A Cost Of $5000 Per Vote

Ohio has officially finished the recount demanded by the Green and Libertarian parties and encouraged by the Democrats and the Kerry campaign. The result? President Bush’s lead diminished … by 300 votes:

Election officials finished the presidential recount in Ohio on Tuesday, with the final tally shaving about 300 votes off President Bush’s six-figure margin of victory in the state that gave him a second term.
The recount shows Bush winning Ohio by 118,457 votes over John Kerry, according to unofficial results provided to The Associated Press by the 88 counties. Lucas County, home to Toledo, was the last to finish counting.
The state had earlier declared Bush the winner by 118,775 votes and plans to adjust its totals to reflect the recount later this week.

That certainly proved a productive use of Ohio’s resources. The Secretary of State estimated that Ohio’s taxpayers will eat about $1.5 million for the complete recount, far outpacing the $113,000 the Greens and Libertarians paid for the effort. When that money isn’t available for more voting machines or a few workers get laid off because of the budget crunch, perhaps Buckeye State voters will remember that this useless bill was brought to them by the Democrats and fringe parties.
I’ve heard of vote-buying before, but $5000 a throw seems a bit steep, even for free-spending Democrats.
UPDATE: Dorian at Alarming News (guesting for Karol Sheinin) notes the AP headline bias that commenter TG Harris also noted.