Free Republic

During each election cycle, hundreds of thousands of ballots are not counted on Election Day. Elections officials have approximately one month to complete their extensive tallying and certification work (known as the official canvass). Most notably, voting by mail has increased significantly in recent years and many vote-by-mail ballots arrive on Election Day. In processing vote-by-mail ballots, elections officials must confirm each voter's registration status, verify each voter's signature on the vote-by-mail envelope, and ensure each person did not vote elsewhere in the same election. Other ballots that are processed after Election Day include provisional ballots (processed similar to vote-by-mail...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) -- Republican Patrick Morrisey has denied state Attorney General Darrell McGraw a sixth term. Morrisey upset the Democrat Tuesday after a well-funded campaign that frequently invoked President Barack Obama, who is unpopular in the state. Morrisey has vowed to fight the federal health care overhaul in West Virginia. He also plans to use the office to combat regulations he believes hurt the economy. McGraw was first elected attorney general in 1992. McGraw argued that he's helped the state by enforcing its consumer protection and antitrust laws.

What do you think? Should Allen West concede? Take our poll and/or leave a comment.

Rep. Ron Paul, whose maverick presidential bids shook the GOP, said in the wake of this week's elections that the country has already veered over the fiscal cliff and he sees no chance of righting ship in a country where too many people are dependent on government. "We're so far gone. We're over the cliff," the Texas Republican told Bloomberg Television's "In the Loop" program. "We cannot get enough people in Congress in the next 5-10 years who will do wise things." The video can be seen at http://www.bloomberg.com/video/ron-paul-on-fiscal-cliff-and-vows-to-compromise-MYkAiqYBTaiHwXZL9Tvxkw.html. Read more: Ron Paul: Election shows U.S. 'far gone' - Washington...

Obama’s list of promises to keep includes many holdovers he was unable to deliver on in his first term, such as rolling back tax cuts for upper-income people, overhauling immigration policy and reducing federal deficits. Six in 10 voters said in exit polls that taxes should be increased, and nearly half of voters said taxes should be increased on incomes over $250,000, as Obama has called for. “It’s very clear from the exit polling that a majority of Americans recognize that we need to share responsibility for reducing the deficit,” Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen, the top Democrat on the...

Research in Motion yesterday laid off about 200 people at its U.S. headquarters in Irving, Texas, the Dallas Morning News is reporting. RIM confirmed that there were layoffs in Irving, the story says, but would not say how many jobs were cut. According to the newspaper, RIM denied that it has plans to close the Irving office, which according to the story had about 700 employees before the recent cuts. The story says that according to a source, most of the job cuts were to call center staff. Update: Here’s RIM’s official statement on the situation: RIM is on target...

A lot of Buzz already about Sarah running in 2016. From Palin4President comes a wealth of information. Some snippets: "Romney lost because he simply couldn't turn out the vote. McCain/Palin turned out 6.2 Million more voters than Romney/Ryan did and that is all it would have taken to beat Obama this time around if you look at the numbers. Perhaps Romney should put some thought into what is was that McCain had that helped produce an extra 6.2 million votes, that helped create the tidal wave of the 2010 mid-term victories... here's a hint... she wears lipstick." "A team of...

TE Connectivity, which makes electrical connectors for appliances and other devices, will close its factory in north High Point and eliminate 620 jobs, according to a company official. The closure and layoffs will happen in phases through the end of 2013, said Tom Peacock, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania-based firm said. TE Connectivity (NYSE: TEL) was known as Tyco Electronics until a name-change in 2011. Peacock said the closure of the facility will not impact the company’s other Triad facilities, and 50 employees from the closing factory will be transferred locally. TE Connectivity has three other Triad facilities. Peacock said...

In the wake of the GOP’s disappointing election, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Wednesday signaled a willingness to accept higher tax revenues as part of a deficit cutting deal. The fast-approaching deadline to stop a combination of tax hikes and spending cuts left Boehner and other leaders with little time to digest Republican Mitt Romney’s defeat on Tuesday. Leaders on both sides of the Capitol moved swiftly to stake out their positions on the fiscal cliff, with Boehner calling for a “down payment” that would lead to a farther-reaching pact in 2013 and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) saying...

Rep. Allen West is leading by more than 300 votes in Palm Beach County, Fla., a hopeful sign for the Tea Party favorite fighting for his political life after Tuesday’s election, a source told TheBlaze. No winner has been declared in the congressional race between the Republican West and his Democratic opponent Patrick Murphy, though Murphy had a 2,456-vote lead in the unofficial vote total. But a Republican observer who has been monitoring the counting process said West pulled ahead in Palm Beach County on Thursday as the initial count continues. Ballot printing errors led to ballots that could not...

Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Barack Obama shoulder the responsibility for the entire human race, Israeli President Shimon Peres said during a meeting with Putin in the Kremlin on Thursday. Peres, on an official visit to Russia representing Israel at the opening of the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center in Moscow, thanked Russia for helping to defeat Adolf Hitler. “I think the whole world is deeply indebted to the Russian people for its superhuman efforts to eradicate the Nazi threat,” Peres said, adding he is grateful to Russia “as a citizen of the world, and as a Jew.”...

If someone invented the ability to copy food, or copy oil, there would be riots in the streets if everyone couldn’t have all the food and oil they wanted. And today, with MASSIVE political upside to conservatives: We can promise the have-nots ALL the movies for FREE. We can promise them ALL the video games for FREE. We can promise them a copy of EVERY song for FREE. We can promise them a copy of EVERY single college course taught at an Ivy League school for FREE Conservatives should & ought to do this. We should do this because the...

MUCH of the coverage of Tuesday’s results has focused on the strength of Barack Obama’s coalition — minorities, women and young voters. But that analysis misses the real point. The contours of the 2012 presidential race were shaped less by the country’s changing demographics than by the underlying attitudes and values of American voters, who are always far more complex than they appear to pollsters. The president’s victory was a triumph of vision, not of demographics. He won because he articulated a set of values that define an America that the majority of us wish to live in: A nation...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A new government report says the so-called fiscal cliff would send the economy back into recession and cause a spike in the jobless rate to 9.1 percent by next fall. The Congressional Budget Office analysis says the combination of automatic tax increases and spending cuts would cut the deficit by $503 billion through next September. But that would cause the economy to shrink by 0.5 percent next year. The report comes as a newly re-elected President Barack Obama and Congress are seeking ways to avert the problems. The study estimates that America's gross domestic product would grow...

(This post is very numbers-heavy but bear with me and get through it. I guarantee it will be worth it.)... In the end, the news was bad for us.Did more Democrats vote for Obama than Romney? Yes. Did Obama win virtually every swing state? Yes. Did Obama trounce Romney in the electoral college? Yes. Did Obama overwhelmingly get the overwhelming majority of blacks, Hispanics, and the youth vote -- especially single women? Hell, yes.Did over 2.0 million fewer people vote Republican in 2012 than in 2008. Yes. All these facts about the election have led many pundits to conclude our populace...

Nextel to cut 20% of jobs at Virginia headquarters Wednesday 7 November 2012 | 11:09 CET | News NII Holdings, which operates mobile services under the Nextel brand in Latin America, announced that it is taking actions to realign certain resources and roles between its headquarters and market units in order to create a stronger and more agile organization, and to facilitate future growth. As part of this strategy, the company is reassigning select positions located at its headquarters to its operations in Latin America and eliminating certain positions at its corporate headquarters in Virginia (US). In total, the company...

RUSH: Folks, I have to ask for your forgiveness in advance here because I can't stop laughing, and I know there's nothing to laugh about. I mean, this is not funny. But I can't stop it. Maybe it's the post-stress release where you just get uncontrollably giggly or whatever, but I'm going through my sound bite roster today, I'm watching stuff on television, and I'm hearing what people say. I'm reading stuff here in the show prep and I just can't stop laughing at the futility of it all! Anyway, I'll walk you all through it. Great to have you...

It has been two days since the US election where President Obama was re-elected and both the House and Senate remained in the same hands. In other words, nothing changed. The reaction? Dow Jones Industrial Average The reaction was decidedly negative since the election signals more of the same policies under which the economy if foundering. Ten Year Treasury Yields Ten year Treasury yields have dropped indicating a rush to safety. Gold Prices Gold prices have risen a heck of lot faster than the stock market, particularly today. Silver Prices Often used as a defense against vampires and werewolves, silver...

November 7, 2012 Staff and Wire reports U.S. Cellular is selling its Chicago customers to Sprint and shedding hundreds of local jobs. Sprint is buying U.S. Cellular markets in the Midwest for $480 million to boost its network capacity in that region. CEO Mary Dillon said Wednesday morning that U.S. Cellular customers won’t see any immediate changes and that it will likely take months for the FCC to approve the deal. Dillon said the deal will mean job losses in Chicago and around the Midwest. "In Chicago, it’s about 160," Dillon said. "In the greater Chicago area, about 680 and...

Over the next few days, I will cover a variety of issues I believe explain what happened in Ohio in 2012. The first issue starts at the very beginning of the process in Ohio. Now, it is always tricky to extrapolate primary data to general-election data, but I believe two data points, discussed below, from Ohio’s primary foreshadowed problems for Republicans and in the base with Governor Mitt Romney. First, in the 2008 fully contested Democratic primary between Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator Barack Obama, 2,386,945 Ohioans cast ballots. Remember, Ohio has open primaries where voters select either a Democratic...