Ohio Recount - Thanks to the 3rd parties

It looks like a vote recount in Ohio is going to happen, thanks to the Cobb/LaMarche campaign (Green Party) and the Badnarik/Campagna campaign (Libertarian Party). A formal letter
has been sent to the election director in each of the 88 counties in
Ohio. The Greens and Libertarians and supporters have raised the
required $113,600 to file for the recount and have been raising
additional funds to cover attorney fees and other costs that will be
incurred. If you would like to help, you can donate here.

It is ridiculous that we cannot have confidence in the elections in the
United States of America. It is shameful that so many elections
officials have been reluctant (to put it mildly) to support the idea of
a paper trail for electronic voting. What do they fear? Surely one
cannot object to honesty, to the ability to have a real audit trail.

It would be a lot to hope for that Ohio would end up going to Kerry,
and I am pretty much resigned to 4 more years of the Bush madness. My
main hope is that the Ohio recount will result in public awareness
of the need for greater transparency in the elections process. Supervisors of elections, just like judges, should be
non-partisan. With something as serious as supervising elections, it is
important to avoid even the appearance of impropriety. With the
Secretaries of State in Florida and Ohio also serving as chairs for the
Bush campaign, there was an obvious conflict of interest.

This will be
interesting to watch.