Minnesota Voters Are Split on Whether to Redo the Coleman-Franken Senate Election
Reader Comments
time to let it go
The judges believed that coleman's lawyers had no evidence demonstrating the alleged district-to-district, materially varying standards.
Re-vote? Absurd, just another mess in the works. Maybe if the system is substantially repaired and strictly uniform standards are implmented it would make sense, but the rules are already there, each workers compliance is not.
The court's decision seems well justified to me. Pawlenty's political waffling needs to stop. Who wants that kind of indecisive, self-serving politician in the white house, anyway? You win some, you lose some but don't just delay and obfuscate.
poooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooop
eew
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heh..
nice, really nice!
Colman Franken election
In my openion the only reason Franken got as many votes as he did was because of the stright ticket voters. let them each spend only 500,000 each the campain and only have the two on the ballat. Texas style. Winner take all.
I hardly think in a revote
That the voters of Minnesota, in the current governmental climate, would be inclined to vote for a liberal, or conservative for that matter, comedian for a seat in the United States Senate.
There is no certified winner
In a contested election there are two phases. The recount phase and the contest phase. The recount phase has been completed and the contest phase is currently playing itself out. Al Franken is no more the winner because of a 225 vote lead than Coleman was when he had the lead of over 700 after the election. Others may conclude what they will but until the contest phase is completed there is no certified winner. And before we get into accusing one or the other of being a sore loser remember that it was Franken, not Coleman who contested the election results in the first place. Let's let the process work itself out before we crown one candidate a winner and the other candidate a sore loser.
no rerun election
Another election will just bring us back to where we are.
In Court: Trying to answer any or, more likely, all of the following legal questions just puts us back in court. Should just Coleman and Franken be on the ballot (a runoff election) or should others also be allowed to run in a second ("rerun") election? Should there be limits on how much each candidate can spend on a second election, including get-out-the-vote efforts? Should people who now are unable to to a polling place (due to injury, etc.) be ignored? What about equal protection clause, used to support the decision in Gore v. Bush? Should Gore v. Bush be applied in this case? Should the ballots be collected/counted in a different/more consistent way, and who should decide how? What about changes to voter registration laws that have taken place since the last election, how should they be applied? Should people who weren't old enough to vote last time but have since had a birthday be allowed to vote?
Disputed Results: What if another election again places Coleman and Franken within 225 votes of each other? Then we're right back where we started.
What would Washington and the other Founders do? One of the unique attributes of the human species is knowing how to count beyond 10. What is the big deal? Just keep counting until you get it right!
Republicans, you need to remember one thing: Nobody likes a sore loser. You're taking the opposite position of the one you took in Gore v. Bush. You're acting like obstructionist babies in Congress. You seem to all come from the state of Denial. Get with the program or get off the bus, you're slowing the rest of us down.
I'd Like to see Mr. Barone's analysis of possible revote
The first vote was quite interesting in that Coleman basically carried the Republican vote but failed to get the independent voter or cross-over Democrat. Basically everyone who voted for McCain also voted for Coleman. Franken, on the other hand got the base of Democrat votes but failed to get independents who also voted for Obama.
What could you expect in a re-vote? With Barkley out who would have the advantage? That might be an interesting exercise.
Every vote counts
After reviewing all the ballots in question, from the web site devoted to this election, I've concluded that Al Franken is the winner.
I find the Republicans are at it again in trying to fix another election, by their total denial of the truth.
Our nation was founded on equal rights for all not just a select few.
The winds of change are blowing in a new Senator. That Senator is Al Franken...
Why it is always Dems who benefit from recounts?
Can someone give an example of a state-wide contested race in which a Republican got more votes after a recount? All recounts in very close state-wide elections in the recent (say 10-15 years) history that I know of ended with a Democrat increasing the number of votes attributed to him/her. Even in the cases when this increase was not big enough to change elections outcome still a Democrat ended up with more votes.
Is there a real threat to democracy here?
