A Good Case for A Revote in the Coleman-Franken Minnesota Senate Race
By Michael Barone, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
John Hinderaker of Powerline succinctly states the crux of the case for Republican Norm Coleman in the Minnesota Senate race controversy, about which I've written previously. Minnesota state law requires that absentee ballots include the signature of a witness who is a registered voter. Apparently, some counties rigorously enforced this and others did not.
Hinderaker states:
It turns out, not surprisingly, that the counties that are careful about applying election laws are Republican-leading counties, while the lax ones—Hennepin, Ramsey and St. Louis—are heavily Democratic. What this means, in practice, is that thousands of votes are counted in Democratic counties that would not be counted if the same voter lived in a Republican county. Coleman observed that we hadn't realized it until now, but every Republican who runs in a state-wide race starts with a deficit of several thousand votes for this reason. . . .
[I]f a uniform standard of strict compliance with the absentee ballot statute is applied, Coleman wins. If a looser standard of substantial compliance with the statute is uniformly applied, Coleman also wins. The only way Coleman loses is if a strict standard is applied in Republican counties and a lax standard is applied in Democratic counties. Unfortunately, that is exactly what has happened so far.
Hinderaker argues, persuasively I think, that there is a good case for a revote, as in the New Hampshire Senate race in 1975. But my guess is that Senate Democrats will seat Al Franken the moment he gets a certificate of election, and that the only chance for a revote is that if the certificate of election goes to Coleman.
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Tags: Minnesota | Senate | Al Franken
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Reader Comments
MInnesota Law
IT would be helpful for anyone, even Republicans, to research the law involved before making comments.
What a bone-head.
Doug Chapman
Coleman Lost. Franken Won. Unanimous Decisions.
Someone reading this thinks Coleman got more votes or proved his case in Court?
He did not. He presented the weakest possible case to the Election Contest Court.
He proved nothing except that he was willing to have witnesses lie and cheat the system for him. Several did. They were caught. Coleman was fined 75-hundred dollars for trying to put-one-over on a trio of Judges.
Coleman's Case was never about winning. He went-in a loser and embarrassed himself and everyone for presenting a Bad Faith contest of the election, motivated by hating the idea of any other alternative included conceding to Al Franken.
Once he demonstrated that pending litigation would delay seating Franken; the GOP sent coal-cars full of money to keep the litigation going for as much of 2009 they could buy.
Now, it's right down to the real nitty-gritty. When the Minnesota Supreme Court tells Norm that Franken wins and the Governor must sign and present an Election Certificate to Senator Franken; that will come as an Order from the High Court.
The foolishness of the GOP's deliberate delay tactic to keep the Minnesota Senate Seat vacant is just about over.
Coleman Vs Franken, a rediculously botched election!!!
I think I may have heard it all now.
I just read above that "when everyone votes, democrats wins" and "when republicans lose, they want a do-over". You have got to be kidding me. Coleman won the initial election and the first recount but did not get the senate seat. Who was it again that wants a DO-OVER? The democrat mado for years now is if we don't win recount and recount again until we can find enough new ballots to change the results. If you follow Minn. law, which is why laws were created in the first place then count the ballots that were turned in correctly and discard any and all that were not. Election rules really aren't that difficult. It seems that if the rules are followed we end up back at the original result of Coleman winning. If it wasn't for the national attention this election has recieved people outside of Minnesota wouldn't be any the wiser of this sort of election tampering.
This sort of election tampering has been going on for years in my stat of Washington. If the elections are close or a republican wins out of nowhere hundreds if not thousands a ballots show up and tip the election to the left. Claiming every persons vote should count regardless of who, where or why they weren't there in the original election. Some found in the basement of the elections office. A stack or two that got miss placed under someones desk in the elections office. Astonishingly enough a number of them are homeless people and in some instances dead people. Then masterfully masked it as "disinfranchised voters" to get the support of the public.
Should every vote count? Absolutely they should as long as they were turned in on time and done correctly by a legally registered voter. Maybe some if not all of the newly aquired ballots don't have signatures because the one filling them out isn't the same person as the name on the ballot. Some may have been an honest mistake but not that many. Which brings us back to the simple fact that voting or election laws and rules are not hard to follow but apparently can be a bear to enforce when the left is behind or losing.
I don't know about Minnesotans but I would like everyone that is helping determine the outcome of an elected official, innitiative or reforendum that will directly affect me and my fellow citizens to also be a contributing member of society. (I.E taxpayer, working, volunteering, etc) This way everyone voting also has a stake in the outcome.
An easy fix would be do away with mail in voting except for people out of the country at the time of the election period. How hard is it to get off your butt go down to your local polling place show your ID and cast your vote. No questions your name on the voting register matches the one on your ID, "welcome and thak you for voting". There used to be a level of pride and honor in voting, in our country.
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