Posted on 11/08/2006 12:51:06 PM PST by areafiftyone
RICHMOND, Va. — Republican Sen. George Allen refused to concede defeat Wednesday, even as Democrat Jim Webb declared victory and began assembling a transition team.
With Republican Sen. Conrad Burns' loss in Montana, the Democrats would gain control of the Senate if Webb's lead holds. The margin between the two Virginia candidates was about 7,000 votes.
"The votes are in and we won," Webb declared. With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Webb had 1,169,285 votes, or 49.6 percent, to Allen's 1,162,577, or 49.3 percent. Allen's campaign, however, said the Senator would wait for a full review of the Virginia vote.
"The conclusion of the canvass will be the final official results," said Ed Gillespie, the former Republican National Committee chairman and adviser to Allen.
Representatives from both campaigns and party officials were at polling places across Virginia as the canvass was under way. The state has until Nov. 14 to complete it, Gillespie said.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Have the absentee ballots been counted?..........is there no hope?........
we've got nothing to lose anymore. FIGHT.
that final push of votes that came through in the last .5% of reports, went almost all to Webb. I am convinced that those votes are fradulent - manufactured in Dem districts when they saw how many votes Webb needed to pull ahead.
unless we take a stand somewhere, at sometime, to expose this - it will just go on and on.
Lotsa military folk in VA. Hope any of them on duty outside of VA voted absentee...
I'm asking same question, but no one seems to know if they have been added in yet.
I think Allen is just waiting for all the votes in before he asks for a recount.
It sure seemed like the cities of Richmond and Petersburg took their time reporting the last 25% of their precincts. Its not like these are really big cities either. Richmond is under 190K and Petersburg is around 30K. The last remaining precincts from each went around 90-10 for Webb!
Free Porn for everyone. When does Webb get the Virginia peeps up and running.
No FReepers from VA on today?.............
In-effing-credible! 90 - 10? I smell a rat!
good point.
While I have had some issues with the way this past congress has operated, it is funny that there is still no message coming from the Demorats except the anyone but bush mentality.
so they took back the house and maybe the senate but it reminds me of a funny line from Bravehart
''The kings terms... they will never live up to them''
as long as we stay on message and together their reign will be short lived.
True. The canvassing that's happening now is directed by state law. Only an idiot or a Democrat would do anything to interfere with it.
I think so, but no one seems to know. I'll check the local news again before i hit the road.
This clearly needs looking into. Anybody know how to go about it? This smells fishy - even over the computer.
7,000 is a shitload of votes to need to "find"
let me echo your ideas...
that final push of votes that came through in the last .5% of reports, went almost all to Webb. I am convinced that those votes are fradulent - manufactured in Dem districts when they saw how many votes Webb needed to pull ahead.
unless we take a stand somewhere, at sometime, to expose this - it will just go on and on.
History tells us that the complainant seldom wins. I am not optimistic about this.
Whether Allen wins or not, stick a fork to his 2008 presidential plans. I am personally looking at South Carolina's Mark Sanford.
Not as hard a number to throw out, however...
There were a lot of unusual events in this election. I have a lot of trouble believing that the Allen campaign would intimidate voters but somebody did.
Here in Michigan, ousted RINO Joe Schwarz announced that he was running as a write in. I can see no reason for him doing it other than trying to tighten up the race. Luckilly the conservative won but still.
*waves*
Greets from rainy suburban Richmond. :)
}:-)4
Oh, we're here.
I like Duncan Hunter.
Military is important. But wasn't Webb Navy? Might that not balance out the pro-Allen votes? I'm not sure of the dynamics there.
Sooooooo, what's the scoop? Are the absentees / military votes in play?...........
many of us were watching the results come in real time.
its the same pattern - figure out what they need to win, pull out the motor voter records and see who didn't vote, and fill out a provisional ballot for them and push it through.
There were many precincts in Richmond that went 90+% for Webb. These precincts were almost certainly housing projects, of which Richmond is slap full. Looking at the list, probably a third of Richmond's 67 precincts went 80% or more for Webb. The city overall went 72-27 Webb. The suburbs went for Allen, not quite that extreme.
}:-)4
Makes me grateful to be a poor Anglo-Saxon boy!
Sanford, with Michael Steele as running mate.
The fact that Allen was ahead until 99% of the votes were in is extremely fishy. I think it was completely trashed and I don't like it one bit.
You know what else was really strange? Did you notice that almost all of the Fairfax County precincts were in early in the evening--226 of 229, but for the longest time the last three did not report.
I am almost positive I saw the same thing last year with the governors race. If my memory is correct, it would be interesting to find out if the same three precincts sat the night out till the last minute--and why that might be.
I suppose it is possible that 226 precincts in Fairfax have ultra-fast hightech equipment and three use paper ballots that have to be handcounted, but I don't know how likely it is.
Yeah, something about this election stinks. The Dems did much too well considering how good the economy is right now. We're going to have to investigate these unusual events immediately in 2008. You and I both know who's behind this stuff.
The last few precincts that reported in in the final 1% when the lead went from Allen to Webb were absentee ballots from Arlington and Fairfax Counties, two liberal bastions (the latter only recently).
In Virginia there is an automatic recount if the difference between the two candidates is 0.50% of the total vote. Of 2.2 million cast, there is now a difference of around 7K.
I am not holding out a lot of hope, and it about breaks my heart. Both George Allen and Rick Santorum served as honorable, solid conservatives. Personally I am ashamed of VA voters right now.
Absentees have been reported (according to the State Board of Elections) in all counties and cities except Isle of Wight County and James City County, both of which are fairly small rural/suburban counties in between Richmond and Tidewater. Absentees get lumped into "absentee precincts" by county/city. Mash here:
http://www.virginia.gov
...click on the live results link, and go nuts. Drill down by locality, and then you can get a complete precinct list for each county and independent city.
I do not know how military ballots are handled--whether they're lumped with the absentees or not. My gut--this is just my considerable gut, not anything logical or definitive--says that they are NOT. I say this because I have looked at the absentee figures for Norfolk (home of the naval base) and Virginia Beach (home of Oceana NAS/Langley AFB). The Va Beach absentees went only 51-47 for Allen; the Norfolk absentees went hardcore for Webb, and there weren't that many. But I don't know how or when they're added in, sorry.
Now, the big question is, how accurate are the figures on the State Board of Elections website. I've been assuming they're the "unofficial official" figures, reported from the counties/cities. They're subject to change as the canvass gets done, I imagine.
Webb has around a 7400-vote lead. Not totally insurmountable, but I sure wouldn't be laying any money on Allen pulling the miracle right now, if I had any money to bet. It's a longshot.
}:-)4
Yeah, perhaps those last three precints waited until they knew how many ballots to manufacture for Webb.
I thought the same thing until Corin Stormhands pointed out that the last three precincts were the three absentee ballot groupings. Two of them reported just before midnight and they were the ones that finally turned Allen's 1800-vote lead into a 2000-vote deficit.
}:-)4
There is the stench of a coupe d'etat by the DNC in the air today.
Obviously they were going to take seats and possibly power but there were lots of screwy little things that went on.
For instance did those people in Arizona ever get their ballots?
absolutely. I am convinced there were irregularities in this race.
George Allen ping
This election needs a full recount and investigation to look for fraud by the democrats.
Had Webb lost this race under the same scenario - we would be hearing Dem lawyers all over TV today challenging it.
That would probably explain it. At least my memory still works.
Another lost opportunity.
Don't know about the ballots. This is a big country so there are always some weird things that happen in every election, but there's a pattern developing in close elections of a last-minute surge of votes for Democrats that puts them in the lead. The same thing almost happened to Bush in Florida in 2000. I remember watching his 50,000 vote lead shrink to 537 in about 30 minutes at the end of the first machine vote count. It looks like all the accusations of GOP fraud by Dems are probably a deliberate diversion to take attention away from massive Democrat vote fraud.
"....almost all of the Fairfax County precincts were in early in the evening--226 of 229, but for the longest time the last three did not report."
I was following the State Electoral Board site and couldn't believe the exact flip after 99.16% of the vote had been counted. Someone on the VA thread said that it ws due to Arlington and Fairfax dumping their absentee counts. THey were named (something like) FFX Absentee Precinct(s) 10 and 11, referring to the respective Congressional Districts, I guess. We shall see. I think there will still be an automatic recount. Not overly optimistic, tho.
I used to work as an Chief of precinct for Fairfax County, their new electronic voting machines are quite fast at tabulating and typically, the results are handed off to the county executive building a couple of hours after the polls close. I can't understand why 3 precincts were lagging for reporting except they they might have had techincal difficulties.
Being a combat vet is VERY important when we're a nation at war. Having been the son of an NFL coach and being a quarterback in a Division 1 college football team ... that's plenty good in normal times. This is a big reason I'm squimish on Mitt Romney for 2008. His connection to the Olympics just isn't enough given how dangerous is the world we're in.
I sat up until 1:30 on the Virginia live thread last night trying to help keep the updates going. It was horrible to watch it fall apart...from a 29,000-vote Allen lead with over 90% of the precincts in, I kept going back to the SBE website and seeing which precincts were still out, and just kept getting that feeling of doom.
Richmond and Petersburg had a lot of precincts come in late and both of them went 70%+ for Webb. But it was the Fairfax absentees that put Webb over the top. From 1800 down to 2000 up, and the Richmond absentees (and a few others) got him to 7500 by the time I woke up this morning.
It's similar to what happened to Talent in MO. He was cruising along with a seemingly-solid lead, and then St. Louis precincts came in last (as they always seem to do) running 4:1 Rat, and boom.
}:-)4
Ah, if they were absentee precincts, that would explain the delay.
It is FAR too suspicious for the "put the Democrats over the top" precincts to come in disproportionately late.
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