I have a couple of problems with this manual recounts, or even any handling of the ballots other than to feed them into the machine.
1. Punch ballots can be changed by simply punching out the "chad". The "judge" could do this either by accident or with willfull intent. The ballot could just as easily be invalidated by punching a second chaad as it could be punching the first chad in an unvoted (for pres) ballot. My concern here that under the revised guidlines for determining what is a vote anything more than a "bulge" is counted as a vote. "oh look that chad is loose, (fingernail pointing to and clipping to one of the 4 threads) I guess that one counts."
2. The judges KNOW what chaad represents what vote. This is HUGE! Now they not only have the opportunity to manipulate the baallot, they also know HOW to manipulate and Where to manipulate it.
3. The "judge" is a partisan, in this case a DEM. But what party doesnt matter, maybe the Swiss could lend a hand here.
If we were really interested in fair counts, we would have:
1. Non-partisan judges.
2. Judges with no knowledge of what "chads" mark what vote.
3. Judges that only touch the ballots on the edges, you can clearly see on the news that the judges are touching the faces of the ballots and "could" alter the ballot.
Now after all that said, as a Rep (rapidly turning Indy), I say that if the count favors Gore, and the absentee ballots are not to offset the count, and if the Federal suit fails, Bush should concede and the country should begin healing itself and prepare for the horrible negative campaign that will erupt in just two years.
PS. I watched the canvassing board vote live last night, I think I should comment on some things.
One member was obviously a biased heavily Dem. She was forcing her will on the other two. One member that voted to not go for the full recount did so with a staatement that the board seek legal clarification on the issue first. That was after a Florida legal rep countered the biased member about the legality of her assertions, pretty much saying that her reasons for the full recount were justified under the statute quoted by the biased board member. The third member seemed very meek and had a very shallow opinion.
The biased board member had trouble reading the statute she had with her, obviously straining through her bi-focals. I hope she was not the one looking at the ballots, but I suspect that she was.