Minnesota Senate Race

[Anonymous]

Isn't anyone embarrassed by the efforts to push Franken over the top? If a Republican consistently "found" ballots that consistently favored the GOP candidate it would be national front page news, not just in the Twin Cities.

Here's hoping that Reid steps in, declares the seat vacant, and orders a new election. This one is hopelessly tainted and tangled.

[Anonymous]

According to the report I read (probably on a left-leaning blog, I admit), the found ballots fit the figures for that precinct. If you are looking for something to scoff at, how about the number of ballots that Coleman has challenged. As usual, the Republican is trying to squelch votes and the Democrat to get them counted. Personally, I think the Dems get the better of this one.

Overall, I think each party does whatever it can to come out ahead, but if you want to talk about embarrassing, how about the guy who went to the Supreme Court to stop a recount?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Overall, I think each party does whatever it can to come out ahead, but if you want to talk about embarrassing, how about the guy who went to the Supreme Court to stop a recount?

Are you talking about this farce?


Actually according to such right wing media outlets as the WaPo, the

The challenged ballots won’t help much, as both campaigns have challenged a like amount and the chances of a significant swing based on those challenges approaches zero.

There are about 6000 challenged, and Coleman is ahead by 188 challenges - so roughly it is 3094 Coleman challenges to 2906 Franken challenges - so technically Coleman is challenging more. However I am hard pressed to conclude from these numbers that the GOP is squelching votes, and the DNC is not.

Here's the latest news on the recount:
http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senate/35329829.html?elr=KArks8c7PaP3E77K_3c:3aDhUec7PaP3E77K_0c:3aDhUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU

[Anonymous]

OKAY, this is crazy - take a look at this 'contested' ballot and tell me you cannot tell who they voted for? Apparently there is a tad too much 'air' in the middle of the black circle.

http://senaterecount.startribune.com/media/ballotPDFs/Benton_SaukRapidsP1_challengedballot3.pdf

And this one has a stray mark next to the independence candidate

http://senaterecount.startribune.com/media/ballotPDFs/Edina_P17_challengedballot2.pdf

Both sides are nuts.

[Anonymous]

It makes me sentimental for the good old days, when chads were hanging and eyeshadow was big, bold, and blue.

[Anonymous]

Well, Al Franken has taken the lead - 7 weeks after the voting was over. Sigh.

[Anonymous]

I'm glad the Democrats have finally taken a page from the Republican playbook and are hitting back hard at every Rovian tactic the Republicans can pull. Franken has pulled ahead because he has not given in on a single vote Coleman has tried to suppress. Good for Franken. Its the Republicans who ought to be embarrassed.

[Anonymous]

We will see what happens after the absentees are counted. Plus there are 5000 that they mutually agreed to remove from contested status that still need to come in here. Frankly, the only way either of them will take the office untainted is if there is a revote.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We will see what happens after the absentees are counted. Plus there are 5000 that they mutually agreed to remove from contested status that still need to come in here. Frankly, the only way either of them will take the office untainted is if there is a revote.

GWB taught us that a tainted office is worth just as much as an untainted one. If a clearly screwed up 2000 Florida presidential vote was not worthy of of revote (or even completion of recount), what is the big deal about one of 100 Senate seats being "tainted"?