Johnson declared winner in SD by Fox

Fox News | 11//5/02

[pabianice]

Wins by 800 votes.

[Catspaw]

Can you say "recount?" I knew you could.

[ABE]

What they need to do is find some evidence of fraud so they can kick off an investigation.

A recount would just count the bad votes again.

[cody32127]

Funny thing about that is that Thune was in the lead until they counted the indian reservations, that the democrats commited vote fraud and are to be indited next week.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

More SD election history, Tommy's 1978 Senate race:

But would it be enough? Early returns on Election Day looked grim. Republicans swept five out of six statewide constitutional offices and won two-thirds majorities in both legislative chambers. The GOP also took the governor's office for the first time in eight years and won back the Senate seat vacated by Mr. Abourezk.

Things didn't look much better for Mr. Daschle. When the counting stopped in the wee small hours of Wednesday, Nov. 8, he trailed Mr. Thorsness by 42 votes. It looked like he would be swept away by the rising GOP tide.

Then, in a weird precursor to the presidential race of 2000, a locked box of absentee ballots was discovered in Minehaha County, home to the city of Sioux Falls - a discovery that kicked off weeks of canvasses, recounts, and court challenges. Precinct by precinct, both sides identified suspect ballot boxes, brought in lawyers, and argued over individual slips of paper.

Like the electoral equivalent of Chinese water torture, Mr. Thorsness watched his lead erode one vote at a time. A week after the election, his margin was cut to 16. The season's first blizzard buried the state in snow, and still the counting dragged on. Norman Rockwell died, San Francisco Mayor George Moscone was assassinated, Mickey Mouse turned 50, and the Rev. Jim Jones led the mass suicide of nearly 1,000 followers in the jungles of Guyana.

Thanksgiving came and went. Four days later, with the initial recount complete, Tom Daschle got his first good news: Out of 129,000 votes cast, he had won by 14. The secretary of state (who happened to be the mother of his old classmate, Lars Herseth) rushed to certify him as the winner.

But the Thorsness camp wasn't satisfied, and a district-wide recount got underway. When freshman orientation started in Washington, the outcome of the race was still so uncertain that both men showed up to get their introduction to the Congress. But even as he was learning his way around the Capitol, Mr. Thorsness was learning the bitter truth: Back in South Dakota, he was losing ground rather than gaining.

In January, when the final numbers at last came in, Tom Daschle had won by 139 votes. Still just 31 years old, he had already survived the toughest political race of his career. Uncertain how to pronounce his name, his fellow lawmakers dubbed him "Landslide." It was meant to be ironic. It turned out to be prophetic.

Mad Daschle, 1978.

[nicmarlo]

evidence of fraud

There's already evidence of plenty:

1. On-going investigation re Indian absentee ballots
2. Signatures on absentee ballots looking obviously identical
3. Extending poll times in middle of election
4. TO BE YET DISCOVERED

[rellimpank]

--thanks for nothing, Libertarians,--hope you are happy with anti-gun weasel Clintonoid, D'Arschloch Johnson--

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Mad Daschle: by World Magazine courtesy of frontpagemag.com - October 14, 2002, not written in 1978.

[Quilla]

Interesting post, thanks Cowgirl. Do you know if a recount is automatic in SD for a vote this close?

[prophetic]

bye bye D'ash-hole
dont let the door hit your @ss on the way out :-)

[VOA]

bump

[bandleader]

I guess they counted the dead indians,maybe even the cigar-store indians!!

[hispanarepublicana]

dont let the door hit your @ss on the way out :-)

aka: Don't let the door hit you where the good Lord split you.

[sauropod]

Bad news.

[joltinjoe]

This morning on Fox or MSNBC they said there were approx. 1000 votes left to count and Thune was up by 200 at the time. If Johnson really won by 800, he got 1000/1000 votes.

Pretty Amazing.

[LurkerNoMore!]

Johnson is giving his V speech now. I still can't look at the guy without seeing "Kurt" from The Sound of Music.

[niteowl77]

Someone in SD had better go to jail for vote fraud, and do some serious time- America badly needs a proverbial head on a pike to show that this is serious business, not a harmless prank.

[Rushmore Rocks]

This is what happens when the candidate's wife gives thousands of dollars worth of coats to the poor little Indian children two weeks prior to the election. I certainly don't begrudge them coats, but the timing is suspect. Our other Republican candidates won handily. Kinda makes you go hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!

[EternalVigilance]

Yeah, I've been wondering how many of Johnson's voters saw Lewis and Clark sail by when they were going up the Missouri, or how many fought Custer.

[HamiltonJay]

Oh this one will automatically be recounted... combined with the fact there is alread a voter fraud investigation underway in S.D. I suspect this one will be drawn out for a while... but the great thing is, as far as control of the Senate goes... IT DOESN'T MATTER!

51 Seats... even if another Jeffords happens, they still keep control! Its official, we won this battle, and won it big. Now lets see those elected actually use this power effectively and wisely

Get the Federal Judges seated.
Get Homeland Security passed.
Get late term abortion BANNED.
Get the tax cuts permanent.
Get the appropriations bill done.
Get all the other legislation that nepoleanic despot daschle has been keeping off the floor done too.

No power sharing BS... get it done.. you won, you won you won... now act like it.