First off, Ohio hasn't even finished the COUNT of their votes for the FIRST time. They're still working on the provisional and absentee ballots. (And, as I understand it, they've already destroyed many provisional ballots that they deemed unacceptable. IMO that should be illegal until all interested parties sign off on such destructin of "evidence.")

In theory, Kerry could win Ohio WITHOUT a recount. All it would probably take is the absentee ballots to be about 50% for Kerry and the provisional ballots to be nearly 90% for him.   This doesn't seem likely, but it's not out of the question.

Thank goodness Ohio has some fairness and rationality built into its election laws. It does take only 5 potentially "injured" citizens and ONE candidate on the ballot to demand a recount of any precinct's votes -- if they can raise the $$ to pay for it. (That is not a problem in the case of the 2004 election.)

Florida, on the other hand, makes it nearly impossible to get a recount -- especially if the "proprietary" software accidentally or deliberately made the outcome outside the margin of error. If the results were not "close," you can't get a manual recount -- even where there ARE paper ballots -- period. The exit polls could show Kerry winning 90% to 10% but if the "official" results show Bush winning by several percentage points, there won't be a recount. From what I've been reading and hearing, them's the rules, and even if a particular precinct's votes are highly suspect, you'd have to have the statewide count very close -- as it was in 2000 -- to get to recount that precinct.

I really do think Florida's electoral votes were stolen too -- based on exit polls vs. actual counts -- but I don't think this will ever be proved, because it's basically a hypothesis that can't be tested.