Lizard People

The Washington, D.C.–based Center for Public Integrity salutes MnIndy’s parent nonprofit, the Center for Independent Media, and the Minneapolis-based citizen videoblogging outlet The UpTake in its “Top 10 Website of 2008″ list today. Citing media “from projects to blogs to websites that help keep our country transparent,” the investigative journalism organization named the entire six-site CIM network, but specifically applauded our sister site in Michigan.

While the rest of are just about Lizard Peopled out, the Star Tribune seems to be just gearing up to cover the infamous Beltrami County ballot. Chuck Tomlinson points out a December 18 “reader query” by Strib politics team lead, D.J. Tice, asking, “Did you cast write-in votes for ‘Lizard People.’” Bemidji’s Lucas Davenport, of [...]

I spent the afternoon clicking through the Star Tribune’s excellent database of challenged ballots in search of the ballot Sen. Norm Coleman’s campaign reportedly questioned because the voter penned in a note of gratitude: “Thank you for counting my vote!” I still haven’t found it, but I did find, along with old favorites like write-in [...]

Flying Spaghetti Monster and Lizard People got the big press at yesterday’s State Canvassing Board’s review of challenged ballots in Minnesota’s U.S. Senate race, but another challenge by Coleman shows how the incumbent has, in the words of TPM’s Eric Kleefeld, “puffed up his apparent lead” with “brazenly frivolous attempts to get votes for Al [...]

The UpTake, live streaming Thursday’s Minnesota State Canvassing Board meeting on the U.S. Senate recount, featured a ballot cast for the candidate, Flying Spaghetti Monster. The Coleman campaign challenged the ballot because FSM was written in for Soil and Water Conservation Supervisor, although the oval beside Franken’s name was clearly filled in; the vote went to Franken. Moments earlier, the board reviewed the infamous vote cast for Lizard People. Minnesota’s most famous ballot was designated an overvote.

See the board’s discussion of the ballots and download a scan of the Flying Spaghetti Monster votes after the jump

MPR’s “Challenged Ballots: You be the judge” post has got to be the site’s top traffic generator ever. I’ve seen it linked locally and nationally, on buttoned-up news sites and Comedy Central’s Indecision ‘08. That last one, which references the infamous contested write-in vote for “Lizard People” (destined to be our “Hanging Chad of Aught Eight”), ends with a few salient questions.