Today I decided to stop over at our Civic Center and check out the
Franken / Coleman Senate recount as it progresses.
Our city was chosen as one of the many recount areas in the state.
Several of my friends and also my daughter are Al Franken Observers.
Some have taken vacation time off from work to volunteer for this duty, I was told that some of the Coleman
observers are paid by the hour.
Today there were 4 tables set up with 2 staff people and 2 observers for each campaign plus
each campaign had a couple lawyers there to assist with legal questions that might come up.
The observers were there yesterday from 9:00 AM until 8:30 PM., and
they didn't get a lunch break until about 2:30 PM.
Today they were back at 9:00 AM.
I decided to just drop by and watch for awhile yesterday and again today.
The Media said it was like watching paint dry, but I was pleasantly surprised to find it very fascinating
Every now and then a ballot was being challenged, and the lawyers would go over to check it out.
I watched one challenge by a Coleman observer, she challenged the ballot because the
person filling in the oval had gone outside the lines.
I wanted to tell her this wasn't an art class, but I bit my tongue knowing that the judges reviewing it will look for the intent only and will count it for Franken.
The Franken volunteers outnumbered the Coleman camp 2 to 1
and seemed to be in much better spirits.
Maybe because this area went overwhelmingly for Democrats
so it has to affect the mood of those losing the battle here.
But this is just one area and statewide Naughty Normy is still leading by 100 plus votes.
There are several hundred ballots around the state unaccounted for at the moment, but I'm sure they will turn up.
I have no guess as to what the final vote will be,
it will be determened in the end by a few judges that will be examining
the challenged ballots.
I do know that when it is finished there will be no doubt as to the winner,
because this isn't Florida
and our Secretary off State is Fair.
5 comments:
I just got home from the recount in Brooklyn Center. I can tell you that the the challenges by the Coleman people became more outrageous and more contentious as the day wore on. It was very clear that they had instructions to drive up the count of challenges no matter what it took. There are only 3 legitimate reasons to challenge a ballot. "We think the voter intended to vote for Franken (or Coleman)" or "We think the voter did not intend to vote for Candidate Coleman (or Franken)" Or "The ballot contains a distinguishing or identifying mark? Yet, the Coleman people were consistently challenging ballots because the ovals weren't filled in perfect, or the ballot appeared to be filled out in blue ink instead of black. Or they claimed they could tell that a voter used both pencil and black ink to complete a ballot. I could not see what they were talking about and I have perfect 20-15 vision. Also, when I would make a legitimate challenge, like in one case the space between two ovals were colored so the intent was not clear, the Coleman people would immediate make up an excuse to follow up with a challenge of the next Franken ballot no matter how perfect. They clearly were keeping track and making sure they matched every Franken challenge with one of their own, legitimacy be damned, on top of their other numerous frivilous challenges.
It will be extremely interesting to see how this all plays out to the end.
"The ballot contains a distinguishing or identifying mark" should not have had a ?
Wow, who would have thought it would be so close?
I have been following that race! As for Ms. Harris - I still can't f'ing believe that an acting campaign manager for a state was allowed to preside over which ballots counted and which did not...
I love your near-comment about coloring outside of the lines! Why would that be a disputed ballot? Hello!
Happy Thamksgiving Green Tea! :)
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