The State Canvassing Board really screwed up on Friday. First it allowed the 133 ballots found "missing" in Hennepin County to be counted (netting Franken 46 votes) - what the hell is the purpose of a recount if you're going to count phantom votes? How do we even know these ballots actually existed?
Secondly, the Board went along with (I believe) the ACORN Secretary of State's suggestion for each of the 87 counties to make independent determinations about whether rejected absentee ballots were done so properly. This allows each county to come up with their own standards - back to Florida 2000 (although not quite as bad). According to the guys at PowerLine, one county is going to count ballots that were not properly signed because the election judge signed it, and the election judge should have spotted the error when receiving the ballot and had the voter sign. Crap. That is clearly an invalid vote and should not be counted. The Minnesota Supreme Court appears to be going along with this folly.
This whole process, which I have previously defended in earlier threads, is descending into Florida 2000 and Washington 2004. The law in Minnesota is very, very clear that if Franken wants to look at the rejected absentee ballots, he must do so through the filing of an election challenge after the State Canvassing Board looks through the challenged ballots and certifies the election. He doesn’t want to wait because for public relations issues, because if the election is certified for Coleman, he’ll most likely begin to lose public support by filing a lawsuit.
But that’s what Minnesota law requires, and for obvious reasons - the uniform determination of which ballots were improperly rejected, and judicial review. When the District Court judge makes a determination about a ballot, either campaign can seek review of that judge’s determination through appeal. The ballots don’t get opened and counted until final review has been made. But the way things are now, people with partisan political intent - on both sides of the aisle - can taint this process. Liberals seem to miss the point that in order to have fair and valid elections, the process must be beyond reproach. But it appears to be win at all cost, damn public confidence.
Ping
The Star Tribune is projecting that Franken will net more than 300 votes in the challenge process providing him a lead of 140 votes or so. I hope that the Star Tribune is wrong about the projection. I am surprised that the projection involves a large gain for Franken. I had thought that the challenges would net just a small amount of votes for one candidate.
The law be damned. Political results are all Dems care about.
Minnesota is clearly making a bid to displace Venezuela for the title of “Most Corrupt/Most Inept Election Officials!”
Where’s Jimmy Carter when you REALLY need him - for a little comic relief?