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EDITOR OF REDSTATE

Stealing Minnesota?

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  November 11th, 2008 at 11:51 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

“All the irregularities are benefiting Franken against statistical probability. ”

Minnesota has become this year’s Florida, but it is only at the Senate level. Let me lay out the facts for you.

When all the votes were counted on election day, Norm Coleman had won by about 800 votes.

After canvassing all the votes, the number dropped pretty significantly to a 200 vote lead. The canvass will be certified by the 18th and, under Minnesota law, a recount will begin on the 19th.

Here’s why we should be worried.

Between election day and yesterday, most of the votes in the canvass went for Franken. While we can expect some vote shifting, as a former elections lawyer myself who has been involved in several recounts, it is very, very unusual for virtually all of the votes to shift to the other side. In fact, I’d say it is statistically improbable for there to be a 600 votes shift to the other side.

Then we have these two interesting stories:

1. 32 absentee ballots were found over the weekend with a Democratic Party operative. We don’t really know from where other than the operative’s car. The judge involved let the votes be counted.

2. In Mountain Iron, MN, the local Democrat machine discovered 100 ballots that needed to be counted. All 100 of the ballots went for Obama. And all 100 of the ballots went for Franken. Let’s leave out the round number, which in and of itself should raise suspicions. No part of Minnesota, including the Iron region north of Duluth up to Canada (that part of the state heavily influenced by machine politics on the left) saw straight party voting between Franken and Obama. Sure there were some. But for a group of Democrats to pull out 100 ballots and have 100% go Obama and Franken defies the odds.

In Minneapolis, David Littlehawk, Franken’s attorney, wanted disqualified ballots counted. The Minneapolis Board of Elections, which includes the very liberal, partisan Mayor of Minneapolis, refused. That, though, seems to be the exception to the rule.

A source I spoke to said all these irregularities “are not easily explained.”

Now here is the kicker: it’s pretty clear the Democrats are stealing the election. If they can get the vote closer, then Franken can allege voter fraud and take it to court if, after the recount, he hasn’t stolen enough votes. Once in the court system, it’d be Harry Reid and the United States Senate determining who should go to Washington.

It’s already close enough. All the irregularities are benefiting Franken against statistical probability. And the media is intent on ignoring the issue.

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  • TxCon

    to the fine people of Minnesota. Job well done. The fact that it even has to go to a recount is a disgrace.

  • Whitehorse

    I hear this, I’m in Tennessee. What can I do – or others like me who aren’t in MN? Who do we call? Who do we write?

  • geraldatwork

    a case of what goes around comes around. You may be correct in your assessment but I didn’t hear any complaining from your side of the political spectrum during Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004. That said I hope they get it right and determine the true intent of the Mn voters. I support Franken but would not like to see him win the election unfairly, especially at the hands of the current majority in Congress. I don’t think partisan Secretaries of State should be running elections. Election reform is greatly needed if all of the citizens, both winners and losers to have confidence in out Democracy.

  • My2Cents

    The Democrat Party is a party of crooks, cheats, and ethical sinkholes. This “vote” count in MN is par for the course. A slim majority of American probably think cheating in an election is OK provided that it results in more Democrats being elected.

  • My2Cents

    The Democrats tried the same kind of cheating in Florida in 2000. Gore’s supposed “victory” there depended upon changing the legal definition of what constituted a “vote” — i.e., changing the election rules mid-stream.

    And why do you folks continue to bring up Ohio in ’04? Even John Kerry knew there was no basis for a challenge.

    I hope you continue to lose sleep over those two election loses.

  • Darin_H

    It is just like 2000

    Bush won Florida and Gore tried to steal it.

    It is not quite like 2004.

    Bush won Ohio and Kerry wanted to steal it, but the vote wasn’t close enough to try.

  • geraldatwork

    …Tuesday I have found myself sleeping better. Maybe not so true for some of the people here however judging from this article.

  • chemjeff2

    You’re kidding, right? People on the right have been complaining about vote fraud since at least the 1980′s. See: Votescam. They were complaining about it regardless of which party or which candidate won. The authors were laughed off the stage by the libs as being a bunch of kooks and conspiracy nuts. It was ONLY with the Florida 2000 debacle that the left decided to become outraged over voter fraud, and then ONLY because their candidate lost! Liberals are complete hypocrites on voter fraud. How many of them are complaining about the very obvious fraud in this Minnesota race? None. All they can do is snicker that convicted felon Ted Stevens is winning in Alaska. THAT’S IT. I’m sorry I don’t believe for one moment that there’s more than a handful of liberals who actually want good, clean, honest and fair elections that aren’t biased towards the left or the right.

  • MSU_Charles

    the other Attorneys on RS:

    Do you think that Coleman should take a play from James “All Around Badass” Baker’s playbook and get this into Federal or a Coleman-Friendly State Court before Franken?

    Also, I am a donating member of Orin Hatch’s Senatorial Election Army or whatever it is called, why are they not keeping everyone informed on this issue. This lack of communication within our party is one of our main problems.

  • geraldatwork

    … I am one of the few Liberals who would like to see fair and honest elections. Not so sure about the Conservatives though.

  • Hooke

    Before we start accusing people of stealing elections, there should be some evidence. The ‘evidence’ provided so far is nothing more than innuendo. Stating that in an election with 34,916 unrecorded votes that an 800 vote swing is statistically unexplainable is lunacy.

    Just because the tally is not going the way you would like it to is no reason to slander Minnesota state employees, who I believe are just doing their jobs. If you want to accuse someone of vote fraud, come out and do it, and be specific. Don’t hide behind suggestion and innuendo.

  • BigGator5

    I say, let MN have Franken. They obviously deserve him, just like this country deserves Obama.

    Hopefully they will see Franken as the fool that he is and no one will likely never trust him again. Let’s give the rope to hang themselves (Franken and Obama).

  • EastCoastObserver

    Gore wasn’t trying to change the election rules during the recount..well not really. Basically there is this “intent of the voter” rule in recounts (its in MN too now). Gore wanted to keep the recount going but the SCOTUS stepped in and said that it couldn’t be done in time for the “safe harbor” provision deadline (when the state selects electors by this time they are not questioned by Congress and are automatically accepted as authentic). However, the dissent pointed out that the Safe Harbor Provision did not necessarily need to be met and that the recount could have gone on until the beginning of January, when Congress ratifies the Electoral College. Secondly, the SCOTUS should have never gotten involved in a purely state matter. The FL Supreme Court had interpreted the law of FL and stated the recount could go on. The SCOTUS, led by federalist conservatives, overturned the FL Court’s interpretation of their own law. This rarely happens and anyone who knows the juris prudence of Rhenquist will point out that his decision goes against what he stood for in the past.

    If anyone knows election law: The SCOTUS should have remanded the case to the FL Supreme Court so that they could have come up with a state wide remedy for counting the “intent of the voters.” The recount should have then continued. The SCOTUS getting involved in politics and a state’s rights in order to settle a Presidential election should have never happened. Not to mention that the decisions fell completely on political lines and that the majority stated that the case would have no precedential value. Makes the decision highly suspect.

  • Moe_Lane

    You’ve got yourself in your mind set up as some sort of liberal gadfly to RedState, constantly speaking trooth2powa and holding the line. Interestingly, I’ve got you set up in my mind as being superfluous to our current needs: I mean, I can get people screaming “LALALALALALA…” in response to Democratic oopsies any time that I like.

    Guess who wins?

  • Moe_Lane

    Pity that you didn’t. Tell you what, though: 1,000 words on the Florida election and we’ll think about turning your account back on.

    Hey, I originally made it 2,500. But that would have just been mean of me.

  • jeffweimer

    It was extremely fishy, and the borderline unethical tactics were all on the Democrat side, like “finding” ballots that were overwhelmingly for one candidate, and calling people on disqualified ballots and asking who they voted for before telling them to come in – or not telling them at all. This MN-SEN race is shaping up as a repeat of THAT.

    Interesting you bring up the OHIO 2004 canard. Do you REALLY think the exit polls are more accurate than the actual count?

    2000 Florida was full of maneuvering on both sides, but the NYT (for one) held its own (statewide) recount and found Bush won. It was the cherry-picking by Gore (and the disqualification of R leaning military absentee ballots) that was blatant election-rigging.

    We conservatives are much more concerned with honest elections – we like ID laws and oppose the registration stuffing tactics of groups like ACORN. And who was caught registering in Ohio and voting when he wasn’t a resident? An Obama operative, in addition to the young volunteers in that one house. The left seems much less concerned with actual voter verification. They gutted registration laws as part of motor voter (in and of itself a good idea) and 8 of 19 9/11 hijackers were registered to vote.

    So don’t tell me we’re not concerned without bringing some real proof. Yes there are a few bad apples, but not on the sheer scale we have seen by the left the last 8 years (and further back – Chicago ’82 anyone?).

  • Elizabeth

    n/t

  • aesthete

    Direct quote: “You’re kidding, right? People on the right have been complaining about vote fraud since at least the 1980′s. See: Votescam. They were complaining about it regardless of which party or which candidate won. The authors were laughed off the stage by the libs as being a bunch of kooks and conspiracy nuts. It was ONLY with the Florida 2000 debacle that the left decided to become outraged over voter fraud, and then ONLY because their candidate lost! Liberals are complete hypocrites on voter fraud. How many of them are complaining about the very obvious fraud in this Minnesota race? None. All they can do is snicker that convicted felon Ted Stevens is winning in Alaska. THAT’S IT. I’m sorry I don’t believe for one moment that there’s more than a handful of liberals who actually want good, clean, honest and fair elections that aren’t biased towards the left or the right.”

  • scottbomb

    Gore wanted a recount. He got it and still lost. He wanted another one. And another. And ANOTHER. Only in heavily populated counties that favor Democrats mind you, not rural areas. And those pesky absentee ballots? Nah…

    Someone had to say, “ENOUGH”.

    Of course the Dems have been whining ever since that Bush “stole” the election. After the fiasco, the liberal press went in and counted, over and over. And guess what? Bush STILL came out ahead. But of course, this fact is completely lost on the Democrat electorate.

  • scottbomb

    I don’t see anything that can be done. As long as judges are allowing stacks of ballots that “just happened to show up” in people’s cars, we’re toast.

  • davo

    Voter fraud hes been under the radar for years. Remember Florida and the attempt to disqualify all the military absentee ballots. Now it has become visible through the blatant activities of Acorn and Obama’s direct link with them. It isn’t just Minnisota that is being stolen, it’s our country.

  • nogyro35

    …and Bush took the “high” road and decided to not go after his opponents.

    The problem is that this this is going to take as much hard work and effort to fix, as it took change the courts.

    It took us 20+ years to flood the courts with strict-constructionalist judges, because the liberals were so entrenched.

    It will take a similar amount of time to route-out all the corruption currently entrenched in the system.

    But we have to be willing to step onto the battlefield in every district in every part of America. Not just where the election happens to be close.

  • mscout99

    One of my favorite stories about the crooked Lyndon Johnson.
    200 people lined up to vote, and some were dead. But the funny part was that they all lined up (dead and alive) in alphabetical order to vote. And, the total in Alice was 202 for LBJ, to one for Coke Stevenson.
    Funny how the games played by Democrats always seem to never change.

  • dmort

    I wonder why Pawlenty isnt all over this obvious vote fraud.

  • Common_Cents

    I am ashamed to say I live in MN, land of 10,000 idiots like Franken. We have to fight fair, dirty, or however. They won’t quit until Franken gets one more vote than Coleman, then it will be stamped as a fair, official, final election and the media will cover for him.

  • DavidSage

    At some point, will this nonsense got before a judge higher up the food chain that isn’t a political operative dressed in a black robe?

    It’s to the point of what can we do but have some sort of violent coup to stop this nonsense? If judges are part of this scam, there’s not much we can do, but this needs to be fought to the bitter end.

    Minnesota is a disgrace for making this election so close.

  • leeside

    remember, there are consequences to the democrat party thwarting justice and fairness…

    It probably won’t be your hide that suffers, but those of your kids, nephews, nieces, neighborhood kids, grandchildren, etc…

    you would allow this mafioso party of yours to steal elections and stack the benches?…

    you and your ilk are unethical, immoral, neither Christian nor Jew, nor Muslim for that matter, because every major religion demands that integrity and honesty and fairness is the prescribed way of life…

    that you can so smugly sit there tells so much about you…

    consequences…..consequences…

    in the meantime, don’t expect your fellow Americans to give a crap about you or yours…its a new country, now….

    and you must be smoking that weed of yours if you don’t feel the absolute fear in this country SINCE the election….its there….and it will raise its ugly head..

  • GreyCloak

    Minnesota has to make its own choices. The Founders didn’t give Tennessee much influence over another State, and appropriately. At best, you an contribute money to Republican lawyers to challenge vote fraud.

    OR … you can ask your Congress-critters to do something they will never do: make vote fraud equivalent to treason, and impose the death penalty upon it.

  • GreyCloak

    SCOTUS gave the Florida Supreme Court every chance to change its mind, and sent the case back to Florida once.

    The Florida Supremes declined to come to their senses, and Gore v. Bush was settled by making Florida abide by its own laws.

    After it was all over, The Miami Herald and the University of Chicago, as well as other groups, conducted a post-election election. Neither bastion of liberalism could find a way that Gore won.

  • GreyCloak

    Few will remember that 6,000 votes showed up in a Chicago garage months after the JFK-Nixon election. The Mayor at the time was a guy named Daley. You might remember his son, William … the guy that came out on stage in the wee hours of 2000, and declared that election not over.

    2000 … precisely 500 votes came in for Gore in New Mexico … with no change in the down-ballot totals.

    By 2002, 509 votes came in late against John Thune in South Dakota, with no change in other totals. He was defeated then, and won in 2004.

    Republicans rarely challenge vote totals. Democrats are adept at changing them.

  • Achance

    for counting votes until you get them right; even better than big Democrat controlled cities, just not as many votes.

  • Old_Dominion

    Franken’s attorney’s name is Lillehaug, not Littlehawk. I think he ran for AG at some point.

  • NCConservative

    You are exactly correct!

    What the HELL are the people of Mini-soda THINKING?

    It wasnt bad enough that you folks elected a professional wrestler for a Governor, now you even took a look at a non-funny “satirist’??? How did it even get THIS far?

    Whose next Mini-soda? Bozo for the House? No, no… I got it. Ronald McDonald for House (Ronalds House… get it??)
    Rim Shot

  • Jim_Tomasik

    Would they be the students or the professors?

  • Zotnix

    I find it disturbing that you have an entire post without one link, one citation, or one mention of any credible source in which you are getting this information. I see a lot of anecdotal hand wringing, but nothing of actual substance.

    I’m a skeptic. Generally, when an argument is presented evidence goes along with it.

    More disturbing is everyone is gobbling it up without second thoughts at the incredible lack of support.

  • Moe_Lane

    …the regulars are already up to speed on this story; as would be anyone else of average intelligence who’s interested in this topic.

    And once you send in a 750 word essay on current electoral events in Minnesota – one that shows that you’ve corrected your confessed ignorance on the subject – we’ll think about formally admitting that you’re among the latter.

    “lol”

    Moe Lane

  • janis

    anyone who’s stated purpose is to translate the Bible into “lolcat” language.

  • mondol

    I just wish I knew what was going on, I certainly can’t agree with the quote above. Why is is clear the election is being stolen? If the recount ends up in Coleman’s favor will it be clear that the election was “stolen” or is it only the case that it was “stolen” if Franken wins?

    With over 2 million votes cast it seems to me that a margin of 200, or 500 or 700 votes shows that the state is evenly divided and that it is a tossup who will win. I know that I couldn’t publish a scientific paper with a margin that small as proof of anything.

    Finally; I wish it was clear what this phase of the recount involves. Is it only tabulation errors that are being corrected or does it involve something else? I would love more data so that I could make an informed decision.

  • marcusjlang

    There was clearly voter suppression and cheating on both sides, it actually was a big shock that Fraken didn’t win, considering Obama won the state by a landslide and so did the democrats.

  • ocleverone

    won his district with over 60% of the votes.

    One doesn’t necessarily follow the other.

  • ocleverone

    won his district with over 60% of the votes.

    One doesn’t necessarily follow the other.

  • ocleverone

    My apologies, I hit post instead of preview.

    A little cyber dyslexia this morning.

  • bigfoot

    Yes, I am ashamed that so many people voted for this piece of garbage, Al Frankenstein. It didn’t help that Dean Barkley ran. Of course this clown runs for every office and distorts results.

    I am not a huge fan of Norm. I believe he’s been too bipartisian for me. However, compared to Franken he’s conservative.

  • EastCoastObserver

    Not about whether Gore won or not. It should be about following federalism and the juris prudence of the Supreme Court. They left the door open for Gore to get back into the FL Supreme Court, but it was ambiguous and the FL Court would have probably taken the SCOTUS ruling into their assessment.

  • EastCoastObserver

    Gore, if he was smarter, would have requested recounts in all of the counties. If he had done that the SCOTUS would have probably allowed it to go on because Bush’s Equal Protection argument would be weakened. Although, from the way they wrote the majority decision that isn’t exactly clear.

    But the fact is that the SCOTUS should have never gotten involved in this purely state issue. No matter what you thought about the recount or who you supported in the election. If this case had all the same exact facts, but somehow the politics was taken out of it; the SCOTUS would have never granted cert. And even with the political edge to the case, the SCOTUS tends to not get into the “political thicket,” which would give them even more reason not to grant cert.

    It was a state issue. It should have been up to the sate and then, if nothing was solved, up to Congress. This comports with the Constitution and these types of matters should be settled by our elected representatives and never non-elected lifelong judges.

    That is just what I think from reading the case and looking at the SCOTUS’ juris prudence in regard to election law.

  • scrapiron

    I agree bigfoot. Franken (stein) is a buffoon and I can’t understand why Minnesotans voted for him. I live in MN too. The same crowd that voted Ventura the dunce in is at work again.

    I never did like Norm, but he is a lot better than ding dong Al.

  • mswsocialwork

    [...that beats "Al Franken is wonderful" for comedy. - Moe Lane]

  • Moe_Lane

    To stand up for Al Franken.

    That’s just… sad.

  • bs

    but if the recount puts Franken in office, Minnesota will be ejected from the Union, and your state will become a part of Lichtenstein.

  • speciallist
  • marcusjlang

    Lets not be paranoid, Franken was expected to win, let’s get real. Virgina was a very very tight race, MN was a landslide.

  • ajl3

    or “de-trunked” as the case maybe. Just saw this link hit Fark.com.
    Just an FYI, don’t know the validity of this source.
    Minneapolis election director speaks: ‘Ballots in my car’ story false

  • Moe_Lane

    No, we’re not. But at least you understand that your Party cheats at elections; that’s something, at least.

    Blam.