MN Sen Recount (UPDATE: Stuart Smalley certified winner, lawsuit forthcoming)

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Ballot #1:  Franken vote.

Ballot #2: LOL.  Obvious Coleman vote.

Ballot #3: Reject.  No vote.

Ballot #4: Franken vote.

Ballot #5: I think... Franken vote.

Ballot #6: Franken vote.

Ballot #7: Coleman vote.

Ballot #8: Franken vote.

Ballot #9: Barkley vote.  I love the logic that an eraser mark means they wanted to vote for Franken.

Ballot #10: Barkley vote.  The Coleman mark looks like an inadvertent stray mark, like the mark on Franken's name.

Ballot #11: I say this is a Coleman vote.  It seems that the voter crossed out Franken's name.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

So, anyone want to put down odds on Franken winning?

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Day #2:

1) Coleman - I'm curious what interpretation of the "identifying mark" provision has been, but doesn't it need to identify something first?  To me it looks more like a scribble, which doesn't identify anything.

$500 to the first person who can actually wind up "identifying" that one.

For anyone playing along at home, my calls:

1. Coleman.
2. Franken.  I do concur that there is some suspicion—though not enough to nullify.
3. Reject.  I would surmise the voter wanted to nullify their Coleman vote.  (I realize I'm in the minority here.)
4. Coleman, assuming the Lizard People vote is counted for Franken.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Ok, this is worse than the thumbprint thing.  The Coleman campaign is challenging ballots simply because they are clear McCain/Franken votes and is challenging McCain ballots that simply left the senate race empty, arguing that it shows “intent.”
http://the-uptake.groups.theuptake.org/en/videogalleryView/id/1341/

Here's a fun game courtesy of the Coleman folks: Guess why Franken's people challenged the ballot!
BALLOT C
BALLOT D

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

I'm all for destroying democracy, but only when it benefits me!

What, you say that if such things become routinized, it could eventually hurt my wishes in a big way (Gore)?  No....

this would be retaliation for Gore

Wouldn't Washington 2004 be retaliation for Gore?

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Can we all agree that many Coleman challengers are complete fucking morons?

Only if we can all agree that Franken challengers are complete fucking morons.

Coleman's people are not morons, in any case.  They're engaged in a petty case of tit-for-tat frivolous challenges with Team Franken.  Part of it is petty revenge, part of it is PR: Coleman doesn't want Franken to dramatically outpace them on challenges, or the running tally (which doesn't include challenged ballots) will start showing a Franken lead.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Can we all agree that many Coleman challengers are complete fucking morons?

Only if we can all agree that Franken challengers are complete fucking morons.

Coleman's people are not morons, in any case.  They're engaged in a petty case of tit-for-tat frivolous challenges with Team Franken.  Part of it is petty revenge, part of it is PR: Coleman doesn't want Franken to dramatically outpace them on challenges, or the running tally (which doesn't include challenged ballots) will start showing a Franken lead.

     As I mentioned in my response to BRTD's post, there really should be legal consequences for this sort of petty misuse of the legal system.

How can you decide what challenge is frivolous and which one isn't?  Slippery slope.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Can we all agree that many Coleman challengers are complete fucking morons?

Only if we can all agree that Franken challengers are complete fucking morons.

Coleman's people are not morons, in any case.  They're engaged in a petty case of tit-for-tat frivolous challenges with Team Franken.  Part of it is petty revenge, part of it is PR: Coleman doesn't want Franken to dramatically outpace them on challenges, or the running tally (which doesn't include challenged ballots) will start showing a Franken lead.

But none of Franken's people are ridiculous as the Coleman people in Fillmore county who basically believe that all votes for McCain must also be for Coleman. As someone else pointed out if you're going to use that logic then you better just declare Franken the winner as Obama won Minnesota.

Actually, yes, plenty of Franken's people are as ridiculous.  I heard the argument that a vote for Obama must be a vote for Franken too over a week ago.

Get this thing over.  Both sides are beyond ridiculous.

Oh, for all intents and purposes, this thing is over.  Even Franken's people admit that Franken is behind by nearly 100, and with those disqualified ballots staying disqualified, he's pretty much toast.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

And who wouldn't just take the Franken campaign on their word?

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

lol, so much for the people b!tching about how the election was going to be stolen by Franken.

Hey, it's not over yet!  There's still time to turn this loss into a win! 

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Actually, Franken is up more than 10.  I believe the number is 27 and that number is solid.  Nate Silver said so.

That's getting fairly annoying.  He's changed some time ago to show Coleman leading. 

Why would The Almighty have to change a prediction?

So the prediction eventually converges to the correct one.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

I suspect the truth lies somewhere in between.  Why wouldn't Coleman dispute it to hurt Franken's partisans and stop Franken's money from flowing though?  Coleman's campaign has been oddly silent on the matter.

Because then it lends some credibility to Franken's.  Dude's just flailing in the water.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

County governments are non-partisan,

Nobody is really non-partisan.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Talking about preventing total Democratic dominance of the Senate should play really well in a midterm year.  Midterm voters aren't geniuses, but they're much smarter about politics than your average 2008 voter.

Talk about filibusters will be all over Fox News and the usual GOP outlets, so one would imagine that Republicans will understand the stakes.  Take a look at an internal poll sometime—these kinds of arguements work surprisingly well with politically interested Indy voters.