Posted on 12/19/2008 2:24:20 PM PST by flattorney
- - Coleman Campaign Moves To Stop Double-Counting Of Votes. Double Counting Means There Will be More Votes Counted than Votes Cast on Election Day
ST. PAUL – In a petition filed with the Minnesota Supreme Court today, the Coleman for Senate campaign has requested the Court to prevent the Minnesota State Canvassing Board from including double-counted votes in its recount totals. The petition seeks to have precincts which now have more votes than voters reconcile their ballots so that the Canvassing Board's numbers are accurate. The campaign also asks that the Court imposes the vote totals in these precincts as recorded on Election Night if the originals and duplicates cannot be reconciled. The campaign further asks that this reconciliation process be part of the process the Court ordered yesterday for improperly rejected absentee ballots. That process must be completed by December 31.
Minnesota law requires local election officials to make a duplicate ballot if an original is damaged during the election night counting process. The officials are supposed to mark all such ballots as "duplicate" ballots and to segregate the original ballots which were damaged and therefore not counted on election night. The problem arose during the hand recount when duplicate ballots could not be found to match the originals because election officials had not marked them as duplicates on election night. The precincts challenged as part of this action are ones where BOTH the originals and duplicates were tabulated in the recount, as evidenced by there now being more votes than voters in those precincts. The effect is that some voters have had their vote counted twice.
The Coleman campaign last night proposed that the campaigns agree on a method for resolving these obvious errors. The Franken campaign rejected the proposal. According to Fritz Knaak, lead attorney for Coleman for Senate, it was hoped that both campaigns could have reached an agreement on this issue and prevented the need for court action. The Canvassing Board members have acknowledged an error with the count, but they said today they lacked the statutory authority to reconcile the obvious errors. That led to the Coleman campaign filing this action with the Minnesota Supreme Court.
“We are disappointed the Franken Campaign would not join us in finding a resolution to this serious problem. Unfortunately, without that resolution, the State Canvassing Board has made it clear they will have to count some Minnesotan’s votes twice. This means that millions of other Minnesota voters are being disenfranchised by the influence of hundreds of duplicate ballots that simply should not be counted. We respect the decision of the Board Members who have said that without an agreement by the campaigns they are powerless to remedy this matter. In order to ensure the integrity of the final results of the recount, the Canvassing Board must be provided clearer direction by the Supreme Court that such double-counting not only violates the Constitution, but also the sole purpose of the Canvassing Board which is to certify a recount only of the ballots counted on election night and not certify numbers which result in more ballots being counted than persons that voted on election day.”
Why dont they just have a runoff?
Wasn’t there a third candidate that got close to 25% of the vote?
According to the Star Tribune site, 1325 challenged ballots have been counted by the Canvassing Board through Friday. According to the SOS site, there were something like 6500 challenged ballots total to be reviewed, so they still have over 5000 remaining left to count. Of these, as you say, about 400 are withdrawn Franken challenges, almost sure to wind up in Coleman's column. Then there is also the unresolved matter of dealing with the "improperly rejected" absentee ballots, pursuant to the state Supreme Court order.
Please feel free to correct this if warranted or to add additional comments.
Please see my post # 22.
I’d heard more like 15% but you’re right; there’s no real way to even tell who actually won this election as things stand.
Actually, they imported the guy who helped Gregoire steal the Washington governorship four years ago, with more votes than voters in some areas. As four recounts proceeded, they kept finding “lost” bags of votes in restrooms, until the ‘rat won.
MAR
Yep, let the games begin. I am sure they learned a thing or 2 from ACORN. Frankenberry wants even duplicate votes counted so he can win. This is so stupid, only in America would one have to go to court in order to stop a duplicate vote from being counted. The real question is why werent the originals kept with the copy/duplicate vote....because they wanted them counted twice and who is the they??? Since last evening Frankenberry was ahead by 2 votes I gues they be the they. If you go to the papers website you can view the ballots that are challenged and some are marked duplicate as the reason. This isnt rocket science just basic math, 5th grade math.
You mean there’s actually a supreme court state or federal that is even willing to hear the other side?
Thanks for the alert. I hope it goes well.
Minnesota Supreme Court: Count rejected absentee ballots
Star Tribune | December 18, 2008 | PAT DOYLE
Posted on 12/18/2008 3:54:48 PM PST by Sopater
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2151131/posts
Wow, he’s taken the lead *again*? ;’) Partisan media shill watch...
Coleman’s Lead Dwindles to 2 Votes in Minnesota Senate Race
fox news | Dec. 18, 2008
Posted on 12/18/2008 4:44:52 PM PST by cdchik123
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2151162/posts
Minnesota Recount: FRANKEN +23 and rising fast
Star Tribune.com | Friday Dec. 19, 2008
Posted on 12/19/2008 7:35:02 AM PST by pillut48
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2151446/posts
Franken Takes Lead in Minnesota Senate race, Paper Says
(board will count tonight until done)
CNN | updated 47 minutes ago
Posted on 12/19/2008 11:44:34 AM PST by lewisglad
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2151571/posts
Franken takes the lead in Minnesota
The Hill | 12/19/08 | Michael O’Brien
Posted on 12/19/2008 12:45:11 PM PST by cdchik123
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2151599/posts
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