announced today he will not run for Governor in 2006. That leaves the way clear for New York Attorney General Elliott Spitzer to run on the Democratic ticket. Spitzer has long been considered a favorite of Dems for the race.

Schumer will head up the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee through 2006. He also has been given a seat on the Senate's Finance Committee, considered one of the most powerful in Congress.

Via Cursor, check out these profiles of five new Republican Senators who "hope to make your worst nightmares come true."

• Tom Coburn (OK): Keeping us safe from condoms and the ‘gay agenda’
• Jim DeMint (SC): ‘The Family’ values, homophobia, and tax chicanery
• David Vitter (LA): Putting young men and women in harm’s way
• Richard Burr (NC): Corporate errand boy scoops up PAC money
• John Thune (SD): A simple-minded campaign of flag-waving and heterosexuality

Ohio is still counting provisional ballots. It would be virtually impossible, experts say, for their tally to make a difference.

But what about the absentee ballots that never arrived? The TL kid's roomate received his Ohio absentee ballot in New York today...November 10....it was postmarked Columbus October 3.

The TL kid received his absentee ballot November 3. As John Kerry was conceding on tv. So he didn't get to vote either. He had called Colorado's election office for weeks complaining his ballot hadn't arrived. They just kept telling him it had been mailed.

They have many friends who also didn't receive absentee ballots in time to vote. Is there any counting being done of the number of these disenfranchised absentee voters (as opposed to provisional voters)?

Maybe it wouldn't make a difference, but whatever happened to everyone gets a vote and every vote counts?

Sorry Everybody -- great photos, just scroll.

In the truth is stranger than fiction department, read this letter in today's Daily Pennsylvanian:

Why was the alleged Republican kicker working as an election official?

On Tuesday morning, like many of us, I went to vote. My polling place, the one for ward 27, district 11, was 3609 Chestnut St., a cozy-looking rehabilitation care center next to the Divine Tracy Hotel. When I got to the voter registration desk, I became a witness to a confrontation between an election official and a Democratic poll watcher whose name unfortunately escapes me. The election official was behaving very aggressively, and telling the poll watcher that, among other things, she must not speak to any of the voters, or to him, and if she did, he would call the police.

by TChris

TalkLeft has frequently argued (examples here and here) that felons, like every other citizen, have a stake in society and should have the right to vote -- particularly after they've paid for their crime by serving their time. Some who comment here scoff at the notion of rehabilitation and smugly assert that liberals want ex-offenders to have voting rights because ex-offenders are likely to vote for Democrats. Tell that to John Barcyk, who voted by absentee ballot for President Bush. Barcyk is serving 35 years for a double murder.

Barcyk is incarcerated in Maine, one of two states that allow prisoners to vote. Is it fair that he can vote from prison when felons in states like Iowa don't have voting rights restored automatically after they've been released from prison? This commentator in the Des Moines Register argues that a parent who works, pays taxes, and sends her kid to school should have a say in how her taxes are spent and who serves on the school board.

Stephanie Fawkes-Lee, president of the Metro Des Moines League of Women Voters, says it's a danger to democracy not to restore voting rights. Yet she says public opposition to doing so comes from both Democrats and Republicans. She calls it a "lack of forgiveness."

[Marty] Ryan is blunter. "Some people think that we need to hate them forever," he says.

David Corn examines charges that the Bush forces stole the election in the new Nation. He concludes it's possible but there is no case as of yet. From the Nation's e-mail today:

Nation Washington editor David Corn looks at mounting charges of whether last week's election was stolen by the Bush forces. Corn writes, "Clear away the rhetoric, and what's mainly left are the odd early exit polls (which did show Kerry's lead in Ohio and Florida declining as Election Day went on and which ended up with the current national Bush-Kerry spread), troubling instances of bad electronic voting, and curious--or possibly curious--trends in Florida. This may be the beginning of a case; it is not a case in tself."

Ultimately, Corn concludes that a rigged election is conceivable, ut that "The system ought to be so solid that no one would have cause to even wonder whether an election has been stolen."

For those who want more on the charges, head on over to Blackboxvoting.

The Guardian reports on a new poll that shows despite re-electing President Bush, voters disagree with several of his top priorities and positions on issues.

An Associated Press poll showed voters support, by a huge majority, cutting the country's enormous deficit rather than slashing taxes. By a narrow margin, voters also back the nomination of a supreme court judge who will preserve abortion rights.

...Following his victory President Bush said: "I earned capital in the campaign, political capital, and now I intend to spend it." Yet few of his priorities, namely the privatisation of social security, tax laws and medical malpractice surfaced as being a big concern for voters.

Only one-third of Democrats felt "hopeful" after the election. I'm surprised the number is that high. Everyone I've spoken to is despondent.