"Fact checking my own ass" b/w "Why make a donation to get the votes counted?"
On 11/12/04, I published "The Unelected Truth," which was an off-the-cuff email I sent to my sister describing how Bush stole the election. That fact doesn't need correcting. :) However, they are a couple things I said which are wrong.
"Along with states passing laws barring felons from voting even after they've served their time, meaning 12% of our black population nationwide simply doesn't have the right to vote period..." This is tricky. Working with information from Fairvote that I have verified in mainstream articles, it's actually 13%... Of black men who can't vote. If we take all black people into account, it's 5.5%. The Fairvote article states, "Nearly 5 million citizens-a hugely disproportionate share of them racial minorities-will not be allowed to vote in next month's presidential election ... Blacks make up 40 percent of the nation's disenfranchised, even though they are only 12 percent of the general population." This 40% is 2 million. The Census says there are 38,749,064 black people in the US, and 2 million of them is roughly 5.5%. However, bringing reality back into the mix, we have to remember that 5.5% is the national average, thus the percent of black who cannot vote will be higher than 5.5% is highly populated states with many large urban areas, like Ohio.
"I have to confirm this, but rumor has it that there are over 200,000 overvotes/undervotes/hanging chads in Ohio this years -- all of them "spoiled votes" from mainly minority communities, votes that don't count." Well, let's confirm that rumor and correct my original figure. The number of spoiled ballots is actually 92,672, as reported by Greg Palast, and also the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Not 200,000, but still a very high number of ballots that came from Democrat-leaning, minority communities.
Along with the 155,000 provisional ballots, these 92,672 spoiled votes are important because it the combined 247,672 votes likely to lean heavily towards Kerry. Since Bush leads the state by only 136,000 votes, there's a chance he could lose Ohio if a proper recount is performed, and thus, get booted from the White House.
Discounting 10% of these as bad ballots, we still have 222,905 left. If Kerry can win 82% of these ballots, then he's the president.
The donation to Cobb and Badnarik goes to pay for a count of the spoiled punch card ballots, as the Cleveland Plain Dealer states: "Some groups have gone a step further: The presidential candidates from the Green and Libertarian parties have said they will band together to demand a recount of all the ballots in Ohio - which could include a review of 92,672 "spoiled" ballots that recorded no vote for president."
But Stephanie asked in a comment, "Will a recount make a difference? They tossed ballots." I didn't know that ballots were tossed, so I did some digging. And while technically it's unconfirmed, an election observer is saying that provisional ballots are being tossed if they don't include a birthdate. Since the provisional ballots are already supposed to be counted by the state, that means that ballots which are tossed won't be counted at all. Why they are being thrown out is beyond me or, for the matter, comprehension, as far as I'm concerned. But we can only hope that this is part of the, say, 10% of provisional ballots that could be tossed. (The 10% is a guesstimate based on figures I heard from this election. This Freeper thread says 87% of Ohio's provisional ballots were counted in 2000, but there's but news -- 34% of this election's provisional ballots in the heavily Democratic Cuyahoga County have been discarded. The election observer said that provisional ballots without birthdays are still supposed to be counted, but a "new ruling" says they shouldn't be counted. The article does not mention if this is a court ruling or what, and implies that the ruling only effects Cuyahoga County. Something smells fishy here...) Sorry I can't have a positive, or even solid, answer to your question, Stephanie.
About the donations: Cobb and Badnarik made the cut to afford the recounts. They are still requesting donations to pay for the administration of this recount effort, which means they will still be accepting donations until reaching that goal.
...J Mann makes some great counterpoints in comments, which I think should be read.
Here's what Power Line reader 
