Posted on 12/11/2008 2:27:28 AM PST by rhema
The envelope with 133 paper ballots in the Norm Coleman-Al Franken Senate race that went missing from a Dinkytown precinct apparently will stay missing. Marc Elias, possibly the most enthusiastic of Franken's attorneys, had demanded a 'forensic'' search for those ballots, either meaning they were dead or he wished magnifying glasses, rubber gloves and yellow police tape brought to the adventure.
Elias, in particular, has postured his concern for the voters in almost apocalyptic terms, never failing to introduce a note of theatricality, working as he does for a show-biz candidate.
So, and anyway, and whatever, 133 ballots went missing from an overwhelmingly DFL stronghold. It was noted Monday that Minneapolis elections officials called off the search, meaning one of two things:
Either the election night votes from that precinct will stand, if that passes muster with the state canvassing board when it meets, or the 133 missing ballots will not be counted, in which case Coleman would gain 36 votes compared with election night from that fire barn or coffeehouse or library or wherever that precinct was.
That confused me, for I labored under the assumption that no one could possibly know the outcome of the missing 133 ballots. How could Coleman gain 36 votes (which would be fine with me, by the way)?
John Aiken with the secretary of state's office tried to help me, and I think we've got it. Coleman performed better in that precinct when you take away 133 ballots, gaining 36 votes. I'm still not sure if I have that correct, but I expect to be applauded for still trying to pay attention to this dog's breakfast. I made an attempt to understand it not only with Aiken, but with whomever I tried first at the state, before being steered to Aiken. The reason it is even interesting is why the Franken camp has seemingly been gracious about the called-off search. They haven't been gracious about much at all, and to see them suddenly accepting the lost 133 ballots was surprising to the point of believing they must be up to something.
Elias — here comes another performance — said, "We take solace in the fact that the voters in this precinct still will have their votes counted, as the secretary of state has said that the canvassed and audited election night results may stand in the absence of these ballots.''
Well, not necessarily. It's up to the canvassing board whether to include those 133 votes.
Meanwhile, the slugfest shows no signs of ending. The Franken people have been adamant that rejected absentee ballots be examined for the validity of their rejection. Some counties are allowing the Franken campaign access to voters whose absentee ballots were rejected, and other counties, on the advice of their attorneys, are refusing the request on the grounds that the ballots were rejected and therefore not part of the recount. Only cast ballots have been recounted.
The Franken campaign, whimsically ignoring the idea — the law, actually — that only cast ballots be counted, have dreamed up something called the "fifth pile," which sounds like the medical condition we will have when this is over.
In other words, they wish for a pile of rejected absentee ballots to be created, along with the four piles of ballots that were rejected for reasons the law calls for them to be rejected.
The ballots in that so-called fifth pile would be challenged as failing to exhibit any reasons for rejection, adding them to the challenged ballots that were actually cast. And because the recount examined only cast ballots, not rejected ballots, we'll see you in court. That Franken lost Nov. 4 and continues to lose does not stop him.
That’s funnier than anything Franken ever wrote.
Day .... of Minnesota held hostage.
If I were from Minnesota, I would be so embarrased I would demand a duel between the 2 buttheads to settle this!
Wow.... DFLers in MN must be a special kind of stupid.
LOSING an envelope stuffed with voted for their guy?
Smalley deserves to lose with incompetence like that running rampant in his party.
Is this thing still going on? What are they doing, counting on their fingers?
“the recount that never ends”
franken-loving psychotic adolescents (adults who never grew up) at work.
IMHO
DFL, aka Dumb F*u(ker$ League.
The wheels of justice grind slowly, but exceedingly fine!
For sure Lady Justice is blind, but sometimes invisible. I can think of numerous cases where openly visible justice does not result, maybe you are referring to Karma Police.
Although, with all the fussing about $hitcago politics and possible ties to nobama and all, these last few days, justice may be like that for Al Capone.
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