The Republicans are Pissing me Off Again

Posted by Greg Laden on November 6, 2008
(19)
More »

There is some nasty stuff happening in Minnesota. I’m thinking the Franken-Coleman election was rigged, and we may be able to prove this over the next few weeks. Meanwhile, in Winona county: Rocks thrown through Democratic Headquarters window: Local authorities are saying that this was revenge rocks being thrown through Obama posters.

Regarding the Franken/Coleman race: Yes, the number dropped from four hundred plus (Coleman over Franken) to three hundred plus (Coleman over Franken) when a “1″ in the hundreds place was discovered. Was this a mistake or on purpose? A mistake? Of 400 percent of the vote count? In a federal election? What, are you kidding?

If this happened in two or three other places in the state, the election results reverse.

Also recently known is that many of the scantronic ballot readers used throughout the state are known to give funny results. Add this to the fact that the Republicans had Somali Translators in Ceder Riverside (the Somali neighborhood) telling people that they had to vote for Coleman.

Coleman is being a little too obvious in his repeated calls to just declare him the winner and be done with it.

In order for this to be done right, Franken needs more lawyers in the field. They need emergency donations. Please donate to the Franken Recount.

(19)
More »

Comments

  1. #1 Mike Haubrich, FCD
    November 6, 2008

    Given his propensity for suing in political matters, Coleman can’t claim ignorance of Minnesota election law. There has to be a recount, and there would be one even if Al Franken were to say he didn’t want one.

    There will be a recount, Norm is just bleating so that he can play the victim card.

  2. #2 the real Obamanator
    November 6, 2008

    I think Colemans calls for Franken to throw in the towel are indicative of Colemans classically narcissistic [huge] ego. Remeber those pictures he ran in the campaign against Wellstone? Wellstones true hippie cred, cast against Normie’s fashionably primped long hair.

    Norm also needs a victory concession because it will make him feel better–right before he gets his ass caught up in the campaign contribution money funneling scandal

  3. #3 Stephanie Z
    November 6, 2008

    I haven’t been able to watch the tallies over the day, so I’ll ask here, where others will have been watching? At any point during these basic checks, did the totals get further apart, or have all the corrections been in Al’s favor?

  4. #4 greg laden
    November 6, 2008

    There is a report on one news agency of the number switching back towards coleman once. That would mean, roughly:

    2000
    1000
    500
    300
    500
    200

    (rounding it off)

    But I’m pretty sure that was just sloppy reporting. Hey, do you remember when those kids died in the caves down by the river? The body count went from two up to six or eight and up and down all afternoon? They are just bad at numbers.

    I’m pretty sure the numbers have gone only in one direction.

    Oh, and wait until you find out what Ana has discovered!!!! Not my place to break this, we’re still talking about it. But it is very very very interesting.

    That woman needs a blog.

  5. #5 Monado in Toronto
    November 6, 2008

    What!!? Isn’t it illegal to influence people waiting to vote, within 100 yards of the polling place? Coleman should be disqualified from the election.

  6. #6 greg laden
    November 6, 2008

    More exactly, the translators were saying “Yes, you want to vote for the Democrat, yes? Coleman is the Democrat. ” or so I hear.

    Which, if you now coleman’s history, is funny. Not ha ha funny, though.

  7. #7 Stephanie Z
    November 6, 2008

    She does indeed. Someone needs to point out to her that much of it can be linking with brief commentary, especially if she’s linking to real news (as opposed to what everyone has already seen).

  8. #8 Greg Laden
    November 6, 2008

    I’m actually thinking of the occasional … two or three times a month …. in depth, well researched, thoughtful post. That would fit nicely with her medium term career and educational goals, supporting and nurturing certain important objectives rather than distracting from them.

  9. #9 Stephanie Z
    November 6, 2008

    Well, yeah. That’s what brings them in. The rest of it is to keep them from starving in between the feasts.

  10. #10 Ana
    November 7, 2008

    I was curious about the discrepancy between total votes for President and total votes for US Senate in Minnesota, which is (at the moment) 24,856, and I started looking into where these non-votes occurred.

    Looking at county-wide results, it seemed that the percentages were higher in Democratic counties. For example:
    Ramsey – 1.2%
    Hennepin – .97%
    Rice – 1.2%
    Olmstead – 1.4%
    In Republican counties, the percentages who voted for president but not for senate looked like this:
    Anoka – .65%
    Isanti – .58%
    Wright – .25%
    Goodhue – .48%

    Now why would Democrats be less likely to vote for the Senate? I don’t really know, but Greg urged me to look into precincts, and here’s what I found there:

    Ramsey County (Dem):
    W2, P6 – 1.3%
    W3, P5 – 1.1%
    W1, P3 – 2.8%
    W6, P1 – 1.3%
    W1, P9 – 2.5%

    Hennepin County (Dem):
    Brooklyn Park, WC – 1.2%
    Crystal, W3 P3 – 1.4%
    Edina P17 – .90%
    Minneapolis W1, P5 – 1.0%
    Minneapolis W2, P3 – 1.9%
    Minneapolis W4, P6 – 2.8%
    Minneapolis W6, P6 – 4.1%

    Hennepin County (Repub):
    Minnetonka W3, PC – .50%
    Maple Grove P13 – .56%
    Eden Prairie P3 – .47%
    Edina P7 – .54%
    Dayton P3 – .39%

    Wright County (Repub.):
    Buffalo, P4 – .86%
    Clearwater Twp. – 2 more senate votes than presidential votes!
    Dayton – equal votes (hand counted)
    Monticello – .61%
    Hanover – .32%
    Southside – .11%

    And in Anoka County:
    Andover P6 (McCain/Coleman) – .49%
    Anoka, P1 (Obama/Franken) – 1.7%
    Blaine, D2, P7 (McCain/Coleman) – .55%
    Blaine D3, P2 (McCain/Coleman) – .26%
    Columbia Heights (Obama/Franken) – 1.2%
    Coon Rapids, W2, P3 (Obama/Coleman) – .65%
    Fridley W3, P3 (Obama/Franken) – 2.0%

    What does it mean (other than that I need a job)?????????

  11. #11 Ana
    November 7, 2008

    The great thing about the exceedingly close race here is that we will have a mandatory HAND-COUNT recount, and all optical scanning machine deficiencies will be exposed! Much of the Fanken campaign’s “recount contributions” (being accepted NOW) will be used for putting bodies in each of the recount locations. Yay paper!

  12. #12 Ana
    November 7, 2008

    I was almost asleep, but that unusual result of the ‘hand count’ that I noted earlier kept asking me to find out more. Here are the results of our hand-counted races, looked at in the same way as earlier – with the difference in total votes cast for president and total votes cast for senate stated as a percentage of total presidential votes in each precinct.

    HAND COUNTS -
    Benton County:
    Ronneby (McCain/Colman win) – equal vote (27each)
    Lac Qui Parle County:
    Manfred Twp (Obama/Franken win) – equal vote (54)
    Koochiching County:
    Watrous (O/F) – equal vote (65)
    Pine County:
    Arlone Twp (O/F) – 2 extra votes Senate (213Pres,215Sen)
    Birch Creek Twp (O/F) – 2 extra votes Senate (133,135)
    Brook Park Twp (M/C) – equal vote (240)
    Danforth Twp. (M/C) – equal vote (50)
    Fleming Twp (M/C) – equal vote (73)
    Omega Twp (O/F) – 2.1% (144,141)
    Wright County:
    Dayton (O/F) – equal vote (26)

    That’s just about every hand counted precinct we’ve got left in this State. We also have ‘central count’ precincts and counties and those results are similar to ‘hand counts’:

    CENTRAL COUNTS -
    Aitkin County:
    Beaver Twp. (O/F) – equal vote (33)
    White Pine Twp (M/C) – equal vote (26)
    Verdon Twp. (M/C) – equal vote (34)
    Cornish Twp. (O/F) – equal vote (21)
    Beltrami County:
    Roosevelt (O/F) – 2 more votes for Senate (141, 143)
    Quiring Twp (M/C) – equal vote (39)
    Martin County:
    Ormsby (M/C) – equal vote (33)
    Murray County:
    Avoca (O/C) – 4.9% (82, 78)
    Bondin Twp (M/C) – equal vote (163)
    Des Moines River (O/C) – equal vote (91)
    Norman County:
    Anthony Twp. (O/C) – equal vote (31)
    Fossum Twp (O/F) – equal vote (95)
    Lee Twp (O/F) – equal vote (80)
    Winchester Twp. (O/F) – 2 extra votes for Senate (33,35)
    Wadena County:
    Aldrich City (M/C) – equal vote (28)
    Meadow Twp (M/C) – 1 more senate vote (109,110)
    Shell River Twp (O/F) – 1 more senate vote (143,144)
    Wing River Twp. (M/C) – 1 more senate vote (236,237)

    Don’t call me with all the answers to this too early, now! ;)

  13. #13 Greg Laden
    November 7, 2008

    Ana! Holy shit! Holy fucking shit! This is totally unbelievable!

  14. #14 MReap
    November 7, 2008

    Just my take, but I think Republicans here in Winona County are a frustrated bunch: we are a very blue place. However, we have had some nasty racist incidents over the past few years and the rock throwing could be from that crowd rather than pissed of Repubs. Also can’t rule out generic drunk college students, of which we have quite a few!

  15. #15 Stephanie Z
    November 7, 2008

    Ana, I’m not going to call shenanigans until I see more, but those numbers give me a lot of hope anyway. That concentrates the ballots with no senate vote in the cities and suggests that a lot fewer people abstained in general because they were unhappy about the whole race. I expect we’ll find a whole bunch of poorly marked ballots (and possibly, dysfunctional machines) in Minneapolis alone. That should be enough to push Franken over the top.

  16. #16 Mad Hussein LOLScientist, FCD
    November 7, 2008

    At least the SCOTUS won’t call off the recount if the count flips toward Franken.

    We use paper ballots and scanners in my area of PA. I haven’t heard of any problems here. I just hope to Ceiling Cat they don’t bring in touch screens. I don’t trust them any further than I can throw the machine and the booth together. DO. NOT. WANT.

  17. #17 Mike Haubrich, FCD
    November 7, 2008

    Ana – you might be able to find work in the recounts; although I am not sure that it would be much fun having the Coleman Lawyer looking over your shoulder.

    Thanks for the yeoman’s work.

  18. #18 Ana
    November 8, 2008

    Here you go, wordy version (I had my people at the AP look into it ;) ):

    http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/34116044.html?page=1&c=y

  19. #19 PAT BOWMAN
    February 28, 2009

    YOU ARE RIGHT THE VOTE WAS RIGGED, WHEN I GOT MY ABSENTEE
    BALLOT IT HAD THREE NAMES ALREADY CHECKED OFF (VOTED FOR)
    TWO WERE O-BUMMA AND FRANKEN, I FORGET THE NAME OF THE THIRD BUT IT WAS ANOTHER DEMOCRAT.
    NOW WITH FRAMKEN SCRAMBLING FOR ALL THE VOTES HE CAN FIND
    WE GET A KNOCK AT THE DOOR, A GUY WITH A SUBPOENA FROM FRANKEM FOR THE GUY THAT LIVED HERE BEFORE US. THE GUY IS A THREE TIME LOOSER FELON, AND HE IS IN PRISON AND WAS IN PRISON AT THE TIME OF THE VOTE, BUT FRANKN STILL WANTS TO ASK HIM QUESTIONS ABOUT HIS VOTING? HOW COULD HE VOTE IF HE WAS IN JAIL? OH ABSENTEE, DO YOU THINK SOMETHING IS WRONG?
    I TOO AM GETTING SICK BUT I SICKEN OF THE NAME FRANKEN, AND SOROES THE MONEY MAN.
    GETTING SICKER AND SICKER OF DEMOCRATS,
    PAT