Two freaking votes

[pegkerr]

As of this morning, Coleman is ahead of Franken by two freaking votes. Out of millions cast.

Re: the ballot challenges, this may be the worst one of all.

All eyes now turn to the 1600 absentee ballots. If the two sides can come up with agreed upon criteria for accepting them (and Alan Page may be right in dissenting, that it's sort of a bad idea to leave it up to them.) I think the hearing on THAT question comes December 31. Oy.

Update: Franken now leads by 44!

Comments

[heinous_bitca.livejournal.com]

Update! Franken now leads by 4 44! http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/12/breaking_al_franken_takes_the.php

[naomikritzer]

I'm with Page. I think the Supreme Court should've set standards and ordered everyone to implement them, because at this point we should be minimizing ambiguity, not create new opportunities for it.

I'm glad they'll be counting them, though; the idea that an absentee ballot rejected in error was simply an uncounted ballot that should be opened and counted seemed pretty obvious to me.

[nmsunbear.livejournal.com]

This kind of thing is excruciating; on the other hand, I love it when there's a situation where every vote really DOES matter. (Even if it is hard to get them counted properly.)

[naomikritzer]

I agree. It's cool. Also kind of fascinating to see all the weird ways in which people screw up their ballots (like the "Lizard People!" voter).

[barondave.livejournal.com]

At the moment, 11:41, Franken is up by 188.

Much as I hope Franken wins, I hope the issue is resolved soon. It would be a nice X-Mas gift to the two Jews running...

[silme.livejournal.com]

I'm hoping...

I'm also wondering who will replace Salazar in Colorado. I still get to vote via postal ballot in federal elections out of Colorado, so I voted for Salazar over Coors four years ago for the US Senate. The idea of a Coors in the US Senate was too appalling to be believed.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

I should have predicted Franken publicly a couple of days ago. It became clear that very few of the challenges switched a vote, and the Coleman pile was over twice as big; so when those are all counted, after the very minor switching of a few votes, Franken had to win.

I wonder why they think the absentee ballots will trend Franken? I suppose because of what precincts they go to.

Once again we see the spectre of Republicans going to court to try to keep valid ballots from being counted.

[cantkeepsilent.livejournal.com]

I believe that assumption is based on the split of the absentee ballots that were counted. 538 has been delightfully wonky on every aspect of the recount (since they've had virtually nothing else to discuss for the last month), and that's where my continuing political science education has been coming from lately.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

"I should have predicted Franken publicly a couple of days ago. It became clear that very few of the challenges switched a vote, and the Coleman pile was over twice as big; so when those are all counted, after the very minor switching of a few votes, Franken had to win."

I agree with your analysis. During the first part of the recount the challenge pile was about equal from both camps, but at some point the Coleman lawyers apparently decided it was good strategy to try to get well ahead of Franken in challenges.

This enabled them to maintain or widen their lead during the early going, at the expense of losing it again later. It's not a stupid strategy. This lets them to give the appearance of having been ahead consistently until "suddenly" somebody in the DFL-controlled SOS office pulled a fast one at the end, leading to Franken's win. I'm sure that's how it will be spun when the inevitable happens later this week and Franken is declared the winner.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

Wow.

Why on earth would anybody write a personal note on a ballot? Normally they're counted by machine and never looked at again. It's almost like whoever wrote it KNEW that the election was going to end in a manual recount and was hoping to become a universal symbol of Campaign Irony. Or is this just another example of God the hack writer, inspiring someone to write that message, against all logic, just to make a heavy-handed point later in the novel?

But, to be fair, the Franken lawyers have reportedly been just as obsessive as the Coleman ones in challenging every ballot that had even a stray mark or smudge on it. (One of the examples on the Secretary of State's website was a ballot that had been challenged by the Franken campaign because of a smudgy thumbprint).