What IS the real vote spread?

[Russ]

<< Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris said unofficial results of the state's ongoing count, which included totals from 53 of the state's 67 counties, gave Bush a 1,784-vote lead over Vice President Al Gore.

However, the Associated Press, which has stationed reporters in every Florida county, put Bush's advantage over Gore at only 362 votes, a number drawn from results in 64 counties. >>



Setting aside partisanship for a minute, this is really starting to becoming irritating. Why the hell can't they get the numbers right? Who do we believe?

Russ, NCNE

 

[Thom]

you did teach them to count above three, right?

 

[IBhacknU]

CNN has the same as AP

 

[BigSmooth]

Isn't it all moot until all of the absentee ballots come in anyway? If they say one person is up by 150 after all the ballots are counted, the outstanding absentee ballots could change the result.

 

[KaBudokan]

I was wondering the same thing Russ. I do feel like the SOS from Florida is enjoying the spotlight though. All eyes in the world on their state. Don't know whether it's good or bad publicity though. lol Oh well.

 

[Russ]

Bigsmooth,

Absolutely. It will not be certified until all the absentees are in, and those have until the 17th.

Russ, NCNE

 

[pidge]

The Florida Secretary of State is just using older data, not the most up to date data. I think I am gonna stop watching news for 8 more days. Its really getting ugly with lawsuits, Jesse Jackson already instigating protests and stupid adults who can't read a damn voting form. If they are to stupid to be confused by those forms, then their votes shouldn't even count at all.

 

[somethingwitty]

msnbc now says 225 with 2 counties left

 

[Capn]

the networks are getting their numbers from the AP from what I heard.

 

[Russ]

pidge,

The SOS is responsible for creating and maintaining the data. You'd think she'd be able to get it right.

Russ, NCNE

 

[JellyBaby]

No kidding. There's only one body retabulating the results, right? I can see how time-shifts cause some news agencies to report different numbers but as far as I know they?re all receiving word from the same source?.perhaps not the same spot in the food chain, though. In other words, is CNN getting numbers from the grunts, while NBC pulls numbers from higher level FL officials?

 

[Tripleshot]

Russ
I thought you were an elected politician.You should be seasoned in this stuff.
The count quoted on TV is the un cerified re count by county. It was overseen by the officials and at county level it is final.(unless challenged in court)Its the first step. The final will not be until the 17th. This is a reflection of what would have been certified on the 17th that we would not know about had Gore conceded defeat to Bush. Since he rescended his concedeingto bush,we have the wonderful oppurtunity to throw insults at one another for many more days.

How grand.

 

[Jazar]

Pidge is right... the media gets the info faster because there's an AP guy in each district. However, the secretary of state must wait for the official count to reach her, it's not official till they do. That's why they are behind.

 

[DainBrammage]

AMEN Pidge!!! Florida is using the unofficial CERTIFIED results

 

[BigSmooth]

In any case, the margin of victory considering 6 million votes cast is going to be unbelievably slim.

 

[JellyBaby]

If the AP drones are polling the officials performing the recount at the county level, do they not realize that's exactly what helped get us all into this mess in the first place??

The best solution may be to tune out until Nov. 17th.

 

[SJ]

I believe the Election officals of Florida. Why? Because the Supervisors for each county have certified their county votes. If Floridas officals are saying its 53/67 and Bush is 1700+ votes ahead. I trust them, because they know the actual numbers.

 

[Nick Stone]

My oppinion or frustration -- Wait, which thread do I put this in?

Every Station has endless professional spin-doctors spouting gibberish in every form. But I'm a technical person and this is what I wish they would explain.

In Florida, at 1:15 AM, with 96% of the votes counted out of approx. 6 million total (that would leave about 250,000 left to count), Bush had a 50,000 vote lead. And they declared him the winner.
Then his lead evaporated down to 1700. What happened? Did those last 250,000 votes actually go 150,000 for Gore and 100,000 for Bush? Or did the networks just make one big honking mistake ???

And in Oregon, Bush had a 26,000 vote lead which suddenly changed to a 4000 vote lead for Gore? Why not give an explanation?

I also keep hearing conflicting projections on how the national popular vote will actually turn out. Are they still counting the votes? Or do they simply quit counting once the state is declared certain for one candidate? I personally would like to see them count all the votes including the absentee ballots coming in by mail. They all count!

 

[thebestMAX]

<<Setting aside partisanship for a minute, this is really starting to becoming irritating. Why the hell can't they get the numbers right? Who do we believe?>>

I dont believe any of them anymore, if I ever did. The longer this goes on, the worse it becomes. Now on the hand count a small indentation on the ballot MAY INDICATE INTENT to vote for a different candidate. The idiocy never ends. If you are too stupid to push the pin all the way through, punch 2 candidates, fail to read the ballot carefully and on and on, you shouldnt be walking around loose.