Iran 2009, Florida 2000. Photos: Flickr, Salon

In the biggest parallel yet to Minnesota’s still-disputed Al Franken-Norm Coleman election for U.S. Senate, Iran’s Guardian Council has now proposed to calm presidential-election protests with a partial recount. “We are ready to recount those boxes that presidential candidates claim to have been doctored,” a spokesman said. 

“It is possible that there may be some changes in the tally after the recount,” Guardian Council spokesman Abbasali Kadkhodai added. (Though not always the changes you want, Norm Coleman might caution.)

Actually a partial recount sounds more like Florida’s 2000 presidential election than Minnesota’s 2008–2009 exercise. Florida’s recount proceeded only in certain counties; that is, until it was stopped by the United States’ Guardian Council — er, Supreme Court. That contrasts with Minnesota, where state law mandates a statewide recount by hand when results show a margin smaller than half a percentage point between leading candidates.

Another thing Minnesota hasn’t seen that Florida and especially Iran have: riots. Peaceful demonstrations too, but Iran’s early protests were marred by violence (particularly on the authorities’ part, with fatal results), and Florida had its famous Brooks Brothers riot, in which young people with Republican ties stormed the Miami-Dade County recount offices. (The U.S. Supreme Court’s five-member majority used that instance of organized disorder as one reason for ruling Florida’s recount stopped.)

And here is another difference between Minnesota and Iran, should Iranian authorities proceed with even limited recounting: Minnesota law says ballots must be judged invalid if voters leave any kind of mark — initialing a correction, for instance — that could reveal their identity. In Iran, ballots aren’t valid unless voters leave the ultimate identity mark: their fingerprints (BBC video).

But contested election results have some commonalities, wherever they occur. It’s a small recount world, or as Minnesota-born columnist and author Thomas Friedman might say, the recount world is flat:

“Strange things keep happening in Minnesota … more than 25 precincts now have more ballots than voters who signed in to vote.” [Wall Street Journal]

Mr. Moussavi’s representative, Ali Akbar Mohtashamipour … gave an example: votes cast at some polling places, he said, exceeded the number of eligible voters in those areas. [New York Times]