The Big Minnesota Recount is winding to a close, but challenges, absentees, court fights, PR moves and other matters loom ever larger.
Thank you for reading earlier diaries in this series. Please feel free to use this dairy as an OPEN THREAD for posting all manner of things, stories, thoughts, reports, pix, speculations, etc. pertaining to the MN Senate Recount. Your recommends will help keep this visible far into the day.
Hat tip to Kagro X for a spirited diary yesterday afternoon on the Front Page on the possibility this whole thing might end up on the floor of the US Senate.
So.....to the Orange ballots.......and beyond.
First, a set of handy links:
MN Sec. of State Website: http://www.sos.state.mn.us/...
Star Tribune Almost Real Time Recount Map thingy: http://www.startribune.com/...
New Media links:
The UpTake (includes videos):http://www.theuptake.com/
MinnPost: http://www.minnpost.com/...
Minnesota Publius: http://mnpublius.com/
Last Diary in this Series (Mon. 12/1): ttp://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/12...
NEW! 599 challenged ballot pictures at Star Tribune:http://senaterecount.startribune.com/
Now looking at the ballots: recounting, challenged, and absentee.
1) Recounted Ballots
From the Sec. of State's Office: 8:00pm CT 12/01/08 Monday eve. (NOTE: County totals needed to be faxed in to Ritchie's office by 6:00pm to be included in these numbers. Star Tribune and other sources may have later numbers that will be included tomorrow.)
Total Ballots reported counted since start of recount: 91.13%
Monday: 5.09 pct. points added.)
Coleman 1,100,922= -2369 from election night in these same precincts.
Franken 1,105,030= -2498 from election night in these same precincts.
BOTH candidates have apparently lost votes on the recount, but this is a net swing TO Norm Coleman of 129 votes
SO the simple math is Coleman's lead at the start 215+129= 344
Now class, if you are playing "Republican Election", what is your next move? Anyone?
Yes, Pat in the third row? Yes that right!! Everyone go to your closets and get out your tassel loafers and other preppie gear from Brooks Brothers and head down to the Secretary of State's Office in St. Paul and START A RIOT!
Your Chant: "Stop the count! STOP THE COUNT!! STOP THE COUNT!!!"
And you know why of course? AL FRANKEN LEADS SENATE RECOUNT! See the numbers above? For the very first time since Nov. 4, by the number of votes now (un)officially recounted under Minnesota Law, Al Franken LEADS Norm Coleman by 4108 votes. So cancel all that other stuff about "count every vote", "fairness", "democracy" and "democratic elections." Tell Harry Reid to shut up.
(*Ahem-snark*) In the interest of bipartisanship,
in the need to move on from equality under the law,
since the American people in the last election voted for change,
and yet since we are still a center-right nation,
and so a great change would be "center-right" tactics applied to a Democratic candidate recount,
therefore we on the left side of the political street need a "republican election" right now in Minnesota!
So stop the Count! Franken is Elected!
2. Challenged Ballots
Guess what? Recounting resumed today and so did challenging ballots. The numbers from last night's Sec. of State posting:
Coleman and other ballots challenged by FRANKEN= 2876
Franken and other ballots challenged by COLEMAN= 3067
Total challenged ballots: 5943 (up 1203 from Wednesday last)
Kaszuba and Brown (or as we say in Minnesot-ese, "Kaszubanen and Brownson") at the Star Tribune report both camps again are talking about reducing their challenged ballots before the State Canvassing Board starts ruling on them one by one on Dec. 16. Mark Elias (Franken attorney) said they are ready to drop "more than dozens" of their challenges this week.
Coleman campaign replied they are willing to sit down and talk with Franken campaign to reduce number of frivolous challenges. Frankenites sound like they are ready to do this unilaterally, apart from any conversations with the Coleman side.
Then a Coleman spokesman, Mark Drake, came out with a couple of unhelpful statements.
Coleman spokesman Mark Drake downplayed the significance of Elias' announcement, saying that simply dropping dozens of challenges "doesn't seem like too much of a dent." Drake said he did not know whether the Coleman campaign would likewise independently withdraw challenges as early as this week.
Nice Mr. Drake. If its 10 dozen (120) then the Frankenites have taken down 4% of their challenges--and thats a dent larger than Coleman has made.....Any comment Mr. Drake on the 600+ challenges (thats 50 dozen by the way) your side ADDED today? I thought so.
Then there was this:
Drake also said the Franken campaign seemed to be moving closer to asking the U.S. Senate to decide the ultimate outcome, and said it was another sign Franken intended to "ignore the results of the recount."
No Mr. Drake. Elias was asked to describe the whole range of options available to them (you know? The SAME range of options available to YOU and to the sitting, senior senator of Minnesota, Mr. Norm Coleman?). YOU are latching on to the last, final resort option in order to....what? Fire up your mouth-breathing Reichwingers like these: (h/t to The Big E at Minnesota Progressive Project who put on the HazMat suit to bring back these radioactive samples that need to handled with robotic claws behind lead lined walls):
"I wonder if a nonstop, thousand phonecalls a minute, to Dirtball Hairy would have any effect. Make it impossible for his staff to do anything.
"This is really getting frustrating...
"The one point someone made about the Federal Senate dictating who the State appoints to the Federal Senate is absolutely frightening. I have to agree that, if that happens, we are in one party rule Komrades..."
And:
"Why don’t the Liberals just cut to the chase,and have Reid, Pelosi,just rule as a dictatorship, as I’m sure Pelosi won’t even care who’s on the other side of the aisle is,after all, since when did Pelosi ever want to work hand in hand with the Republicans!"
And:
"If Reid illegally gives the election to Franken, then the government has declared itself a dictatorship, there’s no question.
From that moment on, American citizens have no obligation to listen to the government, pay taxes or to obey any arbitrary laws.
Obama/Reid want to be King George III, they will suffer the fate of the British."
Ok, just one more for a really ahem unique view of Coleman:
"Question moving forward will Coleman become a Neo-RINO as a result of this election. An avid supporter of anything that comes out of the left without any pretense of being a Republican and possibly jumping ship at some critical point in the future? I, sadly, think so because I see nothing in Coleman’s character to suggest that he has moral fiber or ideological viewpoint compatible with the GOP and conservatives. After this election he’s going to be a whore to the polls and the fact that MN is essentially a far-left state stuck in the middle of the real part of America."
Hoo boy! So we will continue piling up challenged ballots for the next 4 days.....like in Sherburne County (NW of Minneapolis, halfway to St. Cloud.) They finished counting last Wednesday and reported to the Sec. of State today. "Sherburne County Deputy Administrator Luci Botzek said the Franken campaign picked up the list of rejected absentee ballots Monday. That county, which finished its recount Wednesday, had its process slowed by 874 challenges, the highest percentage of total ballots cast." 874 challenges over 51K votes? Wow. Stay tuned for more laughs.
3. Rejected Absentee Ballots
The Franken side said they have now received names, addresses and reasons for rejection of absentee ballots from 78 of 87 counties, numbering over 9000. Elias did say these ballots as a last resort could end up in the US Senate, but only after the local election board, state canvassing board and the courts have been exhausted. Also that vast majority of these ballots were properly rejected but Frankenites think maybe 500-1000 merit a second look at the reasons. Sec. of State Ritchie (from different sources I would suppose) also mentioned a figure of 500 give or take that might be questionable.
4. Scraps and Pieces
Wright County (NW of Minneapolis) starts counting Wednesday and hopes to go through 51k+ ballots by Friday. Since this is one of the last counties counting, CNN is rumored to be sending a team for "live coverage.".......Both Hennepin & Ramsey Counties (Minneapolis and St. Paul metros, respectively) are both about 93% recounted and may finish on Tuesday.......The Senate Race and Recount has reached the level of Fear and Loathing; that is, our little recount has become a major story, "The Last Recount", in The Rolling Stone by Matt Taibbi here:http://www.rollingstone.com/...
.........From the Minnesota Post a small item on "missing ballots" that might be nothing or....
"Also, Elias said, according to the Franken campaign’s examination, as many as 700 ballots from the original count seem to be missing. Some missing ballots could simply be a case of election machines jamming on Nov. 4 and, so, an incorrect vote count on Election Day. That is, a voter puts her ballot in the machine to be counted; the machine spits it back once; and, then, on a second try, grabs it for a count.
But in some precincts double digits of votes are missing.
"That’s a lot of jamming," Elias said.
The Coleman campaign last week wondered about such discrepancies, too.
Tuesday Morning with the Star Tribune
"Kaszubanen and Brownson" get the main story w/pix on the front of the 2nd section. (First section has some Chicago guy in Washington landing under sniper fire with a Secretary of Defense in order to have a beer and Crown Royal with his New York state secretary state....at least thats what it said before a 2nd cup of coffee in the not-Cincinnati-Bungles mug.)
Elias says their "Frankenmath" (assumes most challenges dismissed and more in their favor) has Coleman's lead down to 73.....Joe (POWER) Mansky in St. Paul's Ramsey County says they hope to finish today; need to re-recount suburb of Maplewood; felt the pace of challenged ballots fell off some on Monday; with counting ending Friday the 5th and the Canvassing Board not meeting until the 16th to rule on challenged ballots Joe thinks there is plenty of time for both sides to waive challenges that won't hold up; Joe said "both sides have sent in revolving teams of observers to the Plato Boulevard count recount site and 'some tend to be more provocative', ...which he said slows down counting."
No LTEs, editorial cartoons. Today's Diary box score: Recounting numbers down but still over 90%. Challenge numbers up with no signs of disarmament, only talk of disarmament. Rejected absentee numbers up and sings of limbo lock increasing.
Off to get that second cup of coffee, so I'll leave you with the latest from yust southeast of Lake Wobegon.
Shalom.