Comments on: Pre-Certification Fluctuations Normal, Team Coleman Continues to Politicize

By: Statewide Canvass Concludes Early This Week | MNpublius.com

Statewide Canvass Concludes Early This Week | MNpublius.com — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 02:49:05 +0000

[…] Pre-Certification Fluctuations Normal, Team Coleman Continues to Politicize […]

By: lojasmo

lojasmo — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 17:15:58 +0000

Coleman is a litigious jackass. Both sides should just let the legal votes be counted.

By: Alec

Alec — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 16:46:38 +0000

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

By: Kerosene Hat

Kerosene Hat — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 16:45:39 +0000

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.

By: DJZ

DJZ — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 16:38:03 +0000

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.

By: The Other Chris

The Other Chris — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 16:28:01 +0000

Results are there…

By: Alec

Alec — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 16:21:13 +0000

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

By: tkg

tkg — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 15:43:54 +0000

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.

By: Mockingbird

Mockingbird — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 14:34:39 +0000

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!

By: Minnesota Bulldog

Minnesota Bulldog — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 11:34:03 +0000

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.