Coleman-Franken 08 = Rossi-Gregoire 2004?
Forgive me for saying this but the more I read about the chain of custody procedures being employed by the election officials for the Coleman-Franken recount, the less faith I have in these procedures. They sound more like the methods that helped Christine Gregoire defeat Dino Rossi in the third counting of the vote after losing the count the night of the election and the mandated recount. Here’s a refresher of Rossi-Gregoire 2004:
King County election officials yesterday admitted a major error in tallying votes in the governor’s race that could reverse the results and make Christine Gregoire the winner in the hand recount now under way.
The discovery that 573 (formerly 561) votes were improperly disqualified super-heated backers of Republican Dino Rossi, who for weeks have worried that King County, a Democratic stronghold, would find a way to give Gregoire the edge.
That’s the charitable way of wording it. Here’s what Stefan Sharkansky wrote about that process in December, 2004:
King County is still unable to provide conclusive information to validate their vote count.
The voter file, which I obtained earlier today, contains the names of only 895,660 voters recorded as voting on Nov. 2, a significant discrepancy from its hand recount certified total of 899,199.
The Elections Office informed me that they’re still doing “quality control” and adding in the names of some of the absentee voters. Even that wouldn’t explain the entire discrepancy, as there appear to be discrepancies with the polling place and provisional vote counts as well. I’ve asked the Elections Office for further clarification and will convey their explanation as soon as I receive one.
Fast forward to Coleman-Franken, 2008. Here’s Fritz Knaak’s quote on the matter:
A judge ruled Saturday that 32 new absentee ballots will be counted in the race for U.S. Senate.
Coleman’s campaign learned of the new ballots Friday night after a phone call from Minneapolis elections director Cynthia Reichert.
“We were actually told they had been riding around in her car for several days, which raised all kinds of integrity questions,” said Coleman’s attorney, Fritz Knaak.
That doesn’t include the 100 votes Franken, and Sen. Obama, picked up in the tiny city of Mountain Iron:
A tiny town in the Democratic stronghold of Minnesota’s Iron Range emerged Friday as the latest battleground over the state’s disputed U.S. Senate race.
Democrat Al Franken gained 100 votes there between election night and when results were officially tallied on Thursday.
Adding to the intrigue, and suspicion in Sen. Norm Coleman’s camp: The time stamp on the official tape printed out by a ballot machine in the precinct in question carried a date of Nov. 2, two days before the election.
I’ll avoid niceties here. It’s my opinion that the DFL is attempting to steal this election. If they were serious, they would’ve taken chain of custody issues seriously.
Do I know that the 32 ballots are phonies? No. Do I know that the 100 extra votes in Mountain Iron are phonies? I can’t say that either, though, having the tape register the votes 2 days before the election raises serious questions about their validity.
What I know for certain is this: If law enforcement treated evidence in criminal trials this sloppily, they’d never get a conviction because a competent defense attorney would get the evidence thrown out because custody wasn’t maintained.
I’ve got several questions about both sets of ballots. Let’s start with the 32 votes found in Minneapolis.
1) When did the the election official find these ballots in his/her car?
2) Were the ballots cross-checked against the voter registration records?
3) Were all 32 ballots from the same precinct?
Next, let’s ask about the ballots from Mountain Iron:
1) When were these votes discovered?
2) As I understand it, the explanation given was that the information sent to SecState Ritchie’s office was filled out incorrectly. Who caught the mistake?
3) How was the mistake caught?
4) What proof do Mountain Iron election officials have that the votes were cast properly?
5) Doesn’t the fact that the ballots were found with an official tape saying that the ballots were cast on November 2, 2 days before the election, suggest that the votes are questionable at best?
6) How do Mountain Iron election officials explain this considering the fact that absentee ballots are usually kept apart from ballots cast at the precinct?
7) Were all 100 votes from the same precinct?
8) What proof do we have that these ballots are valid?
9) What was the turnout rate in Mountain Iron?
As you can see, that’s a pair of lengthy lists of questions. I won’t trust the validity of this many discrepancies without a coherent explanation. At this point, we aren’t even close to having received a coherent explanation.
That’s why I’m worried that Coleman-Franken 08 will turn out just like Rossi-Gregoire 04. Follow this link if you want to help prevent a rerun of Rossi-Gregoire.
Technorati Tags: Al Franken, Norm Coleman, Voter Fraud, Fritz Knaak, Absentee Ballots, Mountain Iron, Christine Gregoire, Dino Rossi, King County, Chain of Custody, Evidence, Elections
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog
November 10th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
I have not even read this entire post, and I don’t have to. We’re all familiar with the disgusting tactics deployed when a republican looks like their going to lose. Norm Coleman revealed his hand when he tried to get a judge — would that be an activist judge? — to stop the count. We can safely say one thing about the election process in Minnesota, and everywhere else: In the day and age that we can keep track of how much you owe, down to the penny, it is a travesty and a crime that the voting process is this messed up. After 8 years in power, after having the valifity of the 2000 election outcome questioned — and rightly so — why do republicans still engage in this criminal behavior?
I am sick and tired of republicans taking advantage of the broken-down system. Why is it always the republicans who want to stop counting votes? Why is it republicans who want to suppress the vote? What are you afraid of?
As you are so fond of saying, We The People will not stand for it for another election.
Watch for President Obama to fix this mess, too.
November 10th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
Wow, is rocky ever full of crap. Obama will fix this? How? You haven’t even diagnosed the problem. You can’t even be bothered to hear what Republicans are saying. All you’ve done is blame Republicans of engaging in criminal behavior.
FYI, elections are handled at the local level. The SoS in MN is a Democrat. He had the past 2 years to “fix” the system & did nothing.
And remember how the democrats “fixed” the system after Y2K. They demanded voting machines. Republicans protested because of the cost & lack of a paper-trail.
When they lost in ‘04, Democrats predictably accused the Republicans of tampering with the voting machines.
But hey, don’t let reality get in the way of your worldview.