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- inactive, on 01/21/2009, -2/+16WTF is Normie's problem? He's going to prison either way.
- novenator, on 01/21/2009, -2/+15Not gonna happen. Even if by some 1:1,000,000 chance it did, he would likely lose by an even larger margin, then re-sue to recount more, lose more votes, sue... you see where this is going?
- thejimmyo, on 01/21/2009, -1/+9Remember how, when Coleman was ahead, he said that his opponent should just drop out (pre-recount) for the good of the state? Whatever happened to that sentiment?
- GrandmaSheila, on 01/21/2009, -3/+11"WAHHHHH-WAHHHHH-WAHHHHH-KEEP-COUNTING UNTIL I WIN-WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!'
This from the party that told us all to "Get Over" the theft of two presidential elections...
Can the Repthug AssKKKlown car pick up Coleman, and just drop him off at Leavenworth..... - Anomaly100, on 01/21/2009, -2/+9He won't go away. You can't vote him away. He's like a cancer that keeps coming back.
- MediaWeasel, on 01/21/2009, -1/+8Jeez they're gonna need a crowbar to prise his cold dead hands off the doorframe ..
- apastafarian, on 01/21/2009, -1/+6What's next, decide things with a game of rock paper scissors?
- thoughtlover, on 02/06/2009, -0/+1Wow bentman... incorrect on so many levels, you obviously haven't been following the election and have only been listening to republican partisan bullcrap. Coleman, from the beginning, has been trying to disenfranchise voters in the state mandated re-count, and continues to do so by his well documented cherry-picking of the 12,000 Rejected Absentee Ballots (RABS) from republican districts for reconsideration. http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senat ...
Originally, ALL RABs were going to be rejected, because Minnesota State Law mandates that only ballots cast in the election and the summary statements certified by the election judges may be considered in the recount process. It was Fraken's appeal alone to the Canvassing Board which resulted in their review at all, arguing that there were Improperly Rejected Absentee Ballots (IRABs) because there were RABs which had been rejected on something other than the 4 guiding principles laid out in Minnesota State Law. Franken asked that ALL RABs BE REVIEWED to find those that were improperly rejected. Let me say this again, it was Franken that asked ALL 12,000+ RABs BE REVIEWED. You can see Franken's letter to the Canvassing Board here: http://www.politicsinminnesota.com/files/recount/f ...
The Canvassing Board made 2 rulings on this. The first was that they felt they could not force the review of the RABs, due to the way the law was written; it was the domain of the election judge –or- the Courts under Equal Protections. At this point on Digg, the blind republican partisans were shouting approval, that people were being disenfranchised in ways counter to state law. But then it was ruled that the Canvassing Board could request that election officials review RABS and identify IRABS, and most election officials were happy to correct their mistakes, and started sorting the RABs into 5 piles, the 5th pile being IRABs. Some election officials choose not to participate, which set up an Equal Protections case for later, whichever candidate was behind.
It was at this point Coleman filed a lawsuit, asking that 5th pile sorting be halted until a standard method for counting could be worked out, a lame attempt to keep them from being counted until after certification. The Minnesotta Supreme Court quickly decided that the sorting of RABs would continue, that the IRABs should be counted, but (and here was the controversial ruling) IRABs would be counted only if the Franken and Coleman camps agree.
Now this is where Norm Coleman really starts to look desperate. The reviews of the challenged ballots finished up and Franken came out on top. If you actually look at the delta numbers on Startribune (the ultimate and most reliable coverage in this election, bar none), it can be seen that votes were not gained so much as Franken didn't loose as many as Coleman did due to voter intent disqualifications/overvotes/the like. Franken is revealed to be 25 votes up. http://ww2.startribune.com/news/metro/elections/re ...
Coleman sees he is going to lose, and he knows that the IRABs will have a statistically large Franken bias (known from earlier counted absentee ballots). FRANKEN IS OK WITH COUNTING ALL IRABs SENT BY ELECTION JUDGES. Coleman doesn't feel that way. He starts making odd demands, like he would only allow certain IRABs to be counted if other Properly Rejected Absentee Ballots (PRABS) be included in the count, those not determined to be 5th pile worthy by election judges. Negotiations break down once, but eventually they work a standard out and each side whittles the approximate 1,350 votes down to around 950. Due to Coleman’s abuse of the earlier controversial court ruling, COLEMAN IS RESPONSIBLE FOR DISSENFRANCHISING ~400 IRABS. The absentee ballots are opened, counted, and are heavily in favor of Franken (52 percent of them and Coleman captured 33 percent). http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senat ... http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senat ... http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senat ...
Meanwhile Coleman complains about 650 PRABs in heavily republican districts that election judges did not put into the 5th pile, and did not get included in the review. Most people at this point can easily see that Coleman is cherry-picking HEAVILY republican districts, because he knows that if he considers ALL districts, he will lose by even MORE. Keep in mind, these ballots are closed and sealed, so there is no way to ascertain who the votes are for except by observing previous trend data, and that data heavily trended heavily Franken twice before. By the time Coleman reaches court, the cherry-picked PRABs from republican districts have risen to around 5000; however most of those were not in the original case filing. Coleman is now saying he is all about counting all ballots; but this is just posturing. That leads us to current news where Coleman managed to get the judges to add 5000 cherry-picked PRABs to the case, rather than the original 650 alone, and now Franken must respond introducing PRABs from DFL areas. This will add weeks to the court case as Franken and Coleman try to convince the judges their PRABs should be treated as IRABs. http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senat ... http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senat ...
So now that you’ve had your history lesson, I’m going to point out where you are wrong.
1) Coleman DOESN’T want 12,000 absentee ballots to be counted; he only wants ballots from heavily republican districts to be counted/reconsidered.
2) The 900 of IRABs counted were NOT BASED ON STANDARDS LAID OUT BY THE STATE SUPREME Court, but by an arbitrary process agreed upon by Coleman/Franken, which ultimately resulted in 400 IRABs not being counted because Coleman refused to count all IRABs sent to them by election officials.
3) Franken doesn’t want Coleman’s PRABs counted because they are CHERRY-PICKED republican districts, and because they should not be counted because it is against state law for them to be counted, as they were never certified by election judges in the respective districts. This has absolutely nothing to do with the military vote.
4) Your claim that absentee ballots are heavily republican due to the military vote is FALSE, as twice now Franken has heavily dominated in absentee counts, the last round of IRABs going to Franken 52% to Coleman’s 33%.
The only thing you got right is "count every vote as long as it's for our candidate", as that is precisely the game Coleman has been playing, and is playing now. Franken is also guilty of that, but only recently in response to Coleman’s successful bid to have cherry-picked PRABs reconsidered in court. - Spyder228, on 01/21/2009, -1/+2He's probably got a really nice desk or something in the office that won't fit out the door. He simply must win to keep that desk.
Otherwise this just makes no sense. Why throw all this money away for nothing? Spend it some needy kids or something. - bentman78, on 01/22/2009, -1/+2Good, they should. Coleman wants 12,000 absentee ballots counted that weren't counted and were dismissed by the Franken campaign. Heaven forbid all votes be counted.
According to a slightly more reliable news source, the NY Times on 1/19:
"Generally, absentee ballots have been rejected in Minnesota if, for example, a voter failed to sign his or her name. Already, during the recount, representatives from the Franken campaign argued that some absentee ballots had been improperly rejected; ultimately, more than 900 of such absentee ballots were opened and counted, under a process laid out by the State Supreme Court."
So even Franken's campaign argued some absentee ballots were improperly rejected. Franken doesn't want the ballots counted because most absentee ballots are from military personnel and they have a tendency to vote Republican.
The U.S. military has personnel in 160 countries around the world. It takes several weeks for absentee ballots to go to and return from those locations. According to VFW magazine, about one-third of those ballots weren't returned in time to be counted in the 2004 election. Most overseas military ballots generally go to Republicans, according to the "Military Times" (McCain, about 68 percent,President Bush received 73 percent of the military vote in 2004). To fix this problem, a bill was introduced in Congress last year titled "The Military Voting Protection Act of 2008," which would speed up the transfer of overseas ballots. Democratic leadership never allowed a vote on that bill. The Democratic Party slogan for this election was "count every vote." A more accurate slogan might be "count every vote as long as it's for our candidate."
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