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EDITOR OF REDSTATE

Stealing Minnesota: The Franken Undervote Lie

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  November 13th, 2008 at 11:57 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

I spent six years as an elections lawyer. I handled a lot of very wacked election canvasses and recounts. One thing they all had in common: when new votes were found, they generally went both ways — a few for one candidate and a few for the other candidate. It didn’t quite follow the polling, but then close races only happen at the 50-50 margin.

Here’s something that never happened: the votes did not all go 100% for one candidate except in the two instances where there was only one misplaced ballot discovered.

In Minnesota, though, the votes are all going for Al Franken — pretty much all 600 of them. That defies statistical probability.

Here’s something else canvasses of ballots have in common: a lot of ballots drop off. It’s an undervote, e.g. 20 races on the ballot, but only 15 get votes. Sometimes people don’t want to vote for the Republican, but they can’t stomach their own Democratic candidate.

Al Franken’s campaign strategy is now premised on the undervotes in Minnesota. His legal team would have us believe that a vote for Barack Obama is also a vote for Al Franken — never mind the Democrats who could not stand voting for an ass like Franken.

Of course, this is fatuous nonsense. Just look at the polling. Franken trailed Obama by 12.6% in the final poll conducted before Election Day. In fact, for the last months of the race, Franken chronically trailed Obama.

But Franken would have us believe that if a ballot shows up with no vote for Franken, despite having votes for other Democrats, the voter intended to vote for Franken and just, I guess, forgot to.1

Al Franken must be the only man on earth who doesn’t recognize how many in his own party hate him.

  1. Undermining this whole theory is the Democratic effort to steal the votes. During the canvassing, Franken’s vote total increased at a greater percentage than Obama’s. Should we also assume that the people intended to vote for Obama and just forgot or marked the wrong box? In fact, suspiciously, Franken’s vote went up well outside the margin of machine error and well outside the margin of error overall for the canvass. In other words, Franken’s now operative theory on undervotes does not match (A) the polling showing Obama out performing him; (B) the results from election day; nor (C) the pattern of vote shifts to Franken in excess of other candidates on the ballot during the canvassing.
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COMMENTS

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  • Vladimir

    “Defies statistical probability” is the understatement of the century.

    Try flipping a coin and getting 600 heads in a row.

    It all started with Al Gore in 2000; if they can’t win in the voting booth, they’ll hijack the election in the recount process, or, failing that, in the courts.

    This is probably the biggest current threat to our democracy.

  • ocleverone

    There has to be a time when, after looking at all the statistically improbabilities, the mysterious ballots showing up, all the sleazy tricks to steal an election, that someone stands up and says “Enough!”.

    I look at how Obama’s campaign financing laughed in the face of decency and the requirements and nothing is going to happen. And now Minnesota.

    Surely someone, somehow, some way, will stand up and demand accountability for these undermining tactics.

    Where is the accountability in this fiasco?

  • CFPeterson

    What did the guy say? He quoted Mark Twain saying there were three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics. I’m sorry, but 100% or whatever is a pretty significant statistic when you are talking about a statistical population over like 30…

    Either Al Frankin is the luckiest SOB to ever be born or there are voting shenanigans going on.

  • Jack_Savage

    This is illegal, plain and simple. The local people doing this need to know that the GOP will not rest until they are in jail. If they are willing to go to jail for Al Franken, then that is exactly where they deserve to be.

    Is there anyone in the state of Minnesota that has the authority to fully investigate and prosecute, and are they willing to do so?

    This is B.S. of the highest order. If Al franken goes to the Senate, Minnesota is no better than Zimbabwe.

  • Jack_Savage

    If Al Franken makes it to the Senate, every time he gets up to speak the entire GOP contingent needs to get up and walk out. Every time. For six years.

  • Common_Cents

    You mean they can fill in a ballot on a particular race for someone if they left it blank?

    I have left some races blank because I don’t know enough about the candidates. (not in the MN senate case of course) I’m sure many do that.

    For someone to come along and say how I would have voted is criminal.

  • Jack_Savage

    n/t

  • ModRocker86

    Didn’t Christine Jennings try to play the undervote card against Vern Buchanan in 2006? Thankfully everything worked out for Vern in the end, but it did seem for a while like she was gonna steal it.

  • Scope

    This is exactly a mirror image of what is happening with the Virgil Goode/Tom Periello race for the House here in VA. On election night CNN called the election for Periello. The next day Goode was ahead. That afternoon Periello was ahead, and every mysteriousy found vote since then has been for Periello. And locally I am hearing that “it is stastically improbable” that every found vote now is for Periello.

    Periello left VA to pass the bar exam in NY and stayed there for 10 years. He got a campaign donation of $7,000. from Charlie Rangle. At least half of his donations were from NY. His phone banks and advisers were all from NY.

  • ggross56

    Follow this link to read my total demolition of Franken’s undervote strategy. People of integrity can’t read my post & not understand that Franken’s strategy is based on chutzpah & chicanery.

  • fiveoclockbot

    There’s some misinformation in your original post. It’s not the case that “the votes are all going for Al Franken ? pretty much all 600 of them.” Actually, that’s a contradictory statement in itself, but whatever. The votes are being split between Franken and Coleman.

    For example, much hay has been made by Republicans about the supposed absentee ballots left in an election judge’s car overnight.

    MinnPost has a good article
    up on that story. In the end, of the 32 ballots that weren’t counted on election night, only 18 went for Franken.

    Franken may be counting on undervotes to win him the election in a recount, but there are clear rules set in Minnesota law about counting these votes. A vote for Obama and a no-vote for any of the Senate candidates doesn’t automatically count for a Franken vote.

    There has to be voter intent–perhaps the voter circled the name “Franken” or “Coleman,” or maybe the voter crossed out one name at the last minute and voted for another. There are clearly-defined rules for this, and I can see such rules adding to both Franken and Coleman’s final tallies in the end.

  • JLenardDetroit

    Democrats have been practicing this and attempting to perfect their technique and arguments. They will finally have to knuckle under to reality and moving forward ACORN and the crew will be planning to toss a few bones to our guy/gal in the extra votes to try and make it appear to be more realistic when they steal an election.

    Bound to be a few more car trunks yet to be opened. Maybe they’ll come across Hoffa while they’re searching.

  • davo

    If they had photo id in MN Coleman would be ahead by 43,000 votes. Republicans need to push this at the grass roots level in every state. There is no way a total vote count of 3 million is split by 750 votes. Same thing happened in Florida and every state in which Acorn has any influence. It’s time to wake up and face this very real threat.

  • AlloySteel

    Al Franken should never have been considered a serious candidate for ANYTHING. That he succeeded is gaining a plurality at all in this election is a testament to – something.

    The third candidate in this race, Dean Barkley, probably took many more votes from Coleman than he did from Al Franken, and in the absence of the third party, Franken could not benefit much if at all from the coattails of Barack Obama.

    Barkley was running much more against Coleman, than he was against Franken.

  • sayoung80913

    I’ve about had it with this bs. I feel like getting on a plane from Ga and heading straight to Minn. and marching on the capital.Just who in the hell do they think they are fooling? The same type of crap is happening here in my state with this ridiculous runoff. I expect Chambliss to easily walk away with this, but the fact that we even have to go to this extent is ridiculous. Now Stuart Smalley and the dems think they can just stael Minn and no one will stand up and say anything? If they should prevail and win themselves 60 seats then just who do they think they can blame for all of their failures in 2010? Bush still? I highly doubt Americans will buy into that-their attention spans are too short. The party in power is the party responsible and I, for one, laugh as I watch the stock market fall because ObamACORN was elected.Everyone knows that is why this is happening. Go ahead anointed one-raise taxes now- I dare you, lets watch a global depression brought on by your own pathetic refusal to listen to reason. Still waiting for that business degree of yours to materialize. How bout that tax cut for 95% of Americans? I’m wanting my money yo. Go ahead dems dig yourselves in deeper and deeper- it just makes 2010 look like a bumper year for republicans.

  • Ralph_Kramden

    Al Franken’s campaign strategy is now premised on the undervotes in Minnesota. His legal team would have us believe that a vote for Barack Obama is also a vote for Al Franken ? never mind the Democrats who could not stand voting for an ass like Franken.

    Not one article I’ve read on this issue has a real cite for this – not Ed at Hot Air, not Amanda Carpenter (though she says something similar), no one.

    What’s your cite?