Fraud Alleged In MN Senatorial Race

[BLAZER PROPHET]

Incumbent Coleman has been declared the winner of the US Senatorial race by 210 votes (1,211,590 to 1,211,375). Although he has been officially declared the winner, there is a mandatory recount and the race is certainly in doubt.

Democratic voter fraud has been alleged as 232 ballots were discovered after election day, all in 3 counties, all found by Democrat party judges, all 232 votes were cast for Democrat Franken. Some of the ballots were “discovered” by the judge in his office desk, some were in the trunk of a judge’s car.

Personally, I find it odd that out of 232 ballots brought forth after such a close election, 100% were for 1 single candidate. As a MN newspaper puts it:

Minneapolis Star-Tribune columnist Katherine Kersten has also written about her suspicions that the integrity of the voting process may have been compromised:

Let's assume the 32 disputed ballots in Minneapolis were legitimate. Let's assume the newly discovered 100 votes in Pine County -- all for Al Franken -- were just overlooked by a sleepy official, and the 100 votes found in Mountain Iron -- again, all for Franken -- were valid.

Let's suppose the trickle of votes moving inexorably in Franken's direction is just a function of a normal process, as Secretary of State Mark Ritchie's office assures us.

One fact remains troubling. The referee in Minnesota's hotly contested Senate race must act in a nonpartisan fashion, yet Ritchie came to office through a nationwide partisan strategy. He was elected in 2006 as part of a national campaign to ensure that Democrats could wield influence in precisely the sort of hair's breadth race we now have here.

Ritchie gained office with the help of the Secretary of State Project (SOS), an independent 527 group co-founded by former MoveOn.org leader James Rucker. SOS is based in San Francisco, and is funded in part by ultra-liberal kingmakers such as George Soros.

Secretary of state positions are a "new front" in the "battle for political control," the paper explained, because they are "the obscure but vital state offices that determine who votes and how those votes are counted."

"National Democratic groups ... are pouring resources" into secretary of state races in key swing states, in order to enhance their control in future tight elections, said the paper. Minnesota was one of the top six states targeted.

 

[Minstrel]

It has been widely claimed that 32 absentee ballots from Minnesota were left in the trunk of a Hennepin County election official's car before being "discovered" some days later. However, as Media Matters and other new media organizations have reported, the authenticity of the claim is -- at best -- debatable, and may have originated from one of Norm Coleman's lawyers. (As you can see for yourself, I share in the blame on this one).

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/11/few-notes-on-media.html

 

[hasoos]

Very weird, but at the same time if you are going to remove somebodies ballots so they aren't counted, you are only going to grab theirs, correct? For instance, if you didn't want Franken to win, you would "misplace" all Franken ballots right? The same if you were for Coleman. So when found, if it was fraud, I would expect them to all have the same canidate on them. If it was an accident, such as leaving them in the trunk of a car, I would not.

 

[BLAZER PROPHET]

It also seems to me that any ballots "discovered" late do not count.

Where's ACORN when you need them???

 

[MARIS61]

I say do-over.

 

[BrianFromWA]

In the scenario from 2004, Governor Chris Gregoire (D) won the 2nd recount (after having lost the original and the first recount), when some more votes were "found", and she was declared the winner.

Amazingly enough, some of the "found" votes were tied to felons and multiple voters. Rossi (R) conceded the campaign, and Gregoire just won re-election this year.

I don't know why he did, but it seems that we should be able to get past allegations of vote fraud in our country. We won't, though, until punishment for this kind of issue is increased.

 

[BLAZER PROPHET]

In the scenario from 2004, Governor Chris Gregoire (D) won the 2nd recount (after having lost the original and the first recount), when some more votes were "found", and she was declared the winner.

Amazingly enough, some of the "found" votes were tied to felons and multiple voters. Rossi (R) conceded the campaign, and Gregoire just won re-election this year.

I don't know why he did, but it seems that we should be able to get past allegations of vote fraud in our country. We won't, though, until punishment for this kind of issue is increased.

If you also recall, several of the Gregoire votes were people who had died years before. Since those "spoiled" ballots were found in the boxes of late discovered ballots (after the election was over), the republican asked a democrat judge to throw out all those boxes of ballots. Not too surprising, the democrat judge said no, only the votes of the dead people will be tossed and the rest was history.

 

[maxiep]

From a statistical standpoint, the comeback in the vote count by Franken seems suspect.

 

[PapaG]

From a statistical standpoint, the comeback in the vote count by Franken seems suspect.

What, the 100 extra votes found for Franken, but not for anyone else on the ballot, in Iron Mountain, MN, sounds suspicious to you?

 

[barfo]

From a statistical standpoint, the comeback in the vote count by Franken seems suspect.

Out of 2.8 million votes, the margin has changed by about 500, or about 0.02%.
Why do you say that seems statistically suspect?

barfo

 

[maxiep]

Out of 2.8 million votes, the margin has changed by about 500, or about 0.02%.
Why do you say that seems statistically suspect?

barfo

Because any change in the vote count appears to be going overwhelmingly for Franken. In an election this close, you would expect it to be more split.

 

[BLAZER PROPHET]

Because any change in the vote count appears to be going overwhelmingly for Franken. In an election this close, you would expect it to be more split.

Also, out of 332 votes found by Democrat judges after the elction was closed, 100% of them were for Franken. That's quite a coincidence.

 

[barfo]

Because any change in the vote count appears to be going overwhelmingly for Franken. In an election this close, you would expect it to be more split.

If it is the case that ballots have only changed in Franken's direction, I'd agree. However, I don't know of any evidence of that. The fact that the margin has moved 500 in Franken's direction doesn't mean there weren't ballots that moved to Coleman.

barfo

 

[barfo]

Also, out of 332 votes found by Democrat judges after the elction was closed, 100% of them were for Franken. That's quite a coincidence.

It's also not true, but we don't worry about details like that, do we?

Just reading this thread, there were 32, 232, and 332 'found' votes.

barfo

 

[BLAZER PROPHET]

It's also not true, but we don't worry about details like that, do we?

Just reading this thread, there were 32, 232, and 332 'found' votes.

barfo

My typo. It was 232. I'll always trust you to find my typos.

 

[barfo]

My typo. It was 232. I'll always trust you to find my typos.

You can trust me for that, but my point wasn't that you made a typo, my point was that the stuff you were saying wasn't true. It isn't the case that some number of votes ending in 32 were discovered by democrats and all of them are Franken votes.

barfo