Elections chief pledges to resist political pressure on recount (MN)

[struggle4progress]

Source: Star Tribune

When Republican operatives challenged shifting vote tallies, the secretary of state, a DFLer, chided them for "denigrating" the process.
By PAT DOYLE
Last update: November 9, 2008 - 10:10 PM

... Secretary of State Mark Ritchie pledges to oversee a fair, accurate and open recount of the nearly 2.9 million ballots in the Senate race ...

Ritchie acknowledged that his office will face pressure over the next few weeks, but pledged to resist it.

"People who are the most active have a kind of bias to want to get <results> fast," he said of the recount. "Election administrators have a bias for wanting it correct, transparent and trusted. We know there will be pressure for fast, faster, get it done. We will not be swayed by those demands."

A recount requires ballot verification by precinct in each county and allows the public and representatives of the candidates to watch. Disputes over contested ballots go to the state canvassing board, made up of two state Supreme Court justices, two district court judges and chaired by the secretary of state ...

Read more: http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/34181604.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiUr

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The official count, then the recount
Last update: November 9, 2008 - 10:08 PM

Minnesota counties will present their final 2008 election vote tallies today, paving the way for mandatory recounts in four races, including the U.S. Senate race between incumbent Norm Coleman and challenger Al Franken, Secretary of State Mark Ritchie said Sunday.

The county reports will go to the 87 county canvassing boards, who will forward the tallies to the secretary of state's office. Ritchie will submit the findings to the state canvassing board Nov. 18 ...

http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/34182749.html?elr=KArks7PYDiaK7DU2EPaL_V_9E7ODiUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU

[scarletwoman]

1. Mark Ritchie is great. We are in good hands.

Really, there isn't anything for anyone to bitch about. We have all paper ballots. There's nothing complicated about it. Every ballot will be examined and tallied. The end result will be as accurate as is humanly possible.

sw

[struggle4progress]

2. That's all we can ask for now

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[Thor_MN]

12. Not according to Faux Snooze....

Minnesota Ripe for Election Fraud

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,449334,00.html

"Virtually all of Franken’s new votes came from just three out of 4130 precincts, and almost half the gain (246 votes) occurred in one precinct -- Two Harbors, a small town north of Duluth along Lake Superior -- a heavily Democratic precinct where Obama received 64 percent of the vote. None of the other races had any changes in their vote totals in that precinct.

To put this change in perspective, that single precinct’s corrections accounted for a significantly larger net swing in votes between the parties than occurred for all the precincts in the entire state for the presidential, congressional, or state house races."


I have never have been so proud of having graduated from Two Harbors High School as I am right now. Go Agates!!!



To John R. Lott Jr., the idiot author of the article, not all the scanners are capable of returning a ballot to the voter when it detects an undervote or overvote and many of those that are capable are not set up to do so. Many rural areas do not even use scanners. Most of the races were decisive enough that minor errors have no chance reversing the outcome so they do not receive the scrutiny that a close race does. Try a little research before you start making asinine claims that your little repiggy friend is being jobbed.

[OnyxCollie]

3. Thomas Heffelfinger was a U.S. attorney forced out of office for trying to secure

voting rights for native Americans in Minnesota. He was replaced by Rachel Paulose, an interim U.S. attorney nominated by -wait for it- Norm Coleman.

http://www.sepiamutiny.com/sepia/archives/004277.html

Me thinks there are some shenanigans goin' on in Minnesota.

[scarletwoman]

7. No, there are no "shenanigans" going on. It's very straightforward.

There will be a total hand recount of every ballot cast which will take about a month. The procedure is all laid out in state law, the U.S. Attorney's office has nothing to do it.

sw

[OnyxCollie]

8. I'm not questioning the hand recount.

I'm questioning what has led up to the hand recount.

[scarletwoman]

11. What's to question? The third party candidate siphoned off a lot of votes that might have

gone to Franken. We really need Instant Runoff Voting in Minnesota, because the Independence Party keeps fielding candidates that suck up relatively large numbers of votes -- usually at the DFL's expense.

As it is, we have the two major party candidates both at 42% -- with the Independence party in play, no one gets to 50%. That's how we ended up with a Republican governor -- he's never been elected with a majority vote, only a plurality.

There's nothing "funny" going on at all. The current situation is due to having a fairly vigorous third party fielding candidates in many of our statewide elections -- they don't get enough votes to win, only enough to generally screw things up for the Democrats.

Again, this situation has absolutely NOTHING to do with the U.S. Attorney's office.

sw

[OnyxCollie]

14. So there was no need to be concerned about caging lists or voter rolls being purged.

It was all the third party candidates' fault. I gotcha.

[scarletwoman]

15. Caging lists? Purges? There hasn't been any of that here. Minnesota has same-day registration.

That means, on election day you can walk into the polling place, register and vote. You can even register just by having an already registered voter formally "vouch" for you -- that you are who you say you are and live where you say you live.

We also don't register by party affiliation in Minnesota, btw.

We make it easy for everyone to vote in our state, and lead the nation in voter turnout year after year.

Sorry to disappoint you, but there are no dark conspiracies here, we run very free and open elections. Franken kinda sucked as a candidate, that's why the vote is so close, no other reason.

sw

[Thor_MN]

13. A difference of 204 votes out of almost 3 million.

By State Law, a difference of 14,427 votes (one half of one percent) would have triggered an automatic recount. The actual difference is more than 70 times less than what triggers a recount. We are talking about one vote out of every 20 precincts. So small errors can have major consequences. Most elections are decided by differences large enough that small errors can't change the outcome. Races this close deserve an extra look.

The short answer is Minnesota State Law requires a hand recount when less than one half of one percent separates the top candidates.

[truthisfreedom]

4. Norm Coleman knows from previous experiences in his party that stopping the recount is the only way

for a close race to be won against a solid Democrat.

Unfortunately for him, and fortunately for the good people of Minnesota, that ain't gonna happen here.

Yay! I'm certain Al will win this thing!

[mojowork_n]

5. Do they run the ballots through the same scanners, again, or

do they count by hand? Some of those optical scanners are as bad as the touchscreen machines, I've read.

[LittleWoman]

6. Hand counts

also consider the intention of the voter so ballots marked with an X or circle around the candidate's name will be counted.

[mojowork_n]

10. Outstanding!

Thank you, Senator Franken, and the voters of Minnesota...

So there will be an opportunity to compare the accuracy of the original machine tabulations with the hand-counts! (Maybe.)

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

9. Aka the "Voting Vigorish."

R's always skim a little off the top.

Infuriating.