As of about 7 PM on Tuesday, Talking Points heard (from his sources on CNN and MSNBC) that Palm Beach County had given Gore a measly 3 more votes, with about 1/5 of the precincts reporting. Broward had given the veep a semi-respectable 118 votes more with all the precincts reporting. And Miami-Dade had given Gore 114 more votes with 99 out of 614 precincts.
Let’s hear it for Miami-Dade! These guys are really pulling their weight!
(Actually the vote woman on MSNBC says those hundred-odd precincts already reporting lean even more Democratic than the rest of the county. So maybe it’s not as good as it sounds.)
Of course, the real issue is dimples. And which counties have how many ‘undervotes’ – that undiscovered country of hidden suffrage? Palm Beach has about 10,000; Broward’s got between 1,000 and 2,000; and Miami-Dade has some 10,750.
So, hey, there’s plenty of work to be done, assuming the Florida Supreme Court doesn’t completely shut Gore down.
Oh yeah, one other thing. If you include the already counted Palm Beach ballots with dimples Gore picks up another 301 votes.
So Gore’s not doing that badly. But obviously it’s going to come down to whether or not he gets his dimples.
From real Gore campaign sources I’ve heard that the whole race will come down to 100 or 150 vote spread either way. Unfortunately for them they’re not sure which way.
Talking Points is also wondering what’s up with retiring Senator Bob Kerrey. Normally Kerrey is a bit of spoil sport, especially in partisan terms. And for years he could be counted on to trash and take potshots at the Clinton-Gore administration. (In fact, Talking Points has been trashing Senator Kerrey in print for a couple years now – example one, two, and three.)
But all of sudden he’s Al Gore’s biggest pit bull. Today the Gore team had Kerrey (a Vietnam vet who lost the lower part of one leg in the war) down in Florida taking the fight to the Republicans on the military overseas ballot issue. Apparently, a bunch of those overseas military ballots had problems besides not being postmarked. No signatures, no witnesses, etc.
Senator Kerrey’s line: if you’re in the military, you’re supposed to follow the rules.
I could get to like this guy!
P.S. Talking Points would like to make clear that he is actually quite pro-military, and something of a foreign policy hawk. So no emails saying he’s ganging up on the military!
