As of the end of Day 3 of hand counting paper ballots in the MN U.S. Senate race between Democratic challenger Al Franken and incumbent Republican Norm Coleman, the total number of challenged ballots by both camps has now ballooned to more than 1500, even as the official gap of ballots that have now been tallied (versus the challenged ballots that will be adjudicated later by the state Canvassing Board) shrank slightly to 115. Franken’s camp, however, now puts that number at less 100, based on their calculations of how election officials initially judged a number of those challenged ballots.
After Day 2 on Thursday night, when the gap had stood at just 129 votes , we noted the quickly growing number of challenged ballots by each party, which would likely end up determining the final results of the election. The numbers of those challenged ballots has now increased exponentially, with just over 60% now counted out of 2.9 million originally cast.
Unlike Georgia, where another U.S. Senate race from November 4th is still undecided, at least there are ballots to be challenged…
Here’s a look at a handful of some of those challenged ballots from Minnesota Public Radio, which has been posting some of them, and allowing readers to decide which way they should be adjudicated in a readers’ poll.
MPR also asked readers whether they thought “these ballots make the case for electronic voting?” We’re happy to note that, almost to a person, the response from readers was akin to: “Are you frickin’ kidding us?! Of course not!!!”
Naturally, The BRAD BLOG heartily concurs with those smart readers, and by way of emphasis points you to these disputed ballots from the still-undecided U.S. Senate race in Georgia, which will have a run-off on December 2nd:
…Oh, wait, there are no such ballots posted for transparent debate by the public or anybody else, because none exist. They use 100% invisible, unverifiable, reviewable-by-no-one, faith-based electronic “ballots” cast on touch-screen Diebold machines across the entire state. So nobody is able to determine if even one of them was recorded accurately as per any voter’s intent.
That unfortunate fact has once again re-opened still more debate about the 2002 U.S. Senate race there, where Saxby Chambliss was reported by Diebold to have defeated incumbent Sen. Max Cleland, despite pre-election polls showing he should have lost, and despite the company having installed uncertified software patches, secretly, just days before the election. Unlike this year’s MN race, the GA race in 2002, as well as the still-undecided 2008 race, will likely never be resolved to the public’s satisfaction.
But back to MN, where every citizen can watch how things are going, and can ultimately have confidence one way or another in the results. Here’s how the Minnesota Independent rounded up Day 3 of counting…
Ballots that failed to satisfy Coleman’s crew today numbered 404, for a three-day total of 778. Franken’s forces found 387 ballots questionable, for a grand total (so far) of 747.
That makes a combined total of 1,525 challenged ballots with only 60 percent of ballots recounted statewide “” already surpassing the 1,500 mark which Secretary of State Mark Ritchie predicted only yesterday would be the number of challenged ballots from the entire recount that the State Canvassing Board would have to review. It’s a number that represents an arms race of ballot-attrition that both Coleman’s and Franken’s camps condemned today “” even as their campaigns ramped up the rejections.
It’s also a number that already dwarves by a factor of 13 the dwindling gap between Franken and Coleman, which now stands at 115. Unless the margin takes a giant leap over the remainder of the recount, the Canvassing Board looks to be the decider in Minnesota’s senate-election drama.
…
On Friday the Franken campaign claimed its gap with Coleman stood at fewer than 100 votes, counting election officials’ initial decisions on ballots that were later challenged.
ok this is not about MN but GA
via raw story…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=...aise_1121.html
I’m thinking that there is a rather critical missing piece of information in the story of the MN recount.
What about a reconciliation of the hand-recount with the machine count?
I haven’t heard so much as a peep.
What’s up with that?
Oops, I must’ve missed this post. Sorry.
Thank you for being such a wonderful reporter/blogger. I just watched one of your documentaries–“Murder, Lies,…” I feel so sorry for poor Clint Curtis. At last Feeney finally lost the election by a landslide.
Would somebody please verify whether they are counting the “spoiled” and “overvotes”? This is where the 10,000 Franken votes are hiding. If they are not counting THOSE, then they are idiots, and since we KNOW they are idiots, that is why I suspect they are STILL ignoring the overvotes and spoiled votes and only counting again the already counted votes.
Verification anyone? Please?
[ed note: Cut and paste deleted. Please read our commenting rules, jacksmith. Thank you. –99]
… jacksmith said…
Nevermind.
At what point does this officially become spam by blog policy?… he iz cloggin’ up teh inner toobz…
[ed note: Gimme a chance! Sheesh. 😛 –99]
Brad,
thanks for the update on the Day 3 of the MN recount. this is a real cliffhanger.
I don’t understand how by day 3, the MN recount has been able to do a full hand count of nearly 1.6 million ballots. i would think that a hand count of 1.6 million ballots (which represents something like 60% of the 2.9 mmillion ballots cast), would take much longer than 3 days.
how are they able to handcount 1.6 million paper ballots in 3 days?
Also, per an earlier comment, what came of those 10,000 “spoiled” ballots that haven’t been counted? any news on this/
thanks again for your tremendous efforts in providing us the news on the elections that the mainstream media won’t cover. really, really appreciate it.
I wish I could contribute to the BF donation kitty but I have been unemployed since Feb and am soon to run out of $ in a few months and living on unemployment checks ($450/week) is pretty rough after having made a 6 figure income.
oh well. keep up the good work and hope your wrist gets better soon. you should remember to ice your wrist when it starts hurting, that should help with the inflammation.
Hi Brad,
thank you for this work from a MN mainframe programmer who has been screaming about the voting machines from the beginning, and now so pleased to have this full recount.
besides that if your wrist issue is carpal tunnel/repetitive motion injury, taking supplemental vitamin B6 will often furnish nutrients needed for the damaged tissue. A good way to do this and keep the B’s in balance is take a month’s worth of high quality, food-source prenatal vitamins, also to favor the same through foods high in B6 & B2.
good luck with that
Has Southern Minnesota been counted yet? (like Burnsville to the Iowa border)Or the St Cloud/Little Falls area? (Bachmann nuts)
That used to be where all of the hidden R votes came from.
Until that is counted…we wait
I am a GA voter and while you are correct in part about how GA can vote. You are not completely informed or not informing people on this blog of all the facts as to how GA voters might choose to cast their vote.
I can in fact email you a copy of my offical long form paper ballot and how I voted. I can also prove in a court of law that it is my ballot and that I cast that ballot and those are the people I voted for.
Any educated voter can chose to vote the way I did and take a picture of his or her ballot for their records if they so choose to educated their self as how to vote and what their options are in the Great Red State of Georgia.