Minnesota Recount thread

#52
#52
this smells.

Not really. Since this whole recount began, nearly every independent elections expert projected that it would be very close once the recount was completed, and many of these experts even predicted a narrow Franken victory. That Franken is ahead (for the moment) is hardly a surprise.
 
#53
#53
The counting is over and Franken is officially the winner by 225 votes. From henceforth, he shall be known as "Landslide Al."

In the end, it was the incorrectly rejected absentee ballots that cost Coleman. Most thought that if he could keep these from being counted, he might be able to win. In the end, Franken was able to win by a fairly substantial margin (considering).

My Way News - Franken on top in Minn. recount; Coleman to sue
 
#54
#54
Soooo. The margin that Franken ends up winning by is bigger than the margin Coleman originally won by?
 
#56
#56
Soooo. The margin that Franken ends up winning by is bigger than the margin Coleman originally won by?

It's true that Coleman was ahead in the count by 215 votes when the first unofficial machine counts were released on election night, but Coleman never "won" anything b/c those initial tallies were made before all of the votes were counted -- including over a thousand sealed absentee ballots which weren't opened until this past weekend. That initial tally is unofficial for a reason. It's always subject to change, and unsurprisingly, it did.

Here are the reasons why: (apologies for the length)

Minnesota state law called for an automatic recount in any race where the margin is within one half of one percent. This race was much closer than that (>.1%), and well within the known margin of error for optical scan voting machines. Therefore, the state-mandated recount was bound to turn up hundreds of legitimate votes (for both candidates) previously missed by the machine count. Minnesota has very detailed "voter intent" laws in place which stipulate that every reasonable effort should be made to determine the intent of the voter. If voter intent is clear, then it counts. If it's unclear, it doesn't.

All ballots of questionable intent aka challenged ballots (see "Lizard People" earlier in thread) were brought before the state canvassing board which debated and ruled on them in public view. The canvassing board is made up of Democrats and Republicans. In almost every case, the board agreed unanimously. (That includes a unanimous rejecting of Lizard People ballot). There was very little drama and very little disagreement among them.

As is always the case, thousands of unopened absentee ballots that were rejected on election night for various legitimate reasons, but during the statewide canvass, both campaigns found absentee ballots that had been wrongly rejected for no apparent reason, or because elections officials made clerical errors or simply mishandled them (for example: one election judge notarized a ballot envelope, but forgot to initial the corresponding form, thus leading the county elections board to disqualify it).

Franken sued claiming that several thousand absentee ballots has been "wrongly rejected" and thus excluded from the original count. He argued that these voters had been disenfranchised despite doing everything right. Unsurprisingly, Coleman, who was ahead at the time, counter sued to stop the absentees from being opened. The Court sided with the Franken and ordered that all counties review their rejected absentees and present their findings to the state canvassing board. This process was highly transparent with hundreds of observers from both campaigns were present in every county. In the end, the counties came up with about 1300 wrongly rejected absentee ballots.

However, the Court ordered that before a ballot could be counted, both campaigns would have to agree beforehand to accept the result of said ballot. If the campaigns could not agree, the ballot would not be counted. In other words, Coleman could veto any absentee ballot he suspected might be for Franken, and Franken could do the same for ballots he suspected might be for Coleman. After some serious negotiating, both campaigns finally agreed to open and count 952 of the roughly 1300 "wrongly rejected" absentees. In the end, Franken won about 53% of the 952 ballots, compared to 38% for Coleman resulting in a net gain of 176 votes for Franken. This put him ahead by 225 votes. With all ballots (agreed upon by the campaigns) now counted, Franken was declared the winner by the state of minnesota.

Finally, Coleman is planning to file suit to contest the election results, specifically arguing that he was denied "equal protection" b/c of those 400 "wrongly rejected" absentee ballots which remain uncounted b/c neither campaign could agree on them. I think these ballots should be included, although it's ironic that Coleman now wants these absentees opened since he originally went to court to keep them closed. Still, I hope he gets a favorable ruling here b/c if they are legitimate votes, they should be counted no matter what the campaigns agreed to before. Coleman's problem is that he would need to win over 65% of those 400 uncounted absentees in order to overcome Franken's 225 vote lead. That's a tall order considering Franken has been winning a clear majority of the absentees up to this point.

Again, I don't fault Coleman for contesting the results in court. His legal team should mount a vigorous defense, exhausting all options before conceding. No doubt, Franken would do the same if he were still behind. The courts are always the best place for these things to be settled. Coleman deserves to have his case heard, and I'm glad he'll have that opportunity.
 
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