Posted on 12/12/2008 9:39:44 AM PST by Chet 99
Franken camp wins two key rulings
Al Franken’s campaign won two key rulings today that may help him overcome a tiny deficit against Sen. Norm Coleman in the Minnesota Senate recount.
The Minnesota Canvassing Board unanimously recommended that all counties include the absentee ballots that were unfairly rejected on Election Day in the recount. Election officials throughout the state have been sorting absentee ballots based on why they were rejected – and putting aside a fifth group (called the “fifth pile”) with those unfairly rejected ballots.
Minnesota’s Deputy Secretary of State predicted over 1,500 ballots fall in this category. If they’re included, they could potentially overturn Coleman’s razor-thin lead. Coleman leads Franken by 192 votes, according to the Secretary of State’s official count.
Earlier, the Canvassing Board voted unanimously to include the 133 missing ballots from a Minneapolis precinct that voted overwhelmingly for Franken -- another victory for the Franken camp. Coleman’s campaign argued the ballots may never have existed in the first place, and shouldn’t have been counted.
Next week, the Canvassing Board will pore over as many as 4,000 ballots that both campaigns have disputed.
And another victory and another until the tally finally favors Franken. It's a shame, really. We've got senate seats for sale to the highest bidder and any election outcome can be changed to favor Democrats because they know how to grease the wheels. Maybe in the wake of the Blago scandal, Franken should be investigated too. Fitz, you listening? We have a common pattern here.
where is the republican?
Was there ever any doubt that the Democrats would do whatever was necessary to steal this seat?
We live in a socialist dictatorship now. This is how it works.
The dems ought to be right with us in denying this skidmark a seat in the senate. He’s bound to become an embarrassment.
Senator Al Franken.
Senator Al Franken.
Senator Al Franken.
See how easy that is?
Get used to it.
The fix is in.
Don’t think that’s a fair characterization of Coleman. He’s hired a top election lawyer just in case but not much you can do when local officials stack the deck.
It’s possible that a court would have put the absentee ballots back in anyway, if they truly were rejected improperly.
But the 133 ballot issue is absurd. The whole point of having a “recount” is that you don’t trust the election night count, because someone might have missed counting ballots, or might have counted them twice.
Further, the point of the “recount” is that you PRESUME that a visual inspection of the ballot is better than a machine.
But in this case, where the hand recount showed that 133 ballots were double-counted on election night, instead the canvassing board decides to use the election-night machine count. But they were supposed to only count ballots that could be inspected, and the 133 could not be inspected to reveal voter intent.
If Coleman takes that to court, he probably will win, because it appears case law is on his side.
If Al Franken actually wins this, I will take it as a sure sign that the Apocalypse is nigh.
New tagline...
Where's the outrage?
Now's the time because we're at the point of no return. If Franken wins, he won't be able to be challenged. That's just the way it works.
even for the military..they should vote in person no matter where they are stationed.
the COTUS call for an election day. early voting, absentee voting, etc are unconstituional.
Get rid of Clinton’s Motor Voter Act, same day registration, early voting, and require a pictured state ID.
Also - get rid of trying to determine the “intention of the voter” as you will never know that information.
I am sadly disapointed in how my state is handling this recount. They are twisting rules to make sure Franken “pulls it out”.
To be fair to myself though, as soon as it went to recount I knew who the winner would be. I learned at a very early age that Republicans never win recounts.
Pretty easy when you understand that! How sad for our country.
ping
How do they know how many votes Stuart Smalley got? They must have counted this batch before “they went missing.”
What you speculate is correct. There are 133 votes tallied on the voting machine for which paper ballots could not be found for the recount.
I think Minnesota uses scanners. You mark your ballot, then feed it into the scanner. There were records of 133 votes scanned, but the paper ballots for those votes cannot be found.
Essentially, for those 133, it’s the same as for a computerized voting system with no paper record.
Not ballots that were rejected because they were improperly filled out or submitted. Screwed up ballots always greatly favor the dem because...well, because democratic voters tend to be stupid and incompetent.
But in this case, where the hand recount showed that 133 ballots were double-counted on election night, instead the canvassing board decides to use the election-night machine count. But they were supposed to only count ballots that could be inspected, and the 133 could not be inspected to reveal voter intent.
Yes, but the local election officials claim they placed the counted ballots in five separate envelopes marked "1 of 5", "2 of 5", and so on. When they retrieved the ballots the envelope marked "1 of 5" could not be found. That's where they get the missing 133 ballots from.
*If* that's true (and I'm guessing the courts will eventually have to decide that), then it would be unfair to the voter whose votes were in that envelope (Republicans and Democrats) if they were rejected through no fault of their own.
Now it is possible that if the 133 votes could have be recounted, the numbers would come out different, but any difference in the result would be much smaller than that which would happen if the votes were omitted altogether.
I also think I read somewhere that there is precedent in MN for this type of thing happening before. They counted the missing votes in the final recount tally.
It sucks for Coleman, certainly, but as conservatives our priority should be to see that every valid vote cast is counted. If those missing votes are not fraudulent (and there is no evidence to say that they were) then they should be counted.
How do you count MISSING BALLOTS???
I am not too bright- so please explain s l o w l y and with s m a l l words.
Hey Mini-soda, I have some missing ballots, shall I send them?
Very simply.
If there are 80 missing ballots, you count 80 additional votes for Franken. Then you continue to find new ballots that have gone missing until Franken takes the lead.
59 in the Senate is not a good prospect. Is it true that when the new Senate is sworn in they can change the filibuster rules anyway to a lower number required? Either was 59 plus one RINO(which they will find on almost every bill)gives them the win. Scary.
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