Comments on: Al, Don’t Be Greedy

By: Donklephant » Blog Archive » Coleman’s Lead Down To 136 After Second Recount Day

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:00:33 +0000

[...] following the Minnesota recount pretty closely because we could potentially have the makings of a super majority on our hands if [...]

By: rob

rob — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:54:22 +0000

Now there’s a state that knows how to pick ‘em

By: rob

rob — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:18:05 +0000

Exactly the opposite:

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/11/minnesota-perverse-incentives-to.html

By: Mark Kraft

Mark Kraft — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 22:04:45 +0000

Justin, don’t be dumb.

Al Franken did not challenge this vote. One of his numerous vote monitors did.

The simple fact is that both sides will be challenging perfectly good votes… but thusfar, there are more challenges from the Coleman side than the Franken side, which is good news for Al. Don’t be surprised if he gains about 50-100 votes after all the challenges are sorted out by a review panel in December.

By: John Emerson

John Emerson — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 20:58:16 +0000

Al didn’t do it. Some guy on Al’s team did it. This is the kind of thing that comes out in the wash when the challenged ballots are looked at. Chill.

By: Ben

Ben — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 20:38:18 +0000

Justin, both sides are doing this. Technically, their lawyers are doing it. Unfortunately, that’s what they’re paid to do. Check out the examples at http://minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2008/11/19_challenged_ballots/ to see that it’s just par for the course. Is example #8 really any better then the example you showed? This is just Colelman’s people trying to win a media battle, and you’re helping them do it.

By: Andrew Donaldson

Andrew Donaldson — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 20:16:59 +0000

In fact, Norm Coleman is trying the same thing. Pretty much every ballot in the state with an extraneous mark (on either side of the ballot) is being challenged by, well, the watchers belonging to the other party. Fortunately, very few people seem to calculate math problems while they’re voting, so extraordinarily few ballots are being challenged. In fact, since you could construe the mark on this ballot as being an “X”, which is traditionally understood as opposition, this may be one of the most legitimate challenges (and it’s still very, very weak): Several voting officials throughout the state say that none of the challenges they’ve seen locally are credible.