Finding errors and correcting them is normal as counts are verified and more importantly it has no effect on the final numbers for the recount. Secretary of State Mark Ritchie gave answers to this question and a number of other questions about the recount and the current fluctuations today on MPR’s Midday. Bob Collins also has a recap.
For example: let’s rewind to 2006. When 100% of the precincts were reported the day after the election, major media outlets reported the same numbers the Secretary of State had: Mark Kennedy had 839,173 votes and Amy Klobuchar had 1,279,515 votes. By the time the voting was certified, the new totals were 835,653 and 1,278,849, a difference of 3520 votes for Kennedy and a difference of 666 votes for Klobuchar.
For Coleman to freak out over a fully reported 100 vote typo by filing a “data practices request” is a true waste of money and time. The fluctuations are normal. Team Coleman should sit tight until both the results are certified and stop trying to scare voters into thinking the system is flawed.
Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)
November 11, 2000, Saturday, Metro Edition
A new count shows a narrower Kennedy-Minge gap
Bill McAuliffe; Staff Writer
Results of the Second District congressional election continued to fluctuate Friday, with the secretary of state’s Web site indicating Republican Mark Kennedy had unseated DFLer David Minge by 150 votes, compared with a margin of 438 on Thursday.
Bob Schroeder, deputy secretary of state, said the changes reflect adjustments based on preliminary reviews of the totals in each county.
With the new count, Kennedy’s overall total dropped by 32 votes and Minge’s rose by 256. …
OT: Please accept my heartfelt thanks for all you do and have done, MNpublius. It’s been a long 8 years.
Good old Bi-Partisan Normy, sticking up for the people of Minnesota by attacking the integrity of our election system and our Secretary of State. Nice Call Star Trib!
“For Coleman to freak out over a fully reported 100 vote typo by filing a “data practices request” is a true waste of money and time. The fluctuations are normal. Team Coleman should sit tight until both the results are certified and stop trying to scare voters into thinking the system is flawed.”
I have mixed feelings about this. I really think that this is yet another production of political theater by Normy and the Republicans which will end up being a waste of time and money. On the other hand, what is there to lose? I suppose there might be some county election officials who might be slightly embarrassed because of a typo or an honest mistake. But what of it? Secretary Ritchie said the recount will be transparent, so the certification should be transparent too. Let Normy and the Republicans see what really happened and what clerical errors were made along the way. In the end when Normy loses, God willing, he won’t be able to scream “cover up,” or some such nonsense since he has the whole story right there in front of him.
Norm’s paid shills want nothing more than to undermine the legitimacy of any government not run by them. Brodkorb hates Mark Ritchie and therefore is attacking him without any actual basis for anything. Why? Because he hates Ritchie and is paid by Norm. This makes him loyal, but empty. It’s really quite sad, actually.
I do wonder just what Mark Ritchie ever did to MBB; did he run over his dog or something? because there has been a persistent level of vitriol directed at Ritchie that is beyond the pale even for a paid attack dog shill like MBB…it’s so persistent and personal that there almost has to be a personal aminus, one would think. either that or I begin to suspect a mental disease or defect.
So, Norm’s entire argument about why Al should unilaterally surrender in a recount is because it would cost the state $86,000, yet Norm just filed a data practices act requesting every county to take precious staff time to copy ALL of their election-related information and send it to Norm. Sure, it’s within his rights, but this is going to cost time and thus MONEY when staff are already stretched thin trying to get ready for a recount.
Let’s be clear: he’s asked for practically every piece of paper regarding the election, every change, and why? Are they planning to do their own private recount and then announce that to the world?
There is already a process to go through all of this information, triple-check it to make sure it’s right, and then count every single vote.
It’s certainly within his rights to ask for this data practices act, but to me, it seems petty and paranoid to assume that you, as a blatantly partisan organization, will do a better job than the hard-working county officials and election staff.
There’s nothing magical about the number 221 or 236 or 336. They’re all just UNOFFIC|IAL numbers that will likely change many a time before the final canvassing is complete. That is NORMAL. Mistakes are made: people are human. This happens in every election: we just aren’t normally watching this closely.
I think Norm really messed up when he asked Al to just give it up and call off the recount. It is entirely possible that by the time we get to the canvassing board that Al will be ahead rather than Norm (it’s equally possible that Norm will be further ahead than he is now). If that happens, then it will be Norm who gets to call off the recount if he so chooses: he’s already said he would call it off if he was in Al’s shoes.
I highly doubt he will, and I don’t think he should be asked to fulfill that promise. I certainly doubt Al would ask him to do so: Al has been pretty classy and professional about this recount. I wish we could say the same for Norm.
Like Bill Clinton said when he was in town, it’s pretty ironic that Al’s the comedian, but it’s Norm’s campaign that’s a joke.
After Mark Ritchie explained the process, & various sources explained it,
its clear that this is normal - the final tally to be off.
Its a little disconcerting that there is room for such error.
IF it turns out that Norm is down in the count - does anyone think he
will “save the state money” by accepting the outcome?
Of course not.
He’s like a tantruming child, standing in the middle of the room, making declarations!
This can be spun both ways.
How about this:
Coleman partisans were trying to steal the electioin before they realized a recount would expose the true result.
It looks like the SOS took down the 2008 presidential election results from the website. Are they just updating, or taking it down for a long time? http://www.sos.state.mn.us/home/index.asp?page=885
Results are there…
http://wcco.com/election/voter.irregularities.allegations.2.857437.html
Mikey’s been covering Norms ass. We find out that a Coleman staffer broke the law by hanging in the polls for hours (after being called there by GOP operatives) and interpreting to Somalis to vote for Norm, they are claiming he was on vacation and just working the polls. The election judges both say he was not there working the polls, he came to interpret which according to state law, he can only do when requested and not remain after helping that individual voter.
Franken and his supporters are being reasonable when they refuse to forgo the recount. Coleman can also use whatever legal means he wants to try and make the final total end up in his favor. The truth is that with our system final vote count will be within the margin of error. The final determination on who will be our senator is going to be made in the courts, human interpretation and pure chance. Supporters on either side should at least be honest enough to admit that the election was a functional tie. The mechanisms of democracy simply are not refined enough to deal with margins that are so small. The remaining battle to see who wins has nothing to do with a desire to have “every vote counted” since we can’t do so with enough precision to determine the true outcome. It is simply a preference for one candidate over the other.
So if he broke the law, what can actually be done anyway? You cannot go track down the voters? It wouldn’t change the vote, even if found guilty would it?
Thanks, Alec
Coleman is a litigious jackass. Both sides should just let the legal votes be counted.