Replies

FURTHER UPDATE: The Minneapolis Star Tribune has this explanation: Reporter Mark Brunswick has talked to election officials for Mt. Iron and the county, and here's what they say: The precinct officials called in the correct results on Election Night: 506 for Franken, 211 for Coleman. But the county incorrectly wrote down 406 for Franken, 211 for Coleman. And that's what was reported to the Minnesota Secretary of State's office. Wednesday night, the Secretary of State website showed a 100-vote increase for Franken in Mt. Iron, Pct. 1. The Coleman camp's Cullen Sheehan says the timestamp on the ballot machine's vote total reads: "11/02/2008″ That's two days before the Nov. 4 election. A county official told Brunswick that the machine's clock must be incorrect. When they tested a machine in Mt. Iron Pct. 2 in late October, running test ballots through to make sure the machine was working properly, it also showed an incorrect date on the printout. And the printout from that Pct. 2 machine in Mt. Iron on Election Night, when it printed out the final vote tallies that remain unchanged, also shows an incorrect timestamp of Oct. 31. Several of these assertions are subject to verification. One thing I don't understand is why local officials called the results in to St. Louis County, which then wrote them down by hand. Precinct 1 in Mountain Iron, according to the Minnesota Secretary of State's web site, uses an optical scanner. So the results should have been uploaded electronically to St. Louis County. Is there some reason why that system was not functioning? So far, I've seen no explanation. Also, the tape that was printed off the optical scanner after the polls closed on November 4 should have been signed by the election judges, both a Republican and a Democrat. Did this happen? Obviously, the tape that was given to the Coleman campaign wasn't signed. But somewhere there should be a Republican election judge who can shed light on what happened.

"machine's vote total reads: "11/02/2008″ That's two days before the Nov. 4 election. A county official told Brunswick that the machine's clock must be incorrect." This is an unacceptable way to do things. All the votes should be thrown if it can't be determined if they are accurate. If people don't know how to run an election, then they should not be running an election. It's much to important to make it up as they go.