Franken Making Dubious Ballot Challenges

Caleb, I get the feeling that if this were a ballot with scribble marks all over Franken's bubble and his campaign wanted it counted, we'd get a whole post about how if people are too stupid to be able to color in a bubble, their vote shouldn't count.

The larger issue is, if you have been paying attention to all of the news accounts, many ballots were challenged early. This was attributed to the representatives being a bit over zealous on both sides. Many were of these early challenges were resovled when lawyers and election judges looked at them. So the example from DailyKos wouldn't never play out because absurd challenges like this one won't hold up.

It's quite clear you have a Bill O'Reilly-like hatred for Al, which is fine I guess. However, what you can't seem to understand, is even if a ballot like the one you show actuall made it to the 4 judge panel put together buy the "highly partisan" SOS, they will count this for Norman. Why? They are impartial and it is clear what the voters intent was.

And finally, I assume you are concerned about the Dems getting to 60 seats. Otherwise, I can not understand how someone as conservative as you would be so forceful in your support for a RINO like Norm. He's such a wishy-washy flip flopper, that the Republican Party in MN kind of wished he'd just go away. Not that they would like to see Al in the Senate, but I guess they have about 10 other preferred candidates. If you have a moment, look for the footage of his acceptance speak at the MN State convention from 2002. It was funny and sad at the same time. It sounds like the whole convention was talking amongst themselves as Norman tried to give his speech - which included a cringe-worthy moment of Norman singing a Bob Dylan song...

The Dems will do everything in their power to dispute anything at all !!!

Like most of the right-wing echo chamber's comments on this race (Caleb and I think Dave on here, Morrissey on hotair.com, etc.), this is pretty silly. Of *course* Franken is making every effort to maximize his count and minimize Coleman's, and of course Coleman is doing the opposite (though of course Caleb won't mention that). That's precisely why the "recount observers" *don't* "determine the outcome of the election," they just give the local and state officials things to look at. It's up to those officials to make the decisions, and if they don't do that fairly, they're subject to indictment, impeachment, etc. Of course if the partisan observers *don't* bring things to their attention, they may not look at them at all. But if Coleman's people aren't doing that as avidly as Franken's (which I strongly suspect they are), it's because they're stupid (or maybe not in the long run, see below), not because Franken's people are "cheats."

Oh and BTW, pace Morrissey, unintentional undervotes (cases where a voter intended and/or attempted to mark a ballot for a particular race, but the machine for one reason or another didn't count it) certainly *do* exist, in all elections with all kinds of technology. They usually don't matter because most elections aren't this close. But the reason states have automatic recount rules is precisely because everyone knows every count has some margin of error.

For a look at what's actually going on in MN (based on continually updated info from local newspaper and state govt websites that are equally accessible to Caleb if he cares to look), here's Nate Silver on fivethirtyeight.com. As I've said here before, Nate himself is not "nonpartisan," but his analyses are credible because he's in the business of making predictions, and in fact he makes almost frighteningly accurate ones.

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/11/on-first-day-of-recount-franken-gains.html

Wednesday, November 19, 2008
[UPDATED] On First Day of Recount, Franken Gains Net of 43 Votes on Coleman

UPDATED, 9:15 PM Central

According to data just released by the Minnesota Secretary of State, Al Franken has gained a net of 43 votes on the first day of that state's recount process. Norm Coleman had a lead of 215 voters over Franken in Minnesota's certified, pre-recount tally; that margin is now 172 votes.
...
Although Franken gained ground relative to Coleman, in actuality both candidates have fewer votes than they began the day with. This is because of the "challenge" process in which representatives of either candidate may challenge any ballot for any reason, which will subsequently be reviewed one at a time by Minnesota's canvassing board in December. Challenges can occur to ballots that had previously been deemed to be legal, in which case those votes will be deducted from the opponent's total. Coleman has thus far challenged 115 ballots and Franken 106. However, based on local reports, many or perhaps most of the challenges are frivolous, and are unlikely to be upheld upon review. Thus, the candidate who has challenged fewer ballots probably stands to gain ground once such challenges are adjudicated.

Of Franken's net 43-vote gain, a net of 27 of those votes came from just two towns in Saint Louis County, Ely and Eveleth. These Northern villages, characteristically highly Democratic, use an older type of vote scanning technology called the Optech IIIP Eagle which is less reliable and requires use of an alternate ballot design. The Star Tribune reports, however, that about half the Saint Louis County precincts with the Eagle machines have already had their votes re-counted. Thus, it would be dangerous to extrapolate results from these precincts (and therefore to some extent Franken's overall gain today) to the county or statewide levels.

Caleb -
You should check out the slide show on the MN Public Radio site. It shows a series of challenged ballots by both sides that are laughable. There were 2 that had one bubble completly filled in and a single dot inside Norm's bubble and Coleman reps claim the intent was for Norm because of the single dot! I assume you are working on a post about the dubious Coleman challenges.

My sources in Chicago say that it is a sure thing that Franken will be elected. They say it would have been over by now if someone in two polling places hadn't screwed up their instructions. Anyway, Minnesota aka The ACORN state.

While some folks are obsessing on the unimportant, the big story is the donkey in the room, right in front of them.

Apparently, world financial markets just love the Obama election! There’s a bit of poetic justice knowing our President-elect, as a lawyer for ACORN, put the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac meltdown ball in motion.

Spin it any way you see fit, but, if you liked your 3rd Quarter 2008 investment or retirement plan statement, you’re just going to love your FY 2008 report, in January!

Obama will need to rethink his “tax cut for 95% of working families” campaign promise. You see, people who aren’t working don’t pay earned income tax, and those with huge portfolio losses won’t be paying capital gains taxes, either! Oh, and boomers, you better rethink that retirement date, as well!

Get ready, this is going to get interesting!

Here's another thing Caleb isn't telling us about:

>So far, unlike Florida in 2000, Norm
>Coleman's efforts are not working. We
>just found out last evening that
>Coleman's latest attempt to block and
>delay met the same fate as the others:
>defeat in the courts.
>
>But make no mistake, they can still twist
>the process. As the judge said yesterday,
>"With each passing hour, the Franken
>campaign is irreparably harmed in its
>efforts to ensure that each valid vote is
>properly counted."

Seems Franken isn't the only one here with lawyers. (Surprise, surprise!) Only Franken's lawyers aren't trying to stop the legally mandated recount.

Al Franken for Senator?.......that's laughable.....
another liberal big mouth and no brain.

JOE --- the only big mouth here is you. Al Franken is one very smart guy. He's actually a writer --- which is the highest intelligence professional group. READ YOUR APA.

WEITERS ARE SMART PEOPLE?? ---JUST TAKE A GOOD LOOK AT THE DUDS WRITING FOR THE NEW JERK TIMES!! ALL HAND TO MOUTH DEMO--JERK ASSES!!