John Kerry in State of Denial, by Bob Woodward

On Principles & Values: Rejected challenging Ohio irregularities as too “personal”

• First, he could mount a challenge in Ohio based on the provisional ballots.
• Second, he could challenge Ohio based on allegations of voting irregularities.
• Third, and most dramatic, he had a dossier that showed how people in Democratic precincts in Ohio waited up to seven hours to vote. In Republican precincts there were no lines. Eight voting machines in some Republican precincts, and only one or two in some Democratic precincts.

Kerry decided to accept the result. “To do otherwise,” he said later, “would have personal. It would have been venal. As strongly as I feel that it is flawed, deeply flawed, it would have been the wrong thing to do, to prolong the agony.”

On Principles & Values: Challenging Ohio voting irregularities was too "personal"

1. He could mount a challenge in Ohio based on the provisional ballots. But the number of provisionals was roughly equivalent to Bush's lead, so Kerry would have to take virtually all of them.
2. He could challenge Ohio based on allegations of voting irregularities.
3. His campaign had a dossier that showed how people in Democratic precincts in Ohio waited 3 to 7 hours to vote. In Republican precincts there were no lines, and voters went through in 5 minutes, [based on] 8 voting machines in some Republican precincts, and only 1 or 3 in Democratic precincts. There was a real disparity.