Big Win For Coleman

PewerLine ^ | 2/3/08 | John Hinderaker

[Buck W.]

This report (link), hot off the press, signifies a victory for Norm Coleman in the election contest with Al Franken: the court hearing the contest has ruled that "all absentee ballots that complied with state law should be counted, along with those where errors occurred through no fault of the voter." Franken has been trying to prevent a number of ballots that complied with state law from being counted.

[Paul Heinzman]

bad comedian

The newspeak word for that is humorist. Update your style manual.

;-)

[Krankor]

Powerline has been wrong on almost everything regarding the
Minnesota senate race. The only reason it’s good news is because Coleman automatically loses if they don’t count any more ballots.

[GreatOne]

Explain to me/us how Powerline has been wrong “on almost everything” please.

[GreatOne]

I’m afraid to admit this, but part of me wants franken to steal the victory.

If Franken wins, it won't be because he stole anything.

[GreatOne]

Actually, it’s the suburban parts of this state that are more solidly Republican. A lot of rural areas are more liberal-leaning, especially in Northern Minnesota (and not just on the Range). This is a phenomena that seems to be unique to Minnesota, Wisconsin, and eastern Iowa.

I believe the basis for this is that farmers in these 3 states, particularly Minnesota, are Democrats (DFL stands for Democrat-Farmer-Labor). Probably dating back to FDR and farm subsidies.

[La Enchiladita]

I think your source is PowerLine, not PewerLine, right?:)

And a good source it is, as they are located in or at least from, Minnesota.

[GreatOne]

“There are almost 5000 ballots that are put back in play as a result. Coleman may still have a chance. “

Where are they from?

As Pilsner stated in post #58, I believe most of these ballots will come from Coleman-friendly areas. Again, as Pilsner stated, that is because Franken's people outhustled Coleman's camp and found out where their voters were. So, when the state Supreme Court (in a dunder-headed decision) went outside state law and allowed the campaigns to review the rejected ballots and count those that they agreed were improperly rejected, Franken's team knew which ones to agree to, and which ones to not agree to. IMHO, that seems to be the reason why Franken is ahead. It'll be interesting to see if the state Supreme Court takes action against Franken's legal team, because they had admonished both sides in their Order to not play politics when reviewing the rejected absentee ballots, warning them of Rule 11 sanctions if they did.

While I think Coleman's legal team (sans Joe Friedberg, who is as good as they come) are complete morons, I think the responsibility for not researching the rejected absentee voters lies with GOP leaders in Washington. I have a family member who approached the Coleman campaign before last Spring about identifying absentee voters, but was rebuffed because Washington (supposedly) told them not to waste their time.

[GreatOne]

>>the court hearing the contest has ruled that “all absentee ballots that complied with state law should be counted, along with those where errors occurred through no fault of the vote<<

Why on earth should it take a court to rule that - that should be standard operating procedure.

Because under Minnesota election law, review of rejected absentee ballots is left up to judicial determination in the contest phase. When absentee ballots are sent in, it is up to the election judges to determine whether they were properly cast. There is no basis for review of their decisions until this stage.

[Krankor]

Well, their first mistake was predicting Franken would be the one who challenged the recount results. It was, of course, Coleman. They also predicted the absentee ballots would go 50/50 and basically wash each other out.
They also initially put a lot of credence in Coleman’s claim of double counted ballots. It’s apparent, Coleman himself has more or less abandoned that route as a way to victory. His strategy now appears to be having as many absentee ballots as possible counted. Amazingly, even before the recount process was completed, the Franken camp predicted almost spot on their margin of victory.

[GreatOne]

Are these 4800 ballots under lock-and-key in one place, or are they still scattered around various polling districts? If they are not already centralized, expect many more to be “found” by the Franken team.

They are all under lock and key in their respective counties. There is no possibility of any "found" ballots at this stage of the proceedings. When votes are cast, not only is there a ballot, but machine tape generated. That is why we know about duplicate voting and 133 "missing" ballots in Hennepin County.

[GreatOne]

I dispair. This whole episode has been a travesty. It goes on right under everyones nose.In broad daylight. George Washington must be rolling in his grave.

Then you despair for no reason. Aside from the state Supreme Court's decision to allow both campaigns to review and agree which rejected absentee ballots should be counted (which has no basis in Minnesota law, and which I believe gave Franken his lead because his campaign knew which ballots not to agree to be counted), this recount process has worked fine. Sure, there have been a few errors, but nothing blatant like happened in Washington in 2004.

[GSWarrior]

Those election-stealin’ Republicans are up to their old tricks.

[Rameumptom]

Hallelujah, There is Hope. Any country that willingly elects Franken deserves his bad governance. Frankly I can't believe it has been this close.

Coleman has been front and center on Romney's free and strong America PAC, since Chambliss won. Romney has been helping fund his legal defense team.

http://www.freestrongamerica.com/ Featured Candidates Norm Coleman

[GreatOne]

To defend them (I don't know anyone from the blog), their prediction about Franken being the one filing the contest would have occurred but for the state Supreme Court's inexplicable decision to allow the campaigns to review the rejected absentee ballots and to count those that the campaigns agreed were wrongly rejected. There is no basis in Minnesota law for this, and Franken's team had researched the absentee ballots (they were the ones requesting copies of them from county auditors) and knew who/where their voters were. Simple thing for them to agree to count improperly rejected ballots from areas that were heavily in their favor, and not agree to count those ballots that came from Coleman areas. That's how Franken's team could be in the ballpark predicting their margin of victory.

I don't see how putting credence into Coleman's claim of double-counted ballots discredits them. It's true that there were a number of double-counted votes; it's also true that there do not appear to be enough to overcome Franken's present lead, and that his primary hope is the rejected absentee ballots.

Don't mean to pick on you, but I think Powerline has been a tremendous source of info in this process.

[KeatsforFirstDog]

From my 6 year-olds lips...

“Why is this man wearing a diaper?” and “he has bunny ears?” why?” “why is he wearing baby stuff?”

[gondramB]

Aha. Thank you.

[Blood of Tyrants]

I would bet that the court also orders the counties to use the same standard when counting ballots and then recount them.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Does the election commission of each county notify the people that their ballots were rejected?

But I would bet that Coleman picks up MUCH more votes when the counties are ordered to use the same standard when counting.

[Krankor]

I don’t think you’re picking on me (but you better stop), but I believe their initial prediction about Franken was based on their belief that even if he lost, he would try any way he could to still win- which is what Coleman seems to be doing now since he was initially against counting rejected absentee ballots. I think Franken’s team had a better idea of the recount outcome because they had a top notch team viewing the process and more or less knew which challenges were real and which were phony. Powerline certainly had a large amount of info on the election. I just don’t think they interpreted it correctly.

[TribalPrincess2U]

No, there is no reason they might be for Coleman but as he says.. all ballots need to be counted not just a selective few.

Besides the fact that Frunken is hot to keep them from being counted says something in itself.