Comments on: Franken and Coleman fight over 1,350 uncounted ballots

By: keith Kuckler

keith Kuckler — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 12:48:12 +0000

i do not understand why all of the uncounted absentee votes that were mistakenly rejected are not counted. i think the court made a big mistake when they asked both camps to agree on the ballots to count, they must have known that both sides would try to cherry pick. franken is right on this, count all of them, to do any less would rob the voters who had their ballots rejected by the counties.

By: remzod

remzod — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 10:14:23 +0000

I have to disagree with bob. Any recount is by its nature a messy situation, but this one conducted in Minnesota has been conducted as civilly and transparently as possible. Unless, of course, he is referring to the two candidates. In that case, I would just observe that they seem to be on a par with most of our legislators, who have been asleep at the switch on economic and executive issues. We could all stand for a little cleansing . . .

By: Eric Ferguson

Eric Ferguson — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 05:46:18 +0000

bob and whitfield, since by your admission you don’t live in Minnesota, and by your comments you don’t know squat, get lost.

Interpreter, I can’t tell if you’re in Minnesota or not. You’re just an asshole.

By: Interpreter

Interpreter — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 01:04:18 +0000

Jake seems really intelligent. Also, no politician is looking out for the principles. Franken wants to win just as much as Coleman and will rape your mother to get that last vote.

By: Elroy Sullivan

Elroy Sullivan — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 00:59:08 +0000

You guys really need to get better informed. It’s not so simple as to say, “Just count all the ballots.” Do you count ballots thought to be duplicate? Do you automatically count all the ballots in the so called “fifth pile” which do not meet one of the absentee exclusion criteria? Does anyone besides to county polling judge review the inclusion/exclusion criteria? What if a ballot is in the so called “wrongly excluded fifth pile” but clearly has a valid exclusion criteria such as non-matching signatures; does this ballot get counted just because the county polling judge said it was wrongly excluded. Also, there are several web site which are posting PDFs of many of the “challenged” ballots. Having gone through many of them, it is obviously a VERY tricky thing to decide whether a ballot was for Franken, Coleman, or neither. Some ballot sheets were apparently extremely poor copies of an original with marking ovals that could barely be seen, if at all. (There needs to be a law saying that all official ballots must be printed by professional printers, with no photocopies allowed.) Some people obviously marked the ballots as best they could, with the election committee having to make guesses at the voter’s “intent.” Now, I’ll tell you; I’m watching all of this from Tennessee, and I’m impressed with the care that the election committee and the Minnesota Supreme Court appear to be taking to get this thing right. Clearly, Franken and Coleman are both jockeying to get the advantage; who can blame them. However, stay informed and give the process the benefit of the doubt.

By: Whitfield

Whitfield — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 00:52:34 +0000

I am very happy this crap has moved on to you guys. I live here in Florida and think that both of the candidates fighting over these votes are complete douchebags but I don’t fault you for the stalemate that has insued based on a hack comedian running against a known washington political “insider”. godd luck from us here in sunny Florida (77 today and sunny….)

By: taconite12

taconite12 — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 00:39:54 +0000

According to the STrib, Coleman has his own mysterious list of 650 ballots he wants counted. Doesn’t say whether these are a subset of the 1346 identified by the counties, or where he came up with these.

By: BRUBIN

BRUBIN — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 00:33:12 +0000

SINCE WHEN DO WE IN ANY STATE NOT COUNT ALL VOTES?COLEMAN WANTS TO COUNT ONLY 10% OF THE 1346 VOTES CAST? WHAT A JOKE.WHY IS HE AFRAID TO COUNT ALL VOTES CAST?

By: Time to count

Time to count — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 23:53:27 +0000

Time to count and tell the court to f off. I do not care who says do not count my vote, Franken,
Coleman or some other court of a holes… Count them all and let God sort it out.
It is not up to the candidates or the court to decide who gets to vote, that was already
done BEFORE THE ELECTION. It is time to count the votes that were cast

Election board, get some stones and count now.

By: jake

jake — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 23:46:36 +0000

Al frankens a dick….