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I'm in Arkansas, and I keep wondering about things here. We had a powerf failure on election day and there was a vote discrepancy in a statewide US House race here of over 57,000 votes, just in two of the largest counties, not including the other 75. The Sec'y of State here has been very late getting everything tabulated because of various errors and discrepancies found. I keep wondering if something like what happened in Ohio with a lower level Democrat getting votes from Kerry's columns. I wouldn't wonder so much, but for the fact that AR was the only Southern state besides FL where Kerry led Bush in pre-election polls. Also, like in LA, NC, VA and FL, Bush was seldom above a Plurality or 50% here even when he led. But what I keep thinking about, is that it might give a "third" route for the Kerry people, if we had some combination of states to look at besides just Ohio--or Florida. Interestingly, Iowa was close, as was New Mexico and so was Nevada. AR is 6 Electoral votes, Iowa is 7, plus either of the other two above, with five Electoral votes each, would bring Kerry to 270 Electoral votes. Also, Colorado was close, and there were some things about it, too, with 9 Electoral votes. Colorado with Nevada and New Mexico is also over 270 Electoral votes for Kerry. So, I was just trying to think out how realistic it might be, in the time contraints we have, to try to look at this. Also, I know we know there were problems with at least 5 of the 7 Senate races, and some people say the exit polls were skewed quite a bit at the Senate level, as well as at the Presidential. But with so many, and with the tight time constraints, most people thought it was more realistic, I guess, to just focus on the one, the Presidential, in the one state, Ohio But I've wracked my brain, trying to think of something to do here. When Clinton came in for Kerry, toward the end, the polls here in AR really tightened up. On election day, our local CBS TV affilaite, KTHV in Little Rock, said the race was as close as 48-48, based on pre-election polling by SurveyUSA for the station. Tney'd noted that the graphic was Bush at just below 50%, with Kerry just above 46%, with the Kerry moving rapidly up, and Bush moving down. And, with Clinton coming in, Kerry seemed to have finally broken 48% here. Female voters, who'd been more lackluster about Kerry, seemed to be more for him in the wake of Clinton. Some indication that women who'd said they were "Undecided" and "unlikely" to vote, had moved to "likely" and "for Kerry' in those final 12 hours. This MAY have been missed by exit polling, and Clinton is popular in precisely those areas of the state--the western part--where the Dems need the most help against W Bush. But AR wouldn't help, even if it turned around here or something, without at least two other states--either IA and NV or NM, or CO and IA or CO and NV or NM. Or, again, some combination w/o AR. Just would like to hear--like you--as to whether there's any activity in IA. Best for holidays from Little Rock.
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