A long election night (day, week, month)

So, do you think the Election will be “over” on Tuesday night or Wednesday morning?

Electoral Vote.com is now showing Bush in the lead after a swing to Kerry during the week… but of course, these are simply the “latest” polls on any given day. For every poll that says Bush is leading by 4% there is one that says Kerry is leading by 3%… plus two more that announce a statistical, or exact tie.

One interesting point that I’ve heard mention often over the past few days is that the Challenger in a Presidential election always receives the majority of the “undecided” vote. Moral of the story… every vote counts… and MUST be counted.

On that note, it looks like things are getting ugly:

54,000 Absentee ballots in Florida have gone missing. When was the last time the Post Office lost 54,000 peices of mail from one source?

But, it looks like the Justice Department is mobilising:

840 observers will be monitoring proceedings in key counties that were a source of controversy in 2000. We can only hope they are absolutely impartial and brutally fair.

I also heard, I apologize I can’t find the link now, a great opinion on the state of the electronic voting machines that don’t produce a verifiable, recountable “receipt” or ballot…

How hard is it to use a Bank Machine?
When was the last time you failed to receive the money you wanted from the bank machine?
When was the last time you didn’t receive a receipt from a bank machine (without telling specifically not to).

We’ve had these machines for a decade. Why are the electronic voting machines not modelled after them?
In Canada, the federal election is run by a federal elections body… every Canadian votes in the same manner. Perhaps the US needs to move to a similar model if they want to restore trust and faith in the system.. not to mention lower the confusion level.

Lawyers should not decide elections. Lets hope they don’t have to.