AFTER THE VOTING?

[KarenJoyceKleinman]

What do you think will happen after the voting, between now and January, when a new president will be sworn in?

[KarenJoyceKleinman]

By the way, I voted for Obama, and hope my vote counted! I couldn't make that straight line.

[David J. Peterson]

Ha, ha! That's so wild that you have to draw a line... Either way, the result came out right.

[David J. Peterson]

I'm rather apprehensive about Bush doing any or all of the following:

-Taking wolves and polar bears off the endangered species list.

-Adding conservative judges to the Supreme Court (anything can happen in two months).

-Expanding offshore oil drilling.

-Pardoning Senator Ted Stevens.

-Going to war with Iran.

We'll just have to wait and see...

[KarenJoyceKleinman]

He's already promised to do something to mess up the economy for years to come before January. He wants, I believe, to make the upper income class tax breaks permanent.

[Kelly]

I live in Minnesota and right now the big news is the dwindling number of votes separating Norm Coleman, Republican and Incumbent Senator, from Al Franken, Democrat and recent returnee (after 30 years) to Minnesota. Sen. Coleman asked Mr. Franken to waive his right to a recount-as I am sure Sen. Coleman would have if the numbers had been reversed (ahem). This was an ugly, ugly contest and I don't think it will get any better even when a winner is finally declared. The phrase "Minnesota Nice" started out as meaning "I say one thing to your face and say and do another behind your back but I am being nice to you." and this year's election here proved it. I am originally from the South Bronx so it isn't like I am easily shocked, but this year has made me very, very uncomfortable and at times shocked by the lies, rumors and racism.

[David J. Peterson]

Here in California, we haven't gotten many updates about the yet-to-be-decided races in other states after Tuesday's coverage finished. I'd very much like to keep abreast of this one, though. Is there any word on when the race will be decided?

[Kelly]

They are still working on checking the ballots-a couple of places forgot to report the numbers (apparently each person doing the counting thought someone else had reported the numbers) or had the final numbers mixed up, etc. The Secretary of State is saying it will be sometime in December before the final recount is done. Right now each candidate is trying to figure out who to have represent them at the recount. Then they do the Minnesota version of Florida and it's hanging chads. Some people apparently circled the name of the person they were voting for, some X'd out the name of the candidates they didn't want and other mistakes. We'll see. Latest count from the Sec. of State's office is 246 difference but it has been changing faster than the stock market

[Kelly]

Latest update on Franken/Coleman: vote difference 204 votes as of 10:30 am this morning. Coleman's people went to the Chief Judge of Ramsey County (St. Paul) who will be on the committee leading the recount to have some of the votes tossed out. Judge Gearin is someone who has had problems with foot in mouth disease in the past but simply turned the Coleman people down with the "this court does not have jurisdiction". Even if those votes had been tossed out State law would have required a recount. Some of the votes that have turned up have had questionable backgrounds; the ones at issue in this case were in the back of a squad car and found a couple of days later. Huh? I want Franken to win but we don't need to have all these questions asked that are really good questions.

[Darrin Bell]

I think we DO have to look for every vote, even if it raises questions. Just answer the questions. Investigate. Find out the truth, no matter how long it takes or how much it costs. Find ballots in a squad car? Fine, just find out why they're there. Behind a dumpster? Fine, find out who put them there and where they came from and count them if it turns out they're legitimate, don't count them if they're not. There's nothing wrong with raising and answering questions. If we'd done that eight years ago, it's possible a million Iraqi citizens would still be alive, along with over 4000 American troops and possibly 3000 World Trade Center employees.

[David J. Peterson]

I think many votes are discarded too lightly. If someone who was supposed to fill in a box draws a big circle around "Obama", it's pretty clear who they voted for, whether they followed the instructions or not. If the choice is clear, why shouldn't the vote count?

[QI Elf]

Too many people with sticks lodged in their backsides. The fact is they should count, but there are people who will act on any technicality, no matter how trivial, if doing so will favour them.

Going off on a tangent, for whatever reason I am reminded of the story of an American nun who has lived for something like 50 years in Vatican City who voted for Obama. The last election in which she voted was for... Eisenhower? Truman? Anyway, she made a point of voting this year because it was so important. Let's not forget the citizens abroad who voted.

[Michael A Ventrella]

I've been following the Al Franken results closely -- it's interesting!

Not quite as interesting as the Alaska results. For some reason, although the rest of the country had higher numbers, in Alaska the numbers went down, even with an Alaskan on the ballot. And if that's not suspicious enough, the felony- convicted Senator Stevens is doing much better than polls showed all summer. Hmmmm?