Al Franken Leads in Minn After Recount

mike3775 wrote:

There is something fishy going on in Minnesota right now

I could careless who wins, I think Franken could be a good senator, but right now, it seems that courts have rushed through to get this done prior to tomorrow's swearing in, and to me that is wrong

What they need to do is get all the ballots that are "suspicious" and have a long hard look at them, and then re-do the recount, just to be fair


I am saying this because come Jan 20th, there will not be 100 Senators seated anyways(Biden, Illinois, Minnesota), so what is the rush to get Minnesota's in?

January 20 is the inauguration date for the Presidency. January 6,today, is when members of Congress are inaugurated.The purpose of the deadlines is to insure that the candidates that the voters selected to represent them can be seated and do their job when the new Congress begins it's session. The ballots in question were examined by a bipartisan commission during the recount. Senator Franken is the lawfully elected Senator from Minnesota and should be seated today.

sparks wrote:

January 20 is the inauguration date for the Presidency. January 6,today, is when members of Congress are inaugurated.The purpose of the deadlines is to insure that the candidates that the voters selected to represent them can be seated and do their job when the new Congress begins it's session. The ballots in question were examined by a bipartisan commission during the recount. Senator Franken is the lawfully elected Senator from Minnesota and should be seated today.

I am not sure if the Secretary of State is going to certify the election, therefore I don't believe it is a lawful election, at least at this point.

Face wrote:

The canvessing committe is not an equal or unbiased committe, there are more democrats than republicans. On any contested ballot, in my opinion, there should be an equal amount from both sides that vote.

Yeah, well I ran across this article today, and it shines a bit of light on the makeup of the committee. Thought you might find it interesting...

http://mediamatters.org/items/200811140013

Quote :

They're the Minnesota General Election Canvassing Board, and, after a hand recount of 2.92 million ballots, they will scrutinize some fraction of those ballots in an attempt to focus -- amid the circus of mass media scrutiny and political maneuvering, and through the scribble of errant pen strokes on bubble forms -- whether each voter wanted to re-elect Republican Sen. Norm Coleman or to replace him with Democrat Al Franken.

[...]

State law defines the canvassing board as two state Supreme Court justices, two district judges and the secretary of state. Ritchie asked Magnuson and Gearin to pick two from their respective pools. They picked themselves and their next-highest-ranking jurist.

Politically, the panel is diverse. Magnuson and Anderson were appointed by Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty. Gearin was elected in a nonpartisan race in 1986 and declined to say with what party, if any, she aligns herself. Cleary was appointed by Independence Party Gov. Jesse Ventura.

Seems pretty fair to me. Republican Governor Pawlently also has high regard for this group. The following is from an interview with Sean Hannity in November...

Quote :

PAWLENTY: Well, all secretaries of states are elected, and they have partisan backgrounds of one party or the other. In this case, the final decisions are made by a canvassing board of five people. It consists of the secretary of state plus four judges. Those folks were named today. The four judges that were named, two of them I appointed to the Minnesota Supreme Court --

HANNITY: All right --

PAWLENTY: -- two others have good reputations in Minnesota, so I think it's going to be a fair system.

sparks wrote:

mike3775 wrote:

There is something fishy going on in Minnesota right now

I could careless who wins, I think Franken could be a good senator, but right now, it seems that courts have rushed through to get this done prior to tomorrow's swearing in, and to me that is wrong

What they need to do is get all the ballots that are "suspicious" and have a long hard look at them, and then re-do the recount, just to be fair


I am saying this because come Jan 20th, there will not be 100 Senators seated anyways(Biden, Illinois, Minnesota), so what is the rush to get Minnesota's in?

January 20 is the inauguration date for the Presidency. January 6,today, is when members of Congress are inaugurated.The purpose of the deadlines is to insure that the candidates that the voters selected to represent them can be seated and do their job when the new Congress begins it's session. The ballots in question were examined by a bipartisan commission during the recount. Senator Franken is the lawfully elected Senator from Minnesota and should be seated today.

The Senate still only has 97 members as of today Sparks. Because Hillary is not giving her seat up until she is confirmed, and Biden is not until he is sworn in, and we already knew that Burris was not going to be seated. So on Jan 20, we will only potentially have 98 Senators seated.

So again, if there are irregularities in Minnesota, why rush it through? All this does is make the state look like Florida in 2000.

250 potential double votes is more than enough to make a case for something needing to be done. And because the entire Senate will not be seated until well after the inauguration on the 20th(Hillary will probably not be confirmed until the end of Jan, start of Feb), why not slow things down and do it proper instead of rushing things in Minnesota?

So far everything has been rushed due to certification issues and the seating of people, well that excuse lost all merits the day Hillary was nominated for Sec State and stated she will not give up the seat until she is confirmed(which was about 3 weeks ago or so), so why not make sure its right?

I would rather have them get it right the first time, then to seat someone and then find out that that person indeed lost the election and the opponent won, or that the person who was seated did indeed win.

There are 250 potential reasons as to why they need to redo the recount. Plus the absentee ballots that were rejected as well.

mike3775 wrote:

250 potential double votes is more than enough to make a case for something needing to be done. And because the entire Senate will not be seated until well after the inauguration on the 20th(Hillary will probably not be confirmed until the end of Jan, start of Feb), why not slow things down and do it proper instead of rushing things in Minnesota?

So far everything has been rushed due to certification issues and the seating of people, well that excuse lost all merits the day Hillary was nominated for Sec State and stated she will not give up the seat until she is confirmed(which was about 3 weeks ago or so), so why not make sure its right?

I would rather have them get it right the first time, then to seat someone and then find out that that person indeed lost the election and the opponent won, or that the person who was seated did indeed win.

There are 250 potential reasons as to why they need to redo the recount. Plus the absentee ballots that were rejected as well.

There are nowhere near 250 double votes,if there even any at all. That's simply nonsense being put out by the usual far right suspects,like Limbaugh,Shaun Insanity,and the perpetually wrong Dick Morris,who are now falsely claiming Al Franken stole the election. There is not one legitimate news report to back up a claim of 250,that I can find.

I don't know how many votes were in the box that suddenly appeared, but I for one think this election is tainted

I heard it was around 140-something on tv today...

Not to mention the votes that suddenly appeared out of someone's trunk...something's not right....

Artie60438 wrote:

mike3775 wrote:

250 potential double votes is more than enough to make a case for something needing to be done. And because the entire Senate will not be seated until well after the inauguration on the 20th(Hillary will probably not be confirmed until the end of Jan, start of Feb), why not slow things down and do it proper instead of rushing things in Minnesota?

So far everything has been rushed due to certification issues and the seating of people, well that excuse lost all merits the day Hillary was nominated for Sec State and stated she will not give up the seat until she is confirmed(which was about 3 weeks ago or so), so why not make sure its right?

I would rather have them get it right the first time, then to seat someone and then find out that that person indeed lost the election and the opponent won, or that the person who was seated did indeed win.

There are 250 potential reasons as to why they need to redo the recount. Plus the absentee ballots that were rejected as well.

There are nowhere near 250 double votes,if there even any at all. That's simply nonsense being put out by the usual far right suspects,like Limbaugh,Shaun Insanity,and the perpetually wrong Dick Morris,who are now falsely claiming Al Franken stole the election. There is not one legitimate news report to back up a claim of 250,that I can find.

Even 1 double counted vote potential is grounds for a slow down and redo of the counting statewide Artie

I could careless who wins, this is very suspicious ON BOTH SIDES and that is not good at all

Face wrote:

I don't know how many votes were in the box that suddenly appeared, but I for one think this election is tainted

What box? You have a link that supports that?

mike3775 wrote:

Even 1 double counted vote potential is grounds for a slow down and redo of the counting statewide Artie

I could careless who wins, this is very suspicious ON BOTH SIDES and that is not good at all

Yeah,well Coleman already tried to sue on those grounds and failed because he didn't have any proof.
http://www.mncourts.gov/Documents/0/Public/Other/2008%20Elections/OrderA082206-1224.pdf

here you go Arti

"The discovery of uncounted and missing ballots has complicated the final days of the recount in Minnesota’s U.S. Senate election, the closest Senate race this year.

With just a day left of counting, the campaigns for Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and Democratic challenger Al Franken found themselves in a tussle with state election officials over 171 uncounted ballots that were discovered in a precinct in Ramsey County, and the search for another 133 ballots that appear to have gone missing in a precinct in Minneapolis. Both areas are Democratic-leaning.

The Franken campaign cheered the discovery and counting of the Ramsey County votes earlier this week. That was followed by a terse statement today on the situation in Minneapolis, in which lead attorney Marc Elias said, “We won’t stand for the disenfranchisement of 133 Minnesota voters, and neither will the people of this state,” and demanded that election officials “find the ballots.”

The Coleman campaign has pushed back, warning the state against jumping to conclusions on both the ballots that been found and those alleged to have gone missing, arguing tabulation errors may be the cause of the discrepancies.

On Thursday, the Secretary of State’s office issued a release announcing it would help with an investigation into the latter case."

rest of the link
http://www.crewsmostcorrupt.org/node/984

Face wrote:

here you go Arti

With just a day left of counting, the campaigns for Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and Democratic challenger Al Franken found themselves in a tussle with state election officials over 171 uncounted ballots that were discovered in a precinct in Ramsey County, and the search for another 133 ballots that appear to have gone missing in a precinct in Minneapolis. Both areas are Democratic-leaning.

The Franken campaign cheered the discovery and counting of the Ramsey County votes earlier this week. That was followed by a terse statement today on the situation in Minneapolis, in which lead attorney Marc Elias said, “We won’t stand for the disenfranchisement of 133 Minnesota voters, and neither will the people of this state,” and demanded that election officials “find the ballots.”
http://www.crewsmostcorrupt.org/node/984

Thanks Face. The 171 ballots came from a machine that malfunctioned early in the day. Franken picked up 47 votes as a result of that.
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/12/02/foundballots/

The 133 missing votes are from a precinct that favored Franken heavily and apparently were counted giving Franken a 46 vote gain.
http://www.minnpost.com/ericblack/2009/01/07/5647/senate_recount_its_unlikely_coleman_will_win_in_court

So even if all those votes were disallowed,Franken would still have enough to win. No matter what happens ,if Franken eventually is certified the far right is still going to claim fraud.

Artie60438 wrote:

Face wrote:

here you go Arti

With just a day left of counting, the campaigns for Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and Democratic challenger Al Franken found themselves in a tussle with state election officials over 171 uncounted ballots that were discovered in a precinct in Ramsey County, and the search for another 133 ballots that appear to have gone missing in a precinct in Minneapolis. Both areas are Democratic-leaning.

The Franken campaign cheered the discovery and counting of the Ramsey County votes earlier this week. That was followed by a terse statement today on the situation in Minneapolis, in which lead attorney Marc Elias said, “We won’t stand for the disenfranchisement of 133 Minnesota voters, and neither will the people of this state,” and demanded that election officials “find the ballots.”
http://www.crewsmostcorrupt.org/node/984

Thanks Face. The 171 ballots came from a machine that malfunctioned early in the day. Franken picked up 47 votes as a result of that.
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/12/02/foundballots/

The 133 missing votes are from a precinct that favored Franken heavily and apparently were counted giving Franken a 46 vote gain.
http://www.minnpost.com/ericblack/2009/01/07/5647/senate_recount_its_unlikely_coleman_will_win_in_court

So even if all those votes were disallowed,Franken would still have enough to win. No matter what happens ,if Franken eventually is certified the far right is still going to claim fraud.

Thanks for the links.

Artie60438 wrote:

Face wrote:

here you go Arti

With just a day left of counting, the campaigns for Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and Democratic challenger Al Franken found themselves in a tussle with state election officials over 171 uncounted ballots that were discovered in a precinct in Ramsey County, and the search for another 133 ballots that appear to have gone missing in a precinct in Minneapolis. Both areas are Democratic-leaning.

The Franken campaign cheered the discovery and counting of the Ramsey County votes earlier this week. That was followed by a terse statement today on the situation in Minneapolis, in which lead attorney Marc Elias said, “We won’t stand for the disenfranchisement of 133 Minnesota voters, and neither will the people of this state,” and demanded that election officials “find the ballots.”
http://www.crewsmostcorrupt.org/node/984

Thanks Face. The 171 ballots came from a machine that malfunctioned early in the day. Franken picked up 47 votes as a result of that.
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/12/02/foundballots/

The 133 missing votes are from a precinct that favored Franken heavily and apparently were counted giving Franken a 46 vote gain.
http://www.minnpost.com/ericblack/2009/01/07/5647/senate_recount_its_unlikely_coleman_will_win_in_court

So even if all those votes were disallowed,Franken would still have enough to win. No matter what happens ,if Franken eventually is certified the far right is still going to claim fraud.

So there are issues, yet since he would have lost anyways, no big deal right?

so why were people so upset with Florida in 2000 then?

that just shows that there are MAJOR ISSUES with Minnesota right now and rushing to get someone seated is a mistake

There are irregularities on both sides, this needs to be looked into big time. No one should have that seat right now, until these irregularities are investigated

mike3775 wrote:

So there are issues, yet since he would have lost anyways, no big deal right?

so why were people so upset with Florida in 2000 then?

There was never a full recount in Fla. Here there was.

Quote :

that just shows that there are MAJOR ISSUES with Minnesota right now and rushing to get someone seated is a mistake

There are irregularities on both sides, this needs to be looked into big time. No one should have that seat right now, until these irregularities are investigated

So we should have another full recount? Then if the totals differentiate again,another one?

Al Franken has just moved one step closer to becoming the GOP's new bogeyman

Smaller vote pool may hurt Coleman
Richard Sennott, Star Tribune

A review of 1,500 secrecy envelopes turned up registration cards that may now turn 89 rejected ballots into accepted ones. Norm Coleman hoped for a higher yield.

* Senate recount trial: Day 31


In the end, the pool turned out to be pretty shallow.

Republican Norm Coleman had hoped an inspection of hundreds of secrecy envelopes holding rejected absentee ballots would yield enough additional votes to help him cut into DFLer Al Franken's 225-vote lead. But it turned out that only 89 of them had valid registrations.

That means Coleman's pool of 1,725 ballots that he has said should be counted probably has shrunk by several hundred -- at least for now -- making it more difficult for him to overtake Franken.
http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senate/40965532.html?elr=KArks8c7PaP3E77K_3c::D3aDhUxWoW_oD:EaDUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiUr

It's all over but the gloating Wait until next week for a stunning dose of GOP hypocrisy to be thrown at Al..


MN-Sen: 3-Judge Panel Orders 400 Absentee Ballots Opened
by Todd Beeton, Tue Mar 31, 2009 at 05:41:47 PM EST
In a potentially decisive ruling, a panel of three judges today ordered up to 400 new absentee ballots opened and counted, far fewer than Republican Norm Coleman had sought in his effort to overcome a lead by DFLer Al Franken.

The ballots also appear to include many that Franken had identified as wrongly rejected as well as ballots that Coleman wanted opened.

Spokespersons for Coleman and Franken were not immediately available for comment.

But absentee ballots rejected during and after the November election became the centerpiece of Coleman's court challenge of the 225-vote lead that Franken obtained after a recount.

Update [2009-3-31 17:53:12 by Todd Beeton]:Per Team Franken on a conference call a few minutes ago, Coleman would need 313 of the 400 absentee votes to beat Franken. And just to be clear, I'm all for announcing next Tuesday's result as a Franken victory and calling for him to be seated immediately. That's precisely how we should frame it. Eric Boehlert is right, Coleman's tactics are GOP sore loserdom at their finest and need to be called out as such, which the media isn't. Realistically though, I don't know that this changes anything vis a vis Coleman's "years" long appeal strategy, or does it?
http://www.mydd.com/story/2009/3/31/174147/725

Game Over,Norm!

Judges say Franken won Senate race; Coleman likely to fight
By Rachel E. Stassen-Berger
rstassen-berger@pioneerpress.com
Updated: 04/13/2009 06:30:57 PM CDT

Democrat Al Franken won last year's U.S. Senate race, three judges decided today.

The judges — Stearns County's Elizabeth Hayden, Pennington County's Kurt Marben and Hennepin County's Denise Reilly — decided Republican Norm Coleman failed to prove that he received the highest number of legally cast votes. Like all their other decisions in the case, the three judges' final ruling was unanimous.

"Franken received the highest number of legally cast ballots in the November 4, 2008 general election for United States Senator for the State of Minnesota and is entitled to receive the election certificate," the judges wrote.
http://www.twincities.com/national/ci_12134359

Here is a link to Al Franken's campaign promises. He is in favor of single payer health care, increases in education spending,expanding renewable energy,supporting the Employee Free Choice act and half a dozen other issues that will help middle class America. Contrast Franken's positions with those of Norm Coleman, who supported many of George Bush's failed policies. Coleman was a strong cheerleader for the Iraq war, supported the ban on stem cell research, had a 67% negative rating on environmental issues, opposed single payer health care and opposed gay rights. Coleman also supported Bush's unfunded Medicare drug plan, which took away Medicare's ability to negioate drug prices,costing tax payers billions. I think the country is far better off with Al Franken in the Senate.

happy jack wrote:

sparks wrote:

I think the country is far better off with Al Franken in the Senate.

Somehow, I have no problem believing that you actually think that.

And I'm not surprised that you are unwilling to drop the knee-jerk right wing namecalling and try to judge who would do a better job based on the issues and policies they support.

LoisLane wrote:

sparks wrote:

Here is a link to Al Franken's campaign promises. He is in favor of single payer health care, increases in education spending,expanding renewable energy,supporting the Employee Free Choice act and half a dozen other issues that will help middle class America. Contrast Franken's positions with those of Norm Coleman, who supported many of George Bush's failed policies. Coleman was a strong cheerleader for the Iraq war, supported the ban on stem cell research, had a 67% negative rating on environmental issues, opposed single payer health care and opposed gay rights. Coleman also supported Bush's unfunded Medicare drug plan, which took away Medicare's ability to negioate drug prices,costing tax payers billions. I think the country is far better off with Al Franken in the Senate.

In other words, anything that will get him elected. This is the same set of policies that every Dumbocrat this year has promised.

Yep,and slowly but surely those policies and the promise to implement them are getting accomplished. Look at the bright side though,Lois. Soon you'll have a brand new bogeyman that you can complain about non-stop.