Ballot Box Troubles: A Matter of Incompetence or Dishonesty?
The AP is reporting that Team Franken Lawyer David Lillehaug asked the Hennepin County canvassing board to reconsider 461 ballots that had previously been rejected. Here’s what they’re reporting:
Minnesota’s largest county has declined a request from Al Franken’s Senate campaign to reconsider some disqualified absentee ballots.
Franken trails GOP Sen. Norm Coleman by a little more than 200 votes and the race is headed for a recount starting next week.
Attorney David Lillehaug asked the Hennepin County canvassing board to reconsider 461 absentees that he said had been improperly rejected.
The Coleman campaign just issued this press release:
“The Al Franken campaign today tried to stuff new ballots into the ballot box in a brazen, last minute act of desperation. We have raised concerns repeatedly about these types of tactics by the Franken campaign. Today is further evidence of their intent to use whatever means necessary to counter the decision of the people of Minnesota. We applaud the actions of the Hennepin County Canvassing Board in rejecting this blatant, desperate act.”
Hennepin County is a big DFL stronghold, which leads to this important question: Why is it that only DFL strongholds have had difficulty with processing ballots? It isn’t like I’ve heard of rural counties having difficulty handling ballots. I haven’t heard of 32 previously unforeseen ballots show up in an election official’s car in Lac Qui Parle County. I haven’t heard of 100 new votes being added to Franken’s and Obama’s totals in Kandiyohi County.
That leads to another question: Are these problems a matter of incompetence? Or is it a matter of dishonesty? Or is it that the DFL doesn’t know how many votes it needs to manufacture to push Franken over the top? My hunch is that it’s D: all of the above.
John Lott has similar questions in this article:
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.
Later, Lott writes this:
The Associated Press piece with the title “Most Minn. Senate ‘undervotes’ are from Obama turf” misinformed readers about what undervotes really imply. The Minneapolis Star Tribune headline similarly claimed “An analysis of ballots that had a vote for president but no vote for U.S. senator could have recount implications.”
The simple reality is that alot of Democrats didn’t like Al Franken to the point that they didn’t vote in the Senate race. I know this because I’ve talked with several DFL stalwarts prior to the election that said they wouldn’t vote for Franken but would vote for Obama.
Let’s hope that election officials don’t divine answers on their preferences but rather on what’s on the ballot.
Technorati Tags: Recount, Al Franken, David Lillehaug, Hennepin County, Iron Range, Canvassing Boards, Norm Coleman, Lac Qui Parle, Kandiyohi County, Voter Fraud, Incompetence, DFL, Election 2008
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog