That sort of reasoning doesn’t fly anymore. Have you been paying attention at all?

If these judges are moderate Republicans, they’re likely to be typical of the breed - spineless, principle-free and eager to please the people they consider their betters (Democrats) just to get invited to another cocktail party.

PS: Just looking at their rulings for Franken (read this or see below) is enough grounds for any reasonable person to doubt the integrity of everyone on that so-called “Bipartisan” canvassing board, Republican appointed or not.

… It is very difficult to determine how a voter meant to vote simply by looking at what might be stray marks on the ballot. And whatever rules are adopted must be consistently used in evaluating all ballots.

What to do when voters change their minds at the last moment or accidentally fill in the wrong oval? In such a case, the voters are supposed to ask for a new clean ballot. But the board presumes that some voters who change their minds simply put an “X” through the blacked-out oval. Even if the voter doesn’t blacken an oval for another candidate, an “X” through an oval is interpreted as the voter changing his mind. There is a claimed exception to this rule: if all the votes for each candidate that a voter supports are simultaneously marked by both filling in the oval and an “X,” voters are assumed to support those candidates.

The primary problem isn’t the rules. The real problem is the lack of consistency. Take some of the ballots that only marked the oval for Coleman, but where the oval is also marked through with an “X.” The Canvassing Board determined that those marks meant those voters intended to support “other/no one.” Here are a couple of examples, with more here.

Yet, there are a number of cases where the exact same markings for Franken were decided by the Canvassing Board to result in votes for Franken. More can be found here.

But to make the case even more strange, given this rule, what should the board decide when the oval is filled in for Coleman, but the Franken space is marked with an “X”? The board ruled that the vote is for Franken.

Nor can Coleman even win when there is an oval filled in for Coleman and the Constitution Party candidate receives an “X.” In that case, the board determined the support went to “other/no one.”

But if you have an oval filled in for Franken and the Independence Party candidate receives an oval with an “X,” the vote is given to Franken.

There are other cases where the ballots are clearly marked for Coleman, though the marks were relatively small, and the board awarded the votes to no one.

There are still other cases where it is hard to see how the board could legitimately declare certain votes for Franken. For example, a voter filled out neither the oval for Coleman nor for Franken, but colored in the area in between the two candidates. Part of the blob touches the edge of Coleman’s oval and one thin line goes slightly into Franken’s oval, and for 28 other races on the ballot the voter seems to have been able to fill out the required ovals – there is only one other case where he missed. Perhaps the board saw that the voter was voting for other Democrats and used that to help influence its decision, but there were a number of Democrats who voted for Obama and other Democrats, but not Franken.

Still the most obvious classification would have been not for Franken, but for “no one,” what most readers of the Minneapolis Star Tribune thought was the right answer.

Mistakes were also made against Franken, but they were much less common.

The justices are non-partisan. They have no party affiliation and do not accept endorsements from parties. Yea, maybe some of them were appointed by a “Republican” like Arnie Carlson (who freaking endorsed Obama… but I guess that makes Obama a Republican too) doesn’t mean they are Republicans.

Just looking at their track record on all cases over a period of years, you can tell just how conservative they are. Heck, just look at the idiotic judgement they gave in the absentee ballot case. That tells you what you need to know. Heck, look at the actions of the canvassing board, which was 2/5th composed of members of the Supreme Court.

I was very happy when the GOP started cleaning house and refusing to claim RINOs, but this one hurts. I made a pledge before the election this year that I would no longer vote for the, “lesser of two evils.” But against Franken I would have voted for Jesse Ventura, and that’s saying a lot.

I hope Franken is everything in the senate that he’s up until now shown himself to be. Loud mouthed, misogynistic, eager to cheat, manipulative, disloyal, etc. Should be an extremely easy target next election, (if Reid doesn’t find some way to boot him before then.)

Also, please stop saying that after the initial count, Coleman was ahead by 215. After the initial count, Coleman was ahead by 715. Then, after the DFL realized where they were, 500 votes magically appeared from trunks of cars, miss-reported votes, lock boxes under voting machines, etc. It’s clear that it’s over now, (ask Washington state,) but Coleman should have been crying, “foul!” more loudly then if he actually wanted to win this election. Once Mark Richie knew what had to be done, Coleman was done.