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MN-Sen: Getting Tighter

by: James L.

Thu Nov 06, 2008 at 9:09 PM EST


Last night, Hans Cole-Man was leading Al Franken by 477 votes. Of course, for the dickface that is Norm Coleman, that margin was good enough to ask Al Franken to waive the mandatory recount requirement and just call it day right there.

But the Minnesota Secretary of State has been updating its final results tally during the day, and Cole-Man's lead keeps getting smaller:

   9:15 AM  
   Coleman: 1,211,520
   Franken: 1,211,077

   10:15 AM  
   Coleman: 1,211,525
   Franken: 1,211,088

   1:20 PM  
   Coleman: 1,211,527
   Franken: 1,211,190

And right now?

   Coleman: 1,211,542
   Franken: 1,211,306

236 votes. I think we'll wait for all the ballots to be properly counted before we declare your victory, Norm. You dickface.
James L. :: MN-Sen: Getting Tighter
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MN-Sen: Getting Tighter | 24 comments
I just hope that
James L can really not hold back and speak his mind.  You seem so inhibited!

I would call Norm Coleman a prick, but a prick has a head on it.

40, male, Democrat, NC-04

I'd Just Love to See This Weasel Get Taken Over....
...especially after the way he's handled the recount issue thus far.  Typical Norm.
[ Parent ]
If Franken pulls ahead
I fully expect Norm to "back off" and halt the recount.
[ Parent ]
Been following this all day
It seems even when this does go to a recount that the machines used in the Minneapolis area are susceptible to reading errors. Therefore Franken might pick up some more votes there if he doesn't get enough from this review.
Coleman has gotten 22
While Franken has gotten 229. I'm not sure where the ballots are coming from, but that's a 10:1 ratio.  
Probably Minneapolis or St. Louis County.
There's generally alot of refining of numbers in those as well as alot of rural counties in the days after the election in Minnesota, almost always to Democrats' benefit.
[ Parent ]
No Lessons In Humility
Apparently the Normster didn't learn the first rule of being a politician: be humble in victory or defeat.

He should take some lessons from Gordon Smith, who today realizing that his lead has evaporated, conceded the race to Democrat Jeff Merkley, making him the 6th new Democratic Senator.

I have one final question: why doesn't your country just use paper ballots marked with pencils like in Canada? Canada is so huge, yet we are able to tell who won or lose within like half an hour after the polls close.  

In America we do the things the hard way
and we like it too!
[ Parent ]
No Offense
But the 'hard way' has now resulted in this clusterfuck of undeclared races that could take weeks to resolve. Not to mention the potential of widespread voter fraud from using electronic voting machines that may result in the unfair election of certain Republican or Democratic Senators, or even Presidents.

You know, guys like Coleman and George Bush?

[ Parent ]
It was a joke ;)

[ Parent ]
Yeah, I Could Tell After I Responded

[ Parent ]
You are aware
That things are done differently from county to county, or even town to town, right? The US uses a huge variety of different systems. One of the most common is exactly as you describe - optical scan.
[ Parent ]
Start Small
Maybe if one or two states started on their own to adopt a paper ballot system, the rest might eventually catch up to the idea.

I understand from the history of the United States that that was how elected Senators came into being. It was Oregon who started electing Senators and eventually the rest followed suit.

Oh well, maybe I'm being too idealistic.

[ Parent ]
The Tradition In Minnesota Races....
....is for Democrats to rein in more votes as the i's are dotted and t's are crossed in the counting process for the two days following the election, so it's not surprising that Franken has closed the gap so much.  With that said, the numbers are usually finalized by the Thursday evening after the election, meaning Franken probably has to count on the recount to make up the difference.  
might it?


Call no man happy until he is dead-Aeschylus
[ Parent ]
In 2004 Rossi lead by 261 votes in WA-Gov
But Gregoire won by 129 votes after 2 recounts. About the same number of people voted in WA-Gov in 2004 as MN-SEN in 2008

So Franken is definitely still in this for the long haul.

Come on
Let's win this race. I really hope we pull this out.
"124" was entered as "24"
Not Hennepin County, or St. Louis County.  But Pine County, where a sleepy person shorted Franked by 100--"24" instead of "124."

There's a GREAT article in today's Star Tribune.  It explained why the numbers have changed, the current steps, and the next steps:
http://www.startribune.com/pol...

Money quote:
"...on average, about two of every 1,000 ballots are not counted by the scanners for various reasons, which could add 6,000 ballots in the Senate race -- more than enough to provide a decisive result."

Important note:  The Secretary of State Project in 2006 helped elect a DFL Secretary of State in Minnesota.  Very important now!!!

Secretary of State Project
They had a good night.  We won all four SOS races - WV, MT, OR and MO.
[ Parent ]
Good to hear
I'm starting to wonder if Secretaries of State should be focused more on the governors.

Follow the elections in Georgia at the 2010 Georgia Race Tracker.
[ Parent ]
EVERY seat counts.
:)

party: Democratic, ideology: moderate, district: CT-01
[ Parent ]
239 as of 2:30PM
Republican  NORM COLEMAN  1211540 41.99  
Democratic-Farmer-Labor  AL FRANKEN  1211301 41.98  
221 as of 6 PM n/t

Down to 204
As of 10:48 AM Monday
MN-Sen: Getting Tighter | 24 comments

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