[Travis McGee]

You need to break out the votes according to the mailed in ballots VS the show up at the poll ballots.

Gilchrist, and amateur, totally dropped the ball on this. Most of the Campbell votes were mailed in absentee ballots. Campbell, the pro, understood how hard it is to get folks to actually come to the polls for a special election. Every republican in his district received mail in ballots, with his spiel and so on.

Gilchrist might not have one even if he had matched Campbell in this crucial area, but he would have been close. Just look at the figures for the votes actually taken at the polling places, vice the absentee ballots.

[Travis McGee]

One = won

[calcowgirl]

Interesting

                         Absentee       On Election Day     Total Votes
                     ---------------    ---------------    ---------------
                      Votes   Percent    Votes   Percent    Votes   Percent
                      -----   -------    -----   -------    -----   -------
John Campbell (Rep)   30895   53.18%     10555   30.47%     41450   44.70%
Jim Gilchrist (AI)    10944   18.84%     12293   35.49%     23237   25.10%
Steve Young (Dem)     14697   25.30%     11229   32.42%     25926   28.00%
Béa Tiritilli (Grn)     915    1.58%       327    0.94%      1242    1.30%
Bruce Cohen (Lib)       644    1.10%       236    0.68%       880    0.90%
                      58095  100.00%     34640  100.00%     92735  100.00%

[clawrence3]

So, messing up on something as simple as "absentee ballots" made Gilchrist qualified for Congress how, exactly? If you lived in the 48th District, you could not have missed all the free airtime on wacko talk-radio and Gilchrist signs sprouting up everywhere - until this past weekend, he was leading in those areas by a long-shot - I think Hugh is correct that 10% is all you can count on for "sealing the borders."