Steven Holt: “this debate is not frivolous. This is not about sour grapes. This is not about conspiracy theories. This is about the…”

“this debate is not frivolous. This is not about sour grapes. This is not about conspiracy theories. This is about the central act of democracy. Here in the House of Representatives all members have been elected. Some of us have been elected in recounts. What are recounts? They are independent checks of the tally. Reliable knowledge is verifiable knowledge. As my colleagues know, I am a scientist. It is a principle of scientific thinking that one person's claim must be subject to independent confirmation or correction. I agree with Senator John Kerry. We should today award Ohio's electoral votes to President Bush. I believe President Bush got more votes in Ohio then did Senator Kerry. I believe it. I cannot confirm it. No one can confirm it. Consider electronic voting machines. If there was an error between the voter casting the vote on the touch screen and the recording of an electronic signal in a memory bank, no one will ever know. It might be a software error; it would not necessarily be a malicious conspiracy. But if the vote is recorded incorrectly, no one will ever know. I ask my colleagues, can anyone say he or she knows that the actual vote is what has been presented to us? The answer is no. None of us can say this knowledge has been independently verified. It is not reliable knowledge unless it is verified knowledge. This is not a philosophical fine point. Americans don't want to and should not have to take the results simply on faith.”