Al Franken's vote-tally appeal blunted

[formercia]

Source: startribune.com



He wants erroneously rejected absentee ballots to be counted in the state's official tally, which will be certified today. The recount is scheduled to begin Wednesday.

By KEVIN DUCHSCHERE, MIKE KASZUBA and MARK BRUNSWICK, Star Tribune staff writers

Last update: November 18, 2008 - 7:03 AM


DFLer Al Franken asked Monday to have rejected absentee ballots be considered in the U.S. Senate election results that are to be certified today by a state board, a move later blunted by an attorney general's opinion that the issue should be left to the courts.

The eleventh-hour maneuvering occurred as the five-member state Canvassing Board prepared to meet at 1 p.m. today in St. Paul to review results showing Republican Sen. Norm Coleman with a lead of 215 votes out of more than 2.9 million cast.

--snip--

Wrote Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Raschke Jr.: "Courts that have reviewed this issue have opined that rejected absentee or provisional ballots are not cast in an election." Improperly rejected absentee ballots can be challenged in court, he wrote.

--snip--



Read more: http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/34607244.html

---

Al Franken is going to need our help to make sure every vote is counted.

[brooklynite]

1. I participated in a CC with Al and Schumer yesterday...

There's reasonable comfort that a manual recount will favor Al, since ballots marked for Al which weren't done the "right" way (e.g. name circled or box checked rather than filled in) will get counted under Minnesota law. Still, requires a lot of monitoring and legal support.

[formercia]

2. The GOP realizes how important this race is.

Their ability to filibuster Mr. Obama's programs rests with their attempt to prevent the Democratic Party from acquiring a super majority in the Senate. You can bet they are pulling out all the stops on this race.

[LynneSin]

3. We could win AK, GA and MN and we still won't have a filibuster

Filibuster is not like having majority control where when you have the numbers it's automatic.

And the most misleading thing about the senate count is that it assumes that Joe Lieberman will be caucusing with us democrats. In the end, if we win these 3 senate seats, the count will be 58 Democrats, 2 indepenants and 40 Republicans. And of those 2 Independants - one is Sanders, who we can count on and one is Lieberman, who we can't.

[formercia]

4. Joe Biden can break a tie.

Every vote counts.

[aggiesal]

5. Only when it's 50-50

A super majority of 60-40, Biden will not be allowed to vote.
So to override a filibuster, you'll need 60 votes. If it's 59
then Biden will not have a vote to make it 60.

[formercia]

6. 59 is better than 58 and 58 is better than 57.

Every vote is important.

[LynneSin]

7. Now that is a fair assumption - the more the merrier the better chance of a filibuster

But to assume the filibuster is in the bag if we win these 3 states will be a sheer disappointment the first time a filibuster happens and we don't stop it simply because the votes aren't there.

[aggiesal]

14. Yes, 59 is better, but my point is that

Biden would not get a vote.

Which is the point I think you were trying to make.

[still_one]

8. You are right, and in addition we cannot necessarily count on all Democrats either

which highlights even more their is no practical reason to allow lieberman to retain his chairmanship

Of course the main reason he shouldn't is because the bastard said that OUR President is anti-American, and would make our country vulnerable to terrorist attack

lieberman is not a Democrat by HIS choice

[investintrains]

9. 39 of Myriad Varieties of Republican Vote Fraud

39 of Myriad Varieties of Republican Vote Fraud

The South has the least paper trails and the most reported crimes of voteflipping
machines

1 Disinformation about election date, polling place, polling times...
2 blockades of polling sites by
construction equipment...
3. intimidation of minority voters by police blockades, campaign operatives
(such as Thune's intimidation of Native Americans in SD)
4...electricity shutdowns...
5. removal of names from rolls..
because middle initial is present or absent.. or because
several people in a county have the same name,.
6. shutdown of precincts for no number 2 pencils or other
equipment absence (Toledo Ohio 2004 1 example)
7. deliberate understaffing and undermachining of precincts
8 failure to allow early voting
9 voting hours not long enuogh
10. only 2 states allowing electoral vote to be split by congressional district
11. an as yet unelected Supreme Court
12. media used in disinformation, libelous ads and fliers
(ABC on Nov 4 08 instructing Ohio voters that polls closed at 6, not 7:30)
Jacksonville Times Union telling Duval Cty African Americans in a special edition
to vote every page of the ballot
13. delay of absentee ballot mailing
14. contaminated chain of evidence...e.g. who holds the absentee ballots
15. Election Systems and Software, Diebold (now Premier), Sequoia Pacific,
Triad and other Republican owned 'voting machine' companies which have caused
votes to flip from Dem to Rep. or not to record Dem votes at all
16. lack of a paper trail in many Southern states
17. computer code of 40,000 lines for some machines.. when 500 would suffice
18. candidates left off ballot (John Kerry left off Cincinnati absentee ballot)
19. election observers locked out (as in 2004 in Warren Ohio)
20. handicapped voter access lines jammed (as in NH by Karl Rove operatives in 2002)
21. the war economy has created homeless.. who have been denied the vote in
some states because they have no address
22. hired operatives portraying themselves as Republican volunteers
23. neocon talk shows programming Democratic callers to answering machines
rather than on to the air (as on the Mike Reagan Show)
24. C Span giving 1/3 of the phone lines to a Party which represents less than 1/3
of the population
25. neocon tv having virtually no interactive shows
26. neocon radio filled with chickenhawk warjocks
27. In Alaska, voters were required to fold ballots. Obama's name was on the crease
and was not recorded in many optical scanners.
28. Alaska Republicans want the world to believe that 2008 was the lowest
ever national election vote, despite the fact that an Alaskan was running.
29. Republican PR firms calling themselves pollsters, designed to discourage voters
(e.g. Ohio Newspaper Poll... nearly all the participants Republican owned)
30. vote flipping incidents recorded in 2008 in TX, TN, MS, CO
(only in Colorado, to poster's knowledge, was the machine impounded)
Vote flipping would involve a Democrat vote being machine recorded as Republican.
31. Democratic votes disappearing from machine
32. disenfranchising of black voters through requirement of photo ID
(Robert F Kennedy Jr in 2 of his rollingstone.com articles on vote fraud
or on tv mentioned that 20% of black citizens have no voter ID)
33. Optical scanners not working as in 2008 Alaska and Minnesota.
34. No longer are literacy tests used as they were to exclude blacks.
35. Making people wait outside in the cold rain for periods of l/2 hour to 1.5 hours
(Richmond Virginia, Akron Ohio and other places)
36. Republicans admit on Sept 23, 2004 that in 2004, Rove operatives mailed campaign lit to WV and AR
which stated liberals would try to ban the Bible
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/24/po...20bible&st=cse
37. http://digg.com/2008_us_elections/Ob...lorida_Ballots
Obama's name misspelled on over 2000 Florida ballots..
38. In one state, Obama's name was left off the main ballot and was
alone on a 2nd page.
39. In Florida in 2000, Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris removed 94,000 legal
Democratic voters, mostly black, from the rolls, on the orders of G H W Bush
http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/...04_Palast.html

2 of the 3 states in which Senate races were not finalized in the 2008 vote
were states in which Diebold fraudulently installed the unelected. Chambliss
in Georgia and Coleman in Minnesota were never elected. Coleman had previously
lost a governor's race to Jesse Ventura, independent.

[kaygore]

12. You should start your own thread with this

[azurnoir]

10. While being filibuster proof would be nice

somethings come at too high a price IMO that's the case here as the 60th vote would be none other Joe Lieberman.

Still though FP or no I want Mr Franken as my Senator.

[formercia]

11. Every vote is the will of a voter, just like you and me.

I wouldn't want my vote disqualified. My vote is all I have. That's why we have to count every vote.

[halobeam]

13. I second that!

oh, does THAT count? :P (well, it's NOT a vote so.... I'm thinking it's covered!)