Franken will likely win in Minnesota.

[classy]

Originally posted by: Lothar
I hope Norm Coleman wins.
Add me to the list of democrats who would pick him (and Barkley as well) over Al Franken any day of the week.

Same with me.

 

[First]

CNN still says Franken is behind by 215 votes. Don't know much about his politics, but he'd be worth seeing in the Senate just for the standup alone. Though Dems with 60 seats is a little scary, if Chambliss loses. Dems already have a hair under 60% in the House and that combined with 60 in the Senate seems awfully scary.

 

[dainthomas]

Originally posted by: techs

Originally posted by: cubeless
i think franken's in trouble... when chris matthews on hardball last night couldn't bring himself to give franken most of the contested ballots they showed, there might be a chance that sanity will prevail... the dem shill kept spouting 'intent' but matthews couldn't even stretch his partisanship that far...

there's no such thing as a contested ballot... either it's clearly marked or it's scrap, whichever side it might favor...

The people of Minnesota disagree with you. It is clearly written into their law that the intent must be considered. If you circled the box for a candidate instead of filling it in, it may prove you're an idiot, but in Minnesota your vote should be counted for the candidate you clearly intended to vote for.

If you circled a box instead of filling it in, then you deserve to be beaten with a hose. Seriously. Anyone who's attended grade school or knows how to read should be able to figure it out, and I would not trust the opinion of someone who couldn't.

 

[First]

Originally posted by: dainthomas

Originally posted by: techs

Originally posted by: cubeless
i think franken's in trouble... when chris matthews on hardball last night couldn't bring himself to give franken most of the contested ballots they showed, there might be a chance that sanity will prevail... the dem shill kept spouting 'intent' but matthews couldn't even stretch his partisanship that far...

there's no such thing as a contested ballot... either it's clearly marked or it's scrap, whichever side it might favor...

The people of Minnesota disagree with you. It is clearly written into their law that the intent must be considered. If you circled the box for a candidate instead of filling it in, it may prove you're an idiot, but in Minnesota your vote should be counted for the candidate you clearly intended to vote for.

If you circled a box instead of filling it in, then you deserve to be beaten with a hose. Seriously. Anyone who's attended grade school or knows how to read should be able to figure it out, and I would not trust the opinion of someone who couldn't.

The old, infirm, and handicapped vote too and, FYI, they account for most mislabeled ballots.

 

[umbrella39]

Originally posted by: Evan

Originally posted by: dainthomas

Originally posted by: techs

Originally posted by: cubeless
i think franken's in trouble... when chris matthews on hardball last night couldn't bring himself to give franken most of the contested ballots they showed, there might be a chance that sanity will prevail... the dem shill kept spouting 'intent' but matthews couldn't even stretch his partisanship that far...

there's no such thing as a contested ballot... either it's clearly marked or it's scrap, whichever side it might favor...

The people of Minnesota disagree with you. It is clearly written into their law that the intent must be considered. If you circled the box for a candidate instead of filling it in, it may prove you're an idiot, but in Minnesota your vote should be counted for the candidate you clearly intended to vote for.

If you circled a box instead of filling it in, then you deserve to be beaten with a hose. Seriously. Anyone who's attended grade school or knows how to read should be able to figure it out, and I would not trust the opinion of someone who couldn't.

The old, infirm, and handicapped vote too and, FYI, they account for most mislabeled ballots.

According to many, these people shouldn't even be at the polls let alone casting votes. The people charging this can't even detect their own obvious handicaps. Perhaps they should stay home, too. I would rather champion the retard that votes incorrectly for change than the one correctly voting for more of the SOS.

 

[Lemon law]

Originally posted by: umbrella39

Originally posted by: Evan

Originally posted by: dainthomas

Originally posted by: techs

Originally posted by: cubeless
i think franken's in trouble... when chris matthews on hardball last night couldn't bring himself to give franken most of the contested ballots they showed, there might be a chance that sanity will prevail... the dem shill kept spouting 'intent' but matthews couldn't even stretch his partisanship that far...

there's no such thing as a contested ballot... either it's clearly marked or it's scrap, whichever side it might favor...

The people of Minnesota disagree with you. It is clearly written into their law that the intent must be considered. If you circled the box for a candidate instead of filling it in, it may prove you're an idiot, but in Minnesota your vote should be counted for the candidate you clearly intended to vote for.

If you circled a box instead of filling it in, then you deserve to be beaten with a hose. Seriously. Anyone who's attended grade school or knows how to read should be able to figure it out, and I would not trust the opinion of someone who couldn't.

The old, infirm, and handicapped vote too and, FYI, they account for most mislabeled ballots.

According to many, these people shouldn't even be at the polls let alone casting votes. The people charging this can't even detect their own obvious handicaps. Perhaps they should stay home, too. I would rather champion the retard that votes incorrectly for change than the one correctly voting for more of the SOS.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Let us not forget that some of the so called under counting may lie with improperly aligned optical scanners in some voting machines, with other resulting errors being a slash rather than a circle, or in other cases, being a result of depleted pens simply not marking dark enough to properly register. Blaming retarded voters may be missing the point and a misdirection deflection that is highly insulting and not in evidence.

Let it be credit where credit is due, Minnesota is making an honest effort. And the chips will fall where they fall. Let the process continue.

After that it may come down to disputed ballots, but that comes only after the State mandated recount. And a much smaller subset of votes will fall into that class, with courts and political spin ruling the day with that subset.

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: Evan
CNN still says Franken is behind by 215 votes. Don't know much about his politics, but he'd be worth seeing in the Senate just for the standup alone. Though Dems with 60 seats is a little scary, if Chambliss loses. Dems already have a hair under 60% in the House and that combined with 60 in the Senate seems awfully scary.

Not scary enough if your'e still here.

 

[sportage]

I'm surprised so many here really do not know Al Franken at all.
They just assume he's a comic, and only a comic from SNL.
Obviously, those people have not followed his political career, or
have not listen to his radio show.

Al would be great in the senate, and not as funny as people expect.
Al's is very smart in politics. People just need to actually listen to
him, and not assume he's still an SNL comic.
How do you think he went from a joke running for senate, to an election
so close? Once people listened to his political views, they realized he?s a smart cookie, and went over to his side.
Coleman is the joke here. Another Bush blind leading the blind.

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: sportage
I'm surprised so many here really do not know Al Franken at all.
They just assume he's a comic, and only a comic from SNL.
Obviously, those people have not followed his political career, or
have not listen to his radio show.

Al would be great in the senate, and not as funny as people expect.
Al's is very smart in politics. People just need to actually listen to
him, and not assume he's still an SNL comic.
How do you think he went from a joke running for senate, to an election
so close? Once people listened to his political views, they realized he?s a smart cookie, and went over to his side.
Coleman is the joke here. Another Bush blind leading the blind.

Of course they know him, he's a Democrat, that's all they need to know to hate him.

 

[Lemon law]

Although the holy grail may be a 60 Senate seat democratic filibuster proof majority, even that is problematical for two reasons. (1) Even if Frankin wins in Minnesota, the odds on probability are that Chambliss will win the run off election. Making the 60 vote question moot. (2) The ole Will Rodgers quip remains valid, "I am not a member of an organized political party, I am a democrat." And while the GOP is somewhat to be complimented on their 100% lock step unity, the democrats are too diverse a party to have lock step unity. Call it a virtue or a vice, bottom line, democrats suck at lock step party unity.

 

[Harvey]

Originally posted by: sportage

I'm surprised so many here really do not know Al Franken at all.
They just assume he's a comic, and only a comic from SNL.
Obviously, those people have not followed his political career, or
have not listen to his radio show.

Al would be great in the senate, and not as funny as people expect.
Al's is very smart in politics. People just need to actually listen to
him, and not assume he's still an SNL comic.
How do you think he went from a joke running for senate, to an election
so close? Once people listened to his political views, they realized he?s a smart cookie, and went over to his side.
Coleman is the joke here. Another Bush blind leading the blind.

SNL originally hired Frankin as a writer, not a performer. If you know anything about professional comedy, the job requires serious brain power. If you've ever heard him speak on serious subjects, you'd know he's qualified.

That said, humor is a powerful tool and sometimes, an even more powerful weapon for disarming an oponent in debate. I think he'd make a great Senator.

 

[shira]

The margin with 64% of the votes recounted is 120 for Coleman. This site has detailed figures:

Text

Extrapolating from the figures shown, and assuming that the net effect of the challenged votes will be nill, it looks like Coleman will win by between 20 and 30 votes.

 

[miketheidiot]

this is why i like runoff elections.

 

[MikeyLSU]

Originally posted by: sportage

How do you think he went from a joke running for senate, to an election
so close?

because this is the same state the elected Jesse "the body" Ventura

case closed.

 

[Lemon law]

Originally posted by: shira
The margin with 64% of the votes recounted is 120 for Coleman. This site has detailed figures:

Text

Extrapolating from the figures shown, and assuming that the net effect of the challenged votes will be nill, it looks like Coleman will win by between 20 and 30 votes.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To not argue with Shira, if there is only a 20-30 vote final margin, everyone of those disputed ballots will be a law suit in themselves. I certainly hopes one or the other opens up a wide enough margin so that both sides can accept the people have spoken.

 

[da loser]

Originally posted by: Lemon law
Although the holy grail may be a 60 Senate seat democratic filibuster proof majority, even that is problematical for two reasons. (1) Even if Frankin wins in Minnesota, the odds on probability are that Chambliss will win the run off election. Making the 60 vote question moot. (2) The ole Will Rodgers quip remains valid, "I am not a member of an organized political party, I am a democrat." And while the GOP is somewhat to be complimented on their 100% lock step unity, the democrats are too diverse a party to have lock step unity. Call it a virtue or a vice, bottom line, democrats suck at lock step party unity.

i really hope the dems get the 60 seat majority.

that way their philosophy can truly be tested and they can't hide.

either it works or it doesn't. none of this we tried, but the other party wouldn't let us.

 

[mugs]

Could you please update the title to reflect the proper spelling of his name? I'm not going to criticize your other spelling errors, but when you can't spell a candidate's name right it becomes pretty obvious that the only thing you know or care about is his party affiliation.

 

[shira]

Even though Coleman extended his lead to 180 votes as of 8PM Saturday evening, Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight.com is predicting a 27-vote victory for Franken based on his analysis of the vote-pickup trends for Franken as a function of the number of challenged recount votes.

See Sunday's article

Consider the following. In precincts where no challenges have been issued (these are the only precincts in which, in some sense, the results of the recount can be considered to be final and "official") Franken has gained a total of 34 votes, and Coleman a total of 6 votes, for a net gain by Franken of 28 votes. Moreover, in precincts where just 1 challenge has been issued, Franken has gained a net of 31 votes on Coleman, and in precincts where exactly 2 challenges have been issued, Franken has gained a net of 32 votes on Coleman.

By contrast, in precincts where 5 or more ballots have been challenged between the two campaigns, Coleman has gained a net of 57 votes on Franken.

In other words, the fewer the number of challenged ballots, the better Franken is doing, and the higher the number of challenged ballots, the worse he is doing; the relationship is in fact quite strong.

It is not an accident, then, that as the number of challenges has increased with each day of the recount, Franken's momentum appears to have stalled out. Very probably, a majority of the challenges are coming from Franken's pile. This is somewhat irrespective of which campaign actually instigates the challenge, since as we suggested yesterday, a potential Franken undervote could be the subject of a challenge from either campaign depending on the initial ruling of the local elections judge.

Silver estimates that after all the votes are recounted and all the challenges are settled, Franken will have picked up .837 votes for every 10,000 votes recounted, for a total pickup of 242 votes (versus Coleman's initial lead of 215 votes).

 

[EXman]

Originally posted by: mxyzptlk
I really liked Franken's book, Lies and the lying liars who tell them. I'd have voted for him if he were running in CA.

Because you like Jokers? oh I know because setting the bar so low we can elect anyone who rights a couple of books.

 

[EXman]

Originally posted by: da loser

Originally posted by: Lemon law
Although the holy grail may be a 60 Senate seat democratic filibuster proof majority, even that is problematical for two reasons. (1) Even if Frankin wins in Minnesota, the odds on probability are that Chambliss will win the run off election. Making the 60 vote question moot. (2) The ole Will Rodgers quip remains valid, "I am not a member of an organized political party, I am a democrat." And while the GOP is somewhat to be complimented on their 100% lock step unity, the democrats are too diverse a party to have lock step unity. Call it a virtue or a vice, bottom line, democrats suck at lock step party unity.

i really hope the dems get the 60 seat majority.

that way their philosophy can truly be tested and they can't hide.

either it works or it doesn't. none of this we tried, but the other party wouldn't let us.

Alot of people will still think the republicans are in power. They don't care they just want more American Idol!

Start at about :44 seconds

 

[PottedMeat]

Awesome Minnesota Ballots:

http://www.236.com/news/2008/1...ters_moronic_10378.php

To the voters not just fucking with the ballots and know who they want to vote for: HOW THE HELL CAN YOU SCREW UP FILLING IN ONE BUBBLE?!?!

My favorite: "HELP I'M BEING STABBED IN THE FACE, HELP adfsfesef"

 

[Lemon law]

Originally posted by: PottedMeat
Awesome Minnesota Ballots:

http://www.236.com/news/2008/1...ters_moronic_10378.php

To the voters not just fucking with the ballots and know who they want to vote for: HOW THE HELL CAN YOU SCREW UP FILLING IN ONE BUBBLE?!?!

My favorite: "HELP I'M BEING STABBED IN THE FACE, HELP adfsfesef"

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

With all due respects for PottedMeat, I suspect there are only four or so ballots this ridiculous in all of the 2.9 million Minnesota ballots.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: Lemon law

Originally posted by: PottedMeat
Awesome Minnesota Ballots:

http://www.236.com/news/2008/1...ters_moronic_10378.php

To the voters not just fucking with the ballots and know who they want to vote for: HOW THE HELL CAN YOU SCREW UP FILLING IN ONE BUBBLE?!?!

My favorite: "HELP I'M BEING STABBED IN THE FACE, HELP adfsfesef"

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

With all due respects for PottedMeat, I suspect there are only four or so ballots this ridiculous in all of the 2.9 million Minnesota ballots.

With all due respect to both of you, those are clearly fake. All four ballots have the exact same photocopier imperfections, and those imperfections exist only on the original ballot, not the ink from the person's vote.

For those to be real,
1. Minnesota would have to have printed their ballots on a photocopier
2. Those four people would have to have received ballots that were photocopied close enough together that they looked identical.

 

[MonkeyK]

The site is a political comedy site. The ballots are parody.

OTOH, the linked MPR page has real examples of contested ballots

 

[PottedMeat]

Originally posted by: MonkeyK
The site is a political comedy site. The ballots are parody.

OTOH, the linked MPR page has real examples of contested ballots

DAMMIT!

Guess that's what I get for not reading the damn thing.