Posted on 01/08/2009 2:39:22 AM PST by rhema
The recount process didn't work or, more accurately, could not reasonably determine a winner. Al Franken no more won the U.S. Senate race than your pet cat, Zuba, who somebody probably voted for as a write-in candidate.
It would have been more plausible had Norm Coleman won the recount, having won on Election Night but by such a slim margin that it was mathematically unacceptable and thus triggered a recount.
In Minnesota, a victory margin of less than one-half of 1 percent triggers a recount. That's ridiculous, because the process that followed resulted in even less than a one-half of 1 percent margin for the victor.
The recount cannot determine a winner because the recount process we just witnessed quite likely produced corruption, however carefully it was massaged. It is difficult to believe, for example, that Franken benefited each time the canvassing board, under the eagle-eyed glare of Mark Ritchie, a secretary of state who it seems was tailor-made for this particular victory by another Democrat, applied different standards to different problems.
A precinct in Minneapolis "lost'' 133 ballots? Well, let's ignore that and just revert to the election night tallies from that precinct. A precinct in Maplewood had 171 more ballots to count than their total from the election? Hmm, we better count those. Not to mention quite probably double-counted votes and the generosity that was shown to many of the absentee voters whose errors in following instructions were thought to be only "minor.''
The corruption we just witnessed is ideological in nature, a corruption of privilege and responsibility. Secretaries of state, like Ritchie, have become powerful players in elections. By encouraging more voting and making it sound virtuous and noble to do so, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, for example, brought into the fold more and more uninterested and disengaged bodies, cheapening the votes of the legitimate lot of us who vote correctly and responsibly. Joe Mansky, the chief election officer in Ramsey County, said the other day that when he asked the long line of absentee voters who were outside his offices the Monday before the election why they were there, he heard from many, "The Obama campaign sent us.''
Now, of course, the Obama campaign can obviously encourage the strongest possible voter turnout, but when voting activists drag a net through the state and dump every possible human being who can fog a mirror and don't need much identification at the polling places or have them fill out absentee ballots, you are simply providing all the ingredients necessary to cook a recount stew that resulted in, well, the way it was supposed to result this time.
The result is horribly tainted. It will probably hold, despite impending court proceedings, but it will be no less tainted. And yes, the same would be true had Coleman emerged with a 225-vote victory. The margin for error is too glaring to be ignored by the other side.
What we need is a margin of victory that is mathematically bulletproof, not one-half of 1 percent. I don't know what that margin is, but a mathematician could come up with it based on vote totals. Out of 2.9 million votes cast, there would have to be a margin of victory that could not be automatically challenged as questionable. One vote below that number would call for the coin flip — yes, a coin flip.
A coin flip would have been more honest and contained more dignity than this slop we just endured. It takes all mischief off the table. Ceremonial coins could have been minted with Norm's face on one side and Al's face on the other. The coin would be showed to the television cameras before the toss. The candidates wouldn't even have to call it. If their face survives the flip, they win.
Then, they shake hands, and the state sells off the 10,000 or so minted special coins and dedicates the proceeds to the arts or wetland restoration or, the way we are going, to providing more buses to bring numskulls to the polls. You just can't make a good recount stew without those questionable ballots.
The Mayor tweaks the larcenous liberals again.
Do you have a better link? This one seems to be broken.
The problem is, the folks who invented the recount process presumed that those doing the recount would a) be honest and b) do a careful tally.
Neither of those conditions hold, and every American should be taking notice.
“I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote, or how; but what is extraordinarily important is this —- who will count the votes, and how.” - Stalin
Just keep on recounting the recount. This could go on for ever. Maybe after 50 recounts, Minn might decide to hold another election.
“Personally, I am waiting for when a Governor appoints a horse as Senator.”
The governor of New York is getting ready to do just that.
Ouch. But funny.
Goes to prove that Democrats are such poor losers that they’ll do anything to force statistics and votes for a ‘win.’
I advocate a third party called the Patriot Party made up of Conservative, Traditional and Constitutionalist Voters.
This is what liberals consider "fair". As it states, this is a real picture of the parties involved in investigating Sarah Palin in Alaska.
This is the link to Joe's main page (and whatever his most current column is).
And they'd never buy the coin flip. A fifty percent chance of winning isn't as good as the 100 percent chance they're assured of when they cheat.
In a state that elected Jesse Ventura, Governor Caligula could be on the horizon.
Despite the writer’s flippant (pun intended) attitude about resolving close elections, runoffs are the only good answer. Of course, Dems would howl bloody murder in this case because they know Coleman would win a runoff in a cakewalk without Barry’s coattails.
I suspect this was the first ACORN election and elections will, over time- short time, more and more will be ACORN elections. The very number of prosecutions indicates that ACORN was involved in and may have decided many vote totals in November. American elections are coming more and more to resemble Venezuelan elections and will eventually look like Zimbabwe elections. It wouldn’t surprise me if Hussein or the Congress creates an Elections Fairness Board and staffs it with ACORN activists to oversee elections in the future.
That's not the way it would have gone. The Independent very likely took more votes from Franken than Coleman.
Jesse did us good. I wish people would quit bashing him.
We had a split senate and house majority and Jesse as Gov..
So we had a 3 way tug of war for power. Nothing got done, it was great. Jesse did give us the budget surplus back as a refund instead of spending it and he cut taxes.
Jesse was no better or worse than any other Gov out there.
He’d of probably been better than Palenty in handling this recount.
I’m not well versed on Minnesota politics so I’ll take your word for it. Whoever won a runoff would be legitimate though. The margin of victory would be higher most likely and the victory wouldn’t be tainted.
Quite simply we need to require PHOTO ID for voting. And no same-day registration and voting. And no provisional ballots for people too stupid to know where they are supposed to go and cast their ballots. Real citizens are being disenfranchised.
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