Posted on 12/06/2008 9:39:08 AM PST by St. Louis Conservative
As we noted last night, Minnesota's Senate recount is over, with just one precinct outstanding. That precinct is Minneapolis's Ward 3, Precinct 1, where election officials found that 133 more votes were recorded on a voting machine than there were ballots inside the machine. That discrepancy has triggered a hunt for the 133 "missing" ballots.
Several journalists from other states have asked us about the discrepancy between the vote totals as reported by the Minnesota Secretary of State and by the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Currently, the Secretary of State shows Norm Coleman leading by 687 votes with a single precinct still outstanding. The Strib, on the other hand, has Coleman with a 192-vote victory, with 100% of the ballots recounted.
Actually, the Secretary of State's numbers have always been different from the Strib's, as the SOS reports ballots actually recounted, while the Strib has used the Nov. 4 totals as a baseline and has tracked changes as the precincts came in. Thus, there was a time when SOS showed Coleman with a 13,000-vote lead while the Strib had him up by, say, 300. Just a few days ago there was a bit of a panic when SOS showed Franken suddenly taking a 4,000 vote lead. The Strib, though, showed Coleman up by around 200. As the recount got closer to completion, the numbers naturally converged, but they have never been the same.
The current discrepancy is accounted for by the one precinct that is still outstanding in SOS's tally, Minneapolis's Ward 3, Precinct 1. SOS has not tallied any votes for that precinct, since it doesn't regard the recount as complete. W3P1 is a heavily Democratic precinct. On November 4 it voted 1,090 to 595 for Franken. That 495-vote margin represents the difference between the two figures (687-192). The Strib's number assumes that the recounted totals for W3P1 will be the same as the Nov. 4 totals, i.e., that the "missing" ballots will be found and counted.
This is good news for Coleman in the sense that the Strib's 192-vote margin is a minimum. Should the ultimate determination be that the "missing" ballots can't be counted, the effect will be to increase Coleman's margin of victory since those ballots were presumably around two to one for Franken.
Aren’t we ignoring the challenged ballots that will be reviewed by the canvassing board?
The marxists who support Franken will keep on trying to find ways to recount these votes until Franken wins.
The believe the Democrat Senate can step in and interfere with the election.
Franken is such a disgusting POS. I’m a woman and I have NEVER received a job through any sort of Affirmative Action, and I would also never take part in rediculous election recounts such as these. Everything I earned was through hard work and honesty.
Apparenely Franken has no pride whatsover.
Unlikely, since with the GOP getting the win in Ga. and 40 votes, there is no real purpose to fighting over a Senate seat.
The Democrat members of the Senate should consider this - do they REALLY want Al Franken around them on a daily basis?
Self-interest should prevail here.
The Rat Senate will not be doing any grandstanding on behalf of Frankenpuss.
Much easier to rely on reliable RINOs anyway.
And they will. Expect McCain to put one in our back too on Shamnesty.
You know he’s been dying to do it too.
Yes there is. They can always peal off a couple liberal Republicans, or Maverick John McCain can once again come to their rescue.
A known tactic of dems in strongly democratic wards when they control the polling location and there are no observers. They run a bunch of ballots through twice, then go in and check off that number of voters off the list.
You're assuming that the GOP senators will always vote as a bloc.
You're assuming that the GOP senators will always vote as a bloc.
No, I am looking at the way the Democrats would, they have nothing to really gain by fighting over this last seat.
Yes there is. They can always peal off a couple liberal Republicans, or Maverick John McCain can once again come to their rescue.
And the Republicans can always get a couple Democrats as well to back their position.
Apparently???
His lack of personal pride and scruples is what made him what he is whatever that creature is.
???
Is that a joke? With "Republicans" like Snowe, Collins, McCain, Specter, Voinovich, and a couple of other wild cards, every last seat matters, big time.
You my FRiend are NOT looking at it the way a Democrat does, simply because a dimocrat would NEVER take a fight, losing or winning as a lost cause.
Everything political to a Democrat has purpose and agenda, always.
I have a neighbor a block down who STILL totes a "Franken" yard sign until it's over. (government worker of course no doubt)
Yes, but by all accounts, those will come out a wash. Both campaigns readily admit that most of the challenges are frivolous, and the vast majority will be tossed. Coleman has challenged slightly more than Franken, but the general consensus is that the challenged ballots will not change the vote by much, if any.
??? Is that a joke? With "Republicans" like Snowe, Collins, McCain, Specter, Voinovich, and a couple of other wild cards, every last seat matters, big time.
Not to the Democrats it doesn't.
They aren't going to waste time fighting over a Senate seat THEY don't need.
Yes, apparently should definitely been “obviously”
No doubt about it.
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