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EDITOR OF REDSTATE

Stealing Minnesota: Al Franken Wants To Count Empty Ovals, Not Marked Ovals

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  November 19th, 2008 at 08:56 PM  | 

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Remember Al Fraken’s undervote theory? He wants to count as votes for himself ballots with no mark in his oval, though the person voted for every other Democrat.

He claims that the voter’s intention was clearly to vote for him, even though there is no mark by his name because the voter voted for every other Democrat on the ballot.

Below is a ballot from Plymouth, MN. Can you tell for whom that person intended to vote?

image

I bet you won’t be surprised to learn Al Fraken is contesting that vote.

So, no marks at all go to Franken. Any mark for Coleman must be challenged.

The Skepticians have more details.

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COMMENTS

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  • Mark_Kilmer

    They wanted to vote straight-ticket DFL — they could not, due to their mindset, vote Republican — but they did not want to vote for the angry clown. They walk into the ballot box and put a mark next to every DFL candidate but the angry clown, Franken.

    To me, that is obvious that the person did not want to vote for Franken.?

  • Erick

    For you, me, and the world.

    Just not Al Franken.

  • The_Gadfly

    Rxxx party organs that are allegedly dedicated to electing Republicans need to have their best * team of lawyers in Minnesota with multiple observers in every location where ballots are being reviewed. Franken and the rest of the Marxists have telegraphed their plan like a freshman quarterback making his first practice throw of the season. They intend to win the election by hook or by crook, and since they control most of the machinery and have had two Presidential elections stolen from them, they don’t really regard the crook option as crooked. So it’s not like we don’t know what’s going on and there is no reason not to shut it down.

  • dld1717

    Based on a Minneapolis Star Tribune analysis of partial recount numbers released in the Minnesota U.S. Senate race, Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) lost a net of 41 votes and now holds a 174-vote advantage over challenger Al Franken (D). He started the day up by 215.

    “These new numbers come after the state has recounted 18% of the ballots. They come from 27% of the state’s precincts.”

  • havermeyer

    You know he wants to be the 60th vote for the Dems – after careful deliberation of course. Anything to set aside differences for the good of the country, right.

  • Jeff_Emanuel

    …commenting over at the Skepticians.

  • JLenardDetroit

    Obviously, your example, the person was “confused” by the “unstable” mark made. Anyone who left all the spots blank for the Race clearly are “Empty Headed” which is a clear intention to be a Democrat Voter!!

    Simple mind-reading = Franken win! Didn’t Freud predict a Franken effect?

  • JLenardDetroit

    McCain announces plan to run for Senate again. MR MCCAIN… FOR THE GOOD OF THE COUNTRY… PLEASE RETIRE… How about now! So we have the chance at a REAL Republican there until the 2010 election (which is exactly why he wouldn’t retire).

  • civil_truth

    All the voter had to do was to return the ballot as spoiled and request a new one. That’s a standard procedure.

    That the voter did not do so (nor attempt to make a second vote) should presume that the voter intended the mark to stand.

    However, it also would be useful to examine the rest of the ballot to see if this pattern of marking the ballot occurred elsewhere.

  • Fedaykin

    …what do I think? The voter filled in Coleman (or started to) then changed his or her mind. Regardless, I think if there’s a set of circles to vote for an office and there’s a squiggle in one circle, that circle gets the vote.

  • Cowboy

    Did Frankin start a new party or do the Dems have some kind of Name/Slogan depending on the state?

    Was Utah “Democratic-Mormon-Skier”

    Texas: Democratic-Rough Neck-Cowboy

    Nevada: Democratic-Gambler-Hooker

  • Yil

    http://minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2008/11/19challengedballots/

    Check out some of the disputed ballots. BOTH sides have made some really dumb arguments! And what was that “Lizard People” guy thinking? :)

  • redpillblogdotcom

    There are three obvious problems here.

    First, the comment that Franken “wants to count as votes for himself ballots with no mark in his oval, though the person voted for every other Democrat” has no substantiation except a link to another page on redstate. I have followed the race very closely and have never heard nor read anything like that so I can only assume that it is sarcasm.

    Second, pointing to one data point (ballot) as an attempt to indicate that Franken is trying to steal the election is ridiculous. To this point, Coleman has disputed more ballots than Franken. If the ballot shown were a mark for Franken with the same scribbling, are you sure that Coleman would not have disputed it?

    Third, the Republican Governor of Minnesota, who is supposed to be a significant future in the party, has said that no fraud of any kind has been proven:

    PAWLENTY: There was a news report in Minnesota that the ballot- in-the-trunk story has now been retracted, that it wasn’t accurate.

    There are concerning patterns about the changes before the recount starting favoring Al Franken and some concerns that were raised, but we have to be clear on this. As of this moment, there is no actual evidence of wrongdoing or fraud in the process. If there is, it will get rooted out and identified aggressively.

    But at the moment, there is no actual evidence of that occurring.

    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,452815,00.html

    So is it really fraud or just a lot of misdirected anger at the prospect of Franken being in the Senate?

  • deltar

    When Franken makes a stupid ballot challenge then he’s a commie-marxist-cheater-stealing-the-vote.

    When Coleman makes a stupid ballot challenge then he’s a freedom-loving-fighting-for-America-Senator-standing-up-for-justice.

    Both sides are playing this game. But some RedStaters love the spin.

    It’s just not that simple.

  • ggross56

    Wednesday, I wa spart of a recount team for the Minnesota state senate recount of Morrison County ballots. I wrote about it here. Of the 1,400 ballots, we saw approximately 50-75 ballots marked like this. Neither side’s team objected to any ballots marked that way.

  • havermeyer

    Franken has to play dirty. Look, he paid his backed taxes and everything. He had big plans for that money and now it’s gone.

  • JLenardDetroit

    I was referring to Sigmund, but it does kinda work either way – doesn’t it? lol

    guess the truthfulness of the “empty head” clear definition of one who would vote Democrat may have thrown the Sarcasm.

    Joke loses alot when it has to be explained.

  • RobW

    That’s a really cool link. You guys should take the quiz there.

  • DL80

    Somehow actually seeing (or hearing about) the details of how people mark their ballots makes me less confident that we ever really get an accurate vote in any election. When we are somehow forced to try to determine the “intention” of specific voters, that seems like a job far too difficult for anyone. I think Coleman is going to wind up winning (even though I support Franken), and I actually think it will be good if the Democrats are kept from having 60 votes.

  • Next93

    Next time you decide to cross the aisle, PLEASE STAY THERE! All this walking isn’t good for a man your age.

  • Diogenes314

    Franken actually is a commie-marxist-cheater-stealing-the-vote. But you forgot a vicious-unfunny-big-fat-idiot.