Comedian-turned-politician Al Franken has a slim lead in the never-ending recount of the U.S. Senate race in Minnesota. As of Monday, Franken was ahead of Republican incumbent Norm Coleman by 48 votes out of about 2.9 million votes cast. But the Coleman campaign claims that election officials double-counted more than 100 ballots, and about 1,600 absentee ballots that were mistakenly rejected must still be counted.
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ONE PLUS ONE EQUALS 20 EXTRA VOTES FOR FRANKEN
December 17, 2008
It’s bad enough that the Republican Party can’t prevent Democrats from voting in its primaries and saddling us with The New York Times’ favorite Republican as our presidential nominee. If the Republican Party can’t protect an election won by the incumbent U.S. senator in Minnesota, there is no point in donating to the Republican Party.
The day after the November election, Republican Sen. Norm Coleman had won his re-election to the U.S. Senate, beating challenger Al Franken by 725 votes.
Then one heavily Democratic town miraculously discovered 100 missing ballots. And, in another marvel, they were all for Al Franken! It was like a completely evil version of a Christmas miracle.
As strange as it was that all 100 post-election, “discovered” ballots would be for one candidate, it was even stranger that the official time stamp for the miracle ballots printed out by the voting machine on the miracle ballots showed that the votes had been cast on Nov. 2 — two days before the election.
Democratic election officials in the miracle-ballot county simply announced that their voting machine must have been broken. Don’t worry about it — they were sure those 100 votes for Franken were legit.
Then another 400-odd statistically improbable “corrections” were made in other Democratic strongholds until — by the end of election week — Coleman’s lead had been whittled down to a mere 215 votes.
Since then, highly irregular counting methods have added to Franken’s total bit by bit, to the point that Coleman is now ahead by only 188 votes.
As long as Coleman maintains any lead at all, Republicans don’t seem to care that Coleman’s advantage is being shrunk by laughable ballot “discoveries” and disreputable standard-switching from precinct to precinct — depending on which method of counting ballots is most advantageous to Franken.
Consider a few other chilling examples of Democrats thieving their way to victory over the years.
In 1974, Republican Louis Wyman won his race for U.S. Senate in New Hampshire, beating Democrat John Durkin by 355 votes. Durkin demanded a recount — which went back and forth by a handful of votes until the state’s Ballot Law Commission concluded that Wyman had indeed won by (at least) two votes.
Wyman was certified the winner by the New Hampshire secretary of state and was on his way to Washington when … the overwhelmingly Democratic U.S. Senate refused to seat Wyman.
Despite New Hampshire’s certification of Wyman as the winner of the election, this was the post-Watergate Senate, when Democrats could get away with anything — up to and including a prank known as “President Jimmy Carter.”
The U.S. Senate spent months examining disputed ballots from the New Hampshire election. Unable to come up with a method to declare the Democrat the winner that didn’t require a guillotine, the Senate forced New Hampshire to hold another election.
It was a breathtaking abuse of power. New Hampshire had certified a winner of its Senate election, but it was a Republican, so the Democratic Senate simply ordered a new election.
Demoralized Republicans stayed away from the race and, this time, the Democrat won the re-vote.
Even more egregious was the Indiana House race in 1984. On election night, the incumbent Democrat Frank McCloskey appeared to have won a narrow victory of 72 votes. But after a correction was made in one county, it turned out his Republican opponent, Richard McIntyre, had won by 34 votes.
McIntyre was certified the winner — which is when the trouble usually starts for a Republican.
Again, a majority Democrat House refused to seat the certified winner in a close election. I’m sure it was just a coincidence that the winner was a Republican.
Consequently, Indiana performed yet another recount of the entire district, which again showed that Republican McIntyre was the winner — this time by 418 votes. Now he was really asking for it. The nerve of this guy! Hey, buddy, do you mind? We’re trying to throw an election over here!
As The Washington Post reported at the time: There were “no allegations of fraud” in the recount and 90 percent of ballot disqualifications had been agreed to “by election commissions dominated by Democrats.”
So naturally the House refused to seat the Republican even though he had received the most votes (hereinafter referred to as “the winner”). The House proceeded to conduct its own recount. (If you haven’t detected a pattern by this point, please ask your doctor if Prilosec is right for you.)
This time, instead of ordering the district to hold another election, the Democratic House saved all concerned a lot of time and money by simply declaring Democrat Frank McCloskey the winner by four votes.
The vote-theft most like Minnesota this year was the infamous 2004 gubernatorial election in Washington State. The Republican won the race on election night, but ballots favoring the Democrat kept being “discovered” until the Democrat finally eked out a majority. At that point, the recount was immediately halted and the Democrat declared the victor.
You would have to go back to Reconstruction to find an election that was stolen by the Republicans this way, but it’s all in a day’s work for the Democrats.
That’s why they were so testy about the 2000 Florida election. It was the one time in the last century Republicans wouldn’t let Democrats steal an election they lost by less than a thousand votes.
No matter how many times Democrats steal elections, Republicans keep thinking the next time will be different. Minnesota is famously clean, isn’t it? It must be different. It’s not different. It’s still the Democrats.
COPYRIGHT 2008 ANN COULTER
DISTRIBUTED BY UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE
1130 Walnut, Kansas City, MO 64106
Don’t you just love it when a thread starts with a copy/paste from Ann Coulter?
garbage in, garbage out.
Toss a coin to get it over with.
Poor Ann, the blond bummer. Democrats use the Republican’s own way of stealing elections, and Ann flips out. I guess when you’re a Republican, the shoe never seems to fit the other foot. But using her as an opening salvo? O, well, if that’s all you got.
“You would have to go back to Reconstruction to find an election that was stolen by the Republicans this way, but it’s all in a day’s work for the Democrats.”
========================================================
Not really, 2000 is as far back as needed.
I love the Coulter-geist cut & post comes from “HLP,” who thinks the universe is 8,000 years old, that “Silent Coup” is the definitive account of Watergate, and holds on to his fetish for all things BushCo.
MW
Also remember, HLP thinks “Cheny is truly an American hero!” (HIS misspelling).
Give credit where credit is due.
Franken = biggest piece of crap that ever breathed
I loved him in “Stewart Saves His Family”…maybe he should stick with acting.
“Franken = biggest piece of crap that ever breathed”
—Chrisfrommactown
But Chrisfrommactown, he’s just a typical liberal Democrat. Cut from the same mold.
How convenient that a DumbocRat found shoeboxes of ballots in someones garage; this nothing but theft of an election ; the liberals should just go back to Russia
I see the Republican whining machine is out in full force this morning.
HLP would probably bonk the Republican’s favorite bulemic whor.
It’s no surprise Hank quotes from a man who is a fascist and a known liar. mAnn Coulter is probably still upset Franken showed him to be the liar he is.
At least the recount has been entertaining:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTg55m5YIwc
It’s amazing the ‘crats’ can’t get the count right the first time.
I suppose checking “X” in box is just too challenging for some folks.
I think that ‘discovered’ ballots should never be counted. So if all sides agree on that, lets make it a law.
The only recounts should be done are of properly submitted documents in the time frame.
“I suppose checking “X” in box is just too challenging for some folks.” — fibulus
Putting an “X” in the box resulted in a challenge. The oval was supposed to be filled in. Understanding the problem is a challenge for some folks.
This shows that we simply do not have a good mechanism for dealing with a tie vote. At least in MN the votes are not being counted by the campaign chair of one of the candidates.
MP, you know I love your posts and all the work you do for progressive causes. And sanity.
But…
I find it offensive to imply that coultergeist is somehow transsexual or transvestite, and that being trans is somehow a bad thing.
She is more vile than dog puke, and has about the same level of intelligence. She gives us plenty of ammunition to work with and we dont need to insult trans people by implying they are bad.
SHE is bad. THEY are not.
She isnt good enough to carry the shoes of most of the transsexual people I know.
Please, stop with the mAnn Coulter stuff.
beber
Posted December 24, 2008 at 8:43 am | Permalink
“I suppose checking “X” in box is just too challenging for some folks.” — fibulus
Putting an “X” in the box resulted in a challenge. The oval was supposed to be filled in. Understanding the problem is a challenge for some folks
—————-
It was symbolic numb nuts, not literal.
Took you a long time to switch back this time, fibulus.
Touche’ beber!
#
beber
Posted December 24, 2008 at 9:46 am | Permalink
Took you a long time to switch back this time, fibulus.
—————-
Switch back from what?
Sorry, was doing Christmas stocking stuffer shopping earlier.
But do continue to blather.
Coleman never belonged in Paul Wellstone’s seat in the first place.
Norm Coleman? YOU lost. Get out.
Until today I wasn’t extremely concerned one way or another with how this all turned out. As I recall Coleman isn’t one of the extremists like Chambliss of Liddy Dole. However, after reading Coulter’s rant I really hope Franken wins.
Interesting that any change that helps Republicans is a “correction” (e.g. “But after a correction was made in one county, it turned out his Republican opponent, Richard McIntyre, had won by 34 votes.”) but any change that helps a Democrat is thievery (But after a correction was made in one county, it turned out his Republican opponent, Richard McIntyre, had won by 34 votes.”
And, of course, we haev the example of Bush campaign chair Kathleen Harris …
Alan Combs to mAnn Coulter, “You are a hate crime.” Priceless.
“…more vile than dog puke…”
What a great line. I’m jealous. I wish I had written it. Keep it up, farmie.
Dennis
Al Franken is a big fat senator?
Coulter blames the New York Times for the candidate the Republicans nominated? She writes as if she is insane.
Democrats in Minnesota are winning the recount and she calls it “thievery?” She writes like a cry-baby.
Ah, she is part of the Victim Culture. Poor loser.
TY Dennis :)
I too think it is great that a thread beguins with a quote from Coulter. Just goes to say what I have always said is that a CON can’t think seperately. This elections sound like Florida only this time ALL of the votes are being counted.
Poor, always picked on, CONs. They can whine better that anyone I have ever seen. You guys need some cheese with that whine?
I hope Franken’s 50 vote lead holds all the way through.
Kind of amazing the state could be that evenly divided.
The other interesting thing is the large third-party vote.
That’d be Al Frankenstein to the RW.
Franken’s going to win.
Minnesota, unlike Florida, actually followed their law of counting votes based on the intent of the voter when it could be determined.
Had we done that in 2000, we wouldn’t be bogged down in never-ending war in Iraq, the highest national debt as a percentage of GDP since WW2, massive unemployment, 9-11, and everything else that Bush is directly responsible for.
The absentee ballots are going to go Franken’s way. That’s why Repukes hate them. Anything that makes it easier for people to vote makes it easier for Democrats to win.
GO FRANKEN!
Kathleen Harris will be forever linked in infamy to the Florida recount and the disaster of the bush admin.
The fact that Coleman’s initial 725 vote lead has declined to a 50 vote loss, tells me that there was some initial manipulating going on. It’s good that it is being uncovered.
Seems to me that an election this close should be a “redo.” If no one can even get 51% of the votes cast, there’s no consensus. They should just leave the seat vacant until they can get up another election.
IIRC, Coulter dated Bob Guccione, photographer and publisher of Penthouse for a while. I can’t imagine getting past a third date with him and not getting your nude picture taken. Maybe it’s time some of those photos were published of our good christian bitch. Not too many though; we don’t want to create a plague of nausea across the nation, on top of all the other troubles the ‘publicans stuck us with!
Let’s see, If Franken wins, that gives the Dems 59 (counting 2 Independents). Still not enough for a super majority. Even if they got the 60 votes, you could never get them to all vote the same way at the same time. Why is that?
Jed – there may be a good reason for no such pictures.
bth,
Guccione has severe brain scarring from exposure to massive quantitties of silicone. He’d take nude pictures of his 85yr-old grandmother and publish them if he could make a buck doing it. Besides, He’s demonstrated time and again that he don’t need no stinking releases! Maybe we should take up a collection.
I’m not referring to releases …
Nude pictures of an undead ghoul? Gah. No thanks.
Might need a bit of “re-touch” work, eh bth??? LOL
#
Phantom
Posted December 24, 2008 at 12:07 pm | Permalink
The fact that Coleman’s initial 725 vote lead has declined to a 50 vote loss, tells me that there was some initial manipulating going on. It’s good that it is being uncovered.
========================
How so?
Were there any net losses?
I thought the votes counted were not contested, just the …er contested votes were counted.
Uh cuz dems think for themselves!