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Update: Franken and Coleman Vote Count Timeline

Posted by Phoenix Woman, Firedoglake at 9:02 AM on November 29, 2008.


The "Official" vote total is inaccurate.
challengesper10000day7300x262

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I've decided to channel Emptywheel and start constructing a timeline of sorts for the Franken-Coleman recount. Take a look at this handy chart compiled by Twin Cities blogger Jeff Rosenberg. It shows the ratio of challenges to ballots counted.

Notice that for most of the first three days of the recount, the ratios for each campaign stayed between three and five challenged ballots per every ten thousand ballots cast. Those three days were the period where Coleman's officially-announced lead over Franken was shrinking. (See here, here and here for details.) They were also in the period just before the Coleman campaign went on a frivolous-challenge jag in order to artificially (and temporarily) goose the official recount numbers in their favor, and the Franken campaign felt compelled to play tit-for-tat just to make sure the publicly-announced faked-up Coleman "lead" didn't get too high.

This is why Jeff Rosenberg is no longer publicizing the "official" vote total:  It's not only inaccurate, it only serves to set up a situation where Coleman and his people will be loudly screaming "We wuz robbed!" if -- or rather, when -- all his frivolous challenges are rejected and the challenged ballots are allowed back into the recount and wipe out his lead.

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Tagged as: minnesota, al franken, election '08, norm coleman, recount, senate race

Phoenix Woman is a regular blogger for FireDogLake


Democratic Senators: Franken Won't Be Seated with New Class
Fallout from the surreal political scandal in Illinois has now wafted into Minnesota.
Post by Sam Stein and Ryan Grim. January 6, 2009.
Update: Al Franken Declared Winner; Coleman's Options Dwindle
"Today, the Supreme Court once again affirmed the validity of the rules under which this recount was conducted."
Post by Steve Benen. January 5, 2009.
Franken Winning Vast Majority of Wrongly Rejected Absentee Ballots
Norm Coleman's lawyers tried to stop the counting of hundreds of wrongly rejected absentee ballots and now we know they had good reason.
Post by tremayne. January 3, 2009.
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Now I'm really confused.
Posted by: Longdream on Nov 29, 2008 12:05 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I don't know whether to be heartened or disheartened by this.

But I'm still pulling for Al to get to the Senate. God, it would be just like if they let ME in, he's such a familiar face.

*visualizes Al Franken sitting at Senate Desk #84, next to the freshman Senator from New Hampsire, Jean Shaheen*

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

» RE: Now I'm really confused. Posted by: Quannah
» RE: Now I'm really confused. Posted by: Longdream
» RE: Now I'm really confused. Posted by: Quannah
» RE: Heh heh. Posted by: Longdream
» RE: Heh heh. Posted by: Quannah
I am all for Al but...
Posted by: Swatopluk on Nov 30, 2008 8:47 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Personally I think that with a difference of literally just a handful of votes there is no true "winner" and there should be a runoff. I am all for Al and against the GOP but a draw is a draw the same way I think that Florida 2000 was no "win" for anyone* (let's ignore for a moment the massive disenfranchisment there. That's another problem). I am not a fan of the choice by flip of the coin (that does it in some places, when there is a draw).

*and that's me who would love to drop the 8th amendement to have Bush publicly quartered and Chain-Eye boiled in (crude) oil.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

» RE: I am all for Al but... Posted by: Quannah