Senator Norm Coleman isn’t waiting for the recount. He’s filing to stop the canvass of votes that will certify the unofficial totals reported. That’s right, Coleman wants to win the election based on the unofficial totals. This is not the mandated recount, which under Minnesota law must happen after a close election, in this case less than .5% of the ballots. Such a recount is by hand, according to intent of the voter, and happens unless the losing candidate waives the recount. Earlier Coleman was pressuring Franken to drop out after the original unofficial totals had him up by slightly over 700 ballots. This is just the legally mandated re-canvass, reconciling the number of ballots with the vote totals, and checking totals reported to the Secretary of State. It has included correcting errors such as one town that didn’t call in results at all, and another where a typographical error cost Franken 100 votes. Inch by inch has been pushing against the incumbent Republican, and at least one person on the ground thinks that the reason for this action by Coleman is that Monday could dawn with him behind in the certified totals if the absentee ballots are counted.
Sources close the Franken campaign have stated all along through this process that all the campaign has wanted is for each vote to be counted, and have warned that there might be attempts to "muddy the waters," and that they will aggressively defend the standard process going forward to its conclusion, and having clear and correct totals to determine the election, and for all legal votes to be counted. They point out that historically the final canvass often varies by thousands of votes in a statewide race, differences of hundreds of votes are not uncommon. In 2002 Coleman’s win over Mondale narrowed by 8,920 votes, with over 100,000 votes counted in the canvass that were not reported in the results after election day.
To riff off of Franken, Coleman seems to be a litigous litigator who litigates: he has already been turned down on a request not to have 32 absentee ballots counted and is appealing. David Lillehaug, representing the Franken campaign, called the filing a "sneak attack," during a press conference. The right wing Keep Out The Vote machine is going full court press to stop the legal count from completing in time for the November 18th certification of results, let alone the recount that would follow provided the losing candidate does not waive it. However, that losing candidate might well be Norm Coleman based on the numbers coming in from the canvass.
(Update (Ian): denied.)
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Rethugs: the Boss Party. They don’t need no stinking official results.
The Rs are so desperate they are willing to steal an election right out in the open. Go Al !
and Coleman is a man of no honor. cheatin’ creep.
Wow. Can you say “Florida II, Electric Boogaloo?”
Gee, Norm, hate yer voters much?
The extremely negative campaign hurt Franken. I know people who voted Independent because of the negativity. Still, I hope Franken pulls this one out.
Not to squash this “breaking news” thread, but up top now is an FDL Book Salon Chat with Mitchell Gold on his book Crisis: 40 Stories Revealing the Personal, Social, and Religious Pain and Trauma of Growing up Gay in America.
Well, no Clinton candidacy is waiting in the wings, so there is a good chance that ALL votes will be counted, and perhaps AL will win, the regular way, by the actual counting of votes.
Citizen brenda:
The Independence Party is a real problem in Minnesota politics and it’s gunna kill the DFL unless they deal with it head on in the next Governor election…and a whole lotta knuckle draggin’ Clinton istas who were pissed that Mrs. Clinton lost the nomination took it out on Franken…What the hell was Miles Lord’s daughter doin’ runnin’ off support in the primary? Now THAT’s a problem and THAT’s why Dean Barkley got 15%!
Apparently Norm already got slapped down on this.
Note it was slapped down on jurisdictional grounds, so Coleman may try again in another way.
And this really has nothing to do with these 32 ballots, I’d wager–it has to do with the 20,000 undervotes, though Norm ain’t saying that directly.
Yeah, I agree the Independence Party is a problem. But disagree that negative campaigning isn’t, it is. Had Franken run a positive campaign I think he would have done much better.
Instant runoff voting? Worth a try.
Nevermind–that’s in the post.
That’s OK — this challenge will get batted away as well. Coleman’s just throwing a temper tantrum and hoping that if he screams loudly and long enough, he’ll get his way. Courts of law don’t work that way.
Citizen Brenda:
As a challenger to an incumbant, the challenger must go out after the incumbant’s record…don’t fall into the “false equivalence” argument…as long as the capaign ad compares the facts of one candidate’s record against the political stands of the other you don’t have a “negative ad” you have an effective one. No dear, it was Coleman who dirtied up the campaign air with REAL negative ads and it was the 15% Barkley got that came directly from DFL voters that was the problem. Coleman’s negative campaign only worked because the Independence party coordinated with him to suction off the percentage of DFL voters who got turned off and couldn’t vote for either as a result…it’s the same reason that Minnesota got a minority governor TWICE…no the entire problem is the coordination of the Independence Party with the fascists and it will only get worse until the DFL take the bastards out head on!
P.S. add that 15% to Franken’s total and see where the election goez…Minnesota voters have become politically illiterate…both my daughters are now votin’ in Minnesota and have become active thanks ta Obama so maybe there is hope.
Comrade NorskeFlamethrower:
the challenger must go out after the incumbant’s record…don’t fall into the “false equivalence” argument
You mean like Obama did? One can challenge an incumbent’s record without going negative.
it will only get worse until the DFL take the bastards out head on!
I wish I knew how. Maybe I’ll ask Sen. Marty tomorrow at church.
Coleman’s campaign filed to shut down ALL absentee counting (and the recount?): not just the 32 ballots.
Could this be a result of negative campaogning or something else?
http://www.startribune.com/pol…..anchO7DiUT
Why would one want to get rid of the Independence Party? I’m sick of being told I have only two choices. Barkley got 15% because people were sick of the negativity. This years ads by Coleman and Franken were horrible and relentless. That said I hope Franken wins and think the undervote will do Coleman in.
Canvas has one “s”. Go Franken!
SWEET
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..components
What Norm doesn’t seem to realize is that more than 1/2 of the Minnesotans who voted think he sucks! Between the votes for Franken and the Independents, Norm is the loser. Which is nothing new to many of us. Someone should tell Norm.
This site is following the case closely:
http://www.mncampaignreport.com
Presumably Powerline will be leading the assault for the Republicans:
http://www.powerlineblog.com/
I expect the recount to be the nastiest event in American political history — Florida 2000 x2, as MNCampaignreport says. I hope to God that the Franken people have a supercharged response ready, because the other side will go all out. They’ve already alleged fraud in one precinct where there was a tabulation error. The Coleman people will go public with every suspicion and every rumor.
Powerline has already published emails from ANONYMOUS election judges alleging fraud. If they are really election judges, there are formal channels to report problems; if they haven’t done so and don’t do so they’re fakers. They’re also free to go public with details about what the problems were and which precinct they were in. But as long as they remain anonymous they should be regarded as fakers.
Minnesota has a long, well-earned reputation as a clean-election state, but Coleman will move heaven and earth in order to change that.
As far as I could tell, Franken’s negativity was legit criticism on Senate votes and policy positions, whereas Coleman’s negativity was almost all smears and character assassination. (”Al Franken: Unfit to Serve” was Coleman’s main campaign slogan). But Minnesota voters, while smart and attentive, are not cynical enough to recognize a slime artists when they see one. A lot of nice people ended up beilieving that both sides are equally bad. That’s the standard Republican strategy when they have nothing positive to run on. “They’re just as bad as we are” is the most they dare to claim, even though it’s not usually true.
“I expect the recount to be the nastiest event in American political history” should just be “in Minnesota political history”. I’m not crazy.
Mr Klynn said, “Mr Coleman, if you are afraid of a recount as required by law, you are afraid to lose. If you are afraid to lose, you are unfit to lead.”
Coleman stole the 2002 Senate election electronically after the murder of the incumbent progressive Democrat. Now Coleman is taking a page out of the bush traitor’s playbook: stop counting the votes, because counting the votes may interfere with my rights to be dictator.
Hey guys, all this business of going into court for injunctions is just fuzz. The margin between the two, Franken and Coleman is sufficently narrow that there will be a recount, it is mandated in Minnesota State Statutes. Moreover, no court has jurisdiction over the recount process until it is complete. And it will not be Florida.
Given the size of the vote, 2.9 million ballots, the margin would need to be at least 16,000 for there to not be a recount.
Now what will happen. Monday all the Counties have to report their final preliminary Canvas to the Secretary of State. Then the State Canvas Board meets to review results. State Canvas Board is two Supreme Court Justices of opposite party, two district court judges of opposite party, and the DFL elected Secretary of State. They will observe that the Senate Race is so narrow the Mandatory Recount is triggered, and the Recount will be ordered.
A Recount is just that — you leave aside the existing count, and start all over again. The State all votes on paper ballots, fill in the oval, so each county will establish a counting hall, trained poll workers of opposite party will be formed into teams, recount the entire county on the Senate Race. There are 87 Counties, so there will be 87 counting halls. Each Precinct is counted independently. State Law provides an exhaustive statute regarding how to interpret “intent of the voter” and each ballot will be examined by the team of counters individually, classified, and then hand counted. No Machines. For ballots that are disputed, the county canvas board will rule on these, and if there is an appeal, it goes to the State Canvas Board. (Four Judges and the Sec of State). They are required to rule inside the state statutes that set the criteria. No court has any jurisdiction over any part of the process until it is complete, and yes, then if someone wants to contest it, they do it on their own dime. Right now, the recount is simply part of the state election system with the recount necessary because of the narrow margin between the candidates. (It is a little more than 200 votes now, but the trigger for a recount is about 16,000.)
It will probably take about a month to complete the recount, though we will get daily read-out’s of the precincts recounted. There are over 4200 precincts in the state. State Law dictates how observers can watch the process, they are not permitted to talk in the counting hall, all objections must be in writing — it will not look at all like Florida.
The estimate is there might be around 6000 undervotes in the Senate Election, with this estimate based on previous recounts. About 2 per thousand ballots don’t get picked up by the scanners, because voters make light marks, check instead of fill in the oval, or sometimes circle candidate’s names. If these fall within the State Law criteria of “intent of the voter” they get counted.
Minnesota has one of the most comprehensive recount laws in the nation — and this is a result of a problem election in 1962-63, the contest for Governor between Elmer Anderson, the republican incumbant, and the DFL Challenger, Karl Rolvaag. They were about 90 votes apart on election night, with Anderson ahead — and our recount law was piecemeal, a bit contradictory and all, so everyone went to court and shouted for about a month — the 8th Federal District Appeals Court ruled it belonged in State Court, it was appealed to the Supreme Court, they didn’t take it, so it went back to State Court, and they ordered the full recount. Toward the end of December the counting began. The Governor’s term ended Jan 1, but they left Anderson in the Governor’s suite, and made another office for Rolvaag in the Capitol Basement, and the counting went on — and on and on. Finally in mid March Rolvaag was ahead by about 120 votes, and there were 17 ballots outstanding where they could not interpret the intent of the voter, so Anderson gave up, moved out, and Rolvaag moved upstairs. After that the Legislature determined to re-write the recount law, and after much consultation, they did in 1965, and then it was revised in the late 80’s when we thoroughly modernized our whole election system, and adopted the paper ballot with in precinct scanners for the whole state.
We have lots of close elections, so we have considerable experience with recounts mandated by State law when the margin is narrow. In fact we have three legislative races with less than 100 votes seperating the candidates that also have to be recounted after the Canvas.
So yes, watch what happens, but wait till you see how it works before you draw conclusions. Remember that old Lawyer’s addage — when you have facts, pound facts. When you have law, pound law. When you have neither, pound the table. Normie is pounding the table.
You are right JohnEmerson, Frankens ads were not so much negative, but to me were just plain irritating. Judging by the close vote enough Minnesotans saw thru the slime and smears to at least keep it competitive. A friend of mines republican mom interviewed Franken and came away from it heavily impressed with his ‘down to earthness’ and his grasp of what concerns Minnesotans. He also walked away from her vote.
Franken also had positive ads, so we should keep this in perspective:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9FSg0DvwsU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uYrT9TDy9A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9hfoLvFY5A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IDjMbdgD9c
I think many of Al’s ads were hard on Norm Coleman, not just for the sake of being negative, but as a way to provide accountability moments for Coleman’s behavior as a Senator over the past 6 years.
If you read The Political Mind by George Lakoff, you’ll understand that Norm Coleman’s character assassination ads against Franken did seep into the minds of Minnesotans through sheer repetition, so those frames and narratives got placed into their heads whether or not they agreed with them. Once a frame is put into your mind, it cannot be erased. Liberal or conservative, we all have the War on Terror frame in our heads and there’s no way to get rid of it. The best you can do is create an alternative frame for consideration.
So, the battlefield of this election has taken place inside the brains of Minnesotans and each has had to process contradictory framing (some based on truth, others based on distorted thinking and deception) and come to a conclusion about how to vote. Most of this processing occurs on an unconscious level.
- Tom