Frankly Rich: Franken v. Ritchie

[This story first appeared in the 7 November 2008 PIM Weekly Report.]

The outsider ethos that has plagued Al Franken since the
inception of his candidacy two years ago now manifests itself in an
even uglier fashion: casting doubt on Minnesota’s election process.

For 30-year New Yorker Franken, and the non-Minnesota crew who have
been with him through a best-selling book, a failed national radio show
and now what appears to be a lost bid for a U.S. Senate seat, there are
election day fraud myths rivaling Homer.

In 2000, there was Florida… brought to the nation by the supposedly
Machiavellian Princess in blue eyeshadow, GOP then-Florida Secretary of
State Katherine Harris.

In 2004, there was Ohio… brought to us by one of the most feared
political creatures by the left, a conservative who happens to be
black, GOP then-Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell.

In 2008, are we supposed to believe Al Franken lost because of election
overseeing dereliction on the part of DFL Minnesota Secretary of State
(SOS) Mark Ritchie?

I disagree with GOP U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman’s
initial strategy of trying to discourage a recount. Franken is entitled
to one, and Minnesota law wisely provides for one in close races.

However, Franken and the DFL Party are not entitled to, at best, cast
doubt on our process, or worse, create chaos. The PR and legal strategy
appears to hang on "properly cast votes properly counted."

Franken: His goal is "to ensure that every vote is properly counted.

No Responses to “Frankly Rich: Franken v. Ritchie”

1. ConcernedReader Says:
   November 7th, 2008 at 8:38 pm

   I find this article pretty laughable considering Coleman’s campaign is the one demanding access to “questionable” voting records. Franken is sitting back and waiting for the final numbers to come in and rightly supporting the right of the voters to have their votes counted. Coleman is prematurely declaring victory and crying foul over the fact that the unofficial number keep changing. Counting every vote and having a recount if the margin of victory is less than 0.5% is the process. Franken’s team seems willing to support than process.

2. Holly Cairns Says:
   November 7th, 2008 at 10:11 pm

   Why smear Franken again, and over this? Yikes, it’s just ugly.

   The vote discrepancy scares me. Maybe we need to train rural electoral groups to “double check” the math and make sure they hand things in. Back to 7th grade math class, perhaps.

   Katherine Harris. Ha ha! Like anyone remembers who that is.

   I hope this gets to the point where we look for ‘”x” marks the oval’ votes.

3. jms Says:
   November 10th, 2008 at 9:18 am

   The State of MN owes BOTH Franken and Coleman a recount. We really don’t know who won this one. And both candidates should do the “healing thing” by calling for respect for the excellent processes we have here in Minnesota for just such a close election. The people who came before us designed a good recount process. Let’s all honor that.

   The race was too close to not do a recount. There are many opportunities for ordinary human error to occur on election night. A recount should correct at least some of that. There is no insult to election judges; the one I know reported that in the flury of election day, there could easily have been an error made in the manual processing of the absentee ballots. Perhaps most Minnesotans don’t know that at least in some counties, the absentee ballots are sent to each precinct where the election judges either 1)put them throught he machines, or 2) copy them over onto regular ballots and put them through the machines (overseas ballots). In any case, some ballots end up at the wrong precincts, and there is opportunity for error in the copying over, etc.

   There are over 4,000 precincts. If there is ONE human error, at only 1/4 of the precincts, that is 1,000 human errors. So a careful recount is the right thing to do. And there is always some human error in accounting for perhaps 300,000 absentee ballots…

   We should be PROUD that we have the process in place, in MN, to ensure a proper recount, with bi-partisan and non-partisan oversight.

   There is no shame here on Franken, Coleman, Ritchie or the election judges. The well-designed process should and will prevail. The only shame it seems to me, is someone claiming that there should be no recount. In an election this close, citizens and candidates alike deserve a carefully done recount.