Comments on: Franken-Coleman Recount Update, 12/15/08: The Neiman-Marcus Riot Act

By: JohnEmerson

JohnEmerson — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 20:30:15 +0000

My feeling is that both Franken and Coleman think Franken will win once the challenges and absentee ballots are included. I think this because the Coleman campaign has raised a lot of other issues (e.g. alleged double-counted ballots) to use as backup arguments if they lose this phase, whereas to my knowledge the Franken campaign has not.

Just a reminder, nothing bad or unusual has happened yet. Routine mistakes have been, and are being, routinely corrected.

Furthermore, everything’s on schedule so far. The end of the recount was scheduled for this coming Friday, and except for the Coleman lawsuit we would be done by then.

Recounts are laborious, time-consuming, and slow, but there’s nothing wrong with that. The important thing is to get a good count. This election has been difficult because it was freakishly close (less than 0.01% difference), and not for any other reason.

Recounts are not entertainment events and are not scheduled for your viewing pleasure. Coleman will be Senator until sometime next month, regardless, and if the seating of the Minnesota Senator is delayed by a few days or weeks, the Republic will manage to limp along for a bit with only 99 Senators (or even 95, since Hillary, Biden, Obama, and Salazar also need replacement).

If Franken wins, the “stolen election” meme will take off. It’s already out there now, but it will explode. People should prepare themselves to fight it any way they can. There are millions of people out there who are still repeating stories that were definitively knocked down weeks ago (e.g. the ballots in the trunk of a car).

By: rwcole

rwcole — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 20:09:56 +0000

It looks as if a fair number of Franken challenges are either going for Franken or at least NOT going for Coleman. I’d say Franken’s doing OK.

It will take until 2010 to decide 1500 ballots at this pace though.

By: dakine01

dakine01 — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 20:06:28 +0000

Eli up at the Mothership on Darth Cheney

By: Teddy Partridge

Teddy Partridge — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 20:04:29 +0000

The consensus on Olbermann & Maddow seems to be that whoever is ahead at the end of this week will be certified by the Secretary of State and seated by the United States Senate. Is that what the local media presumes as well, PW?

Thanks so much for your continuing updates. But it’s time for this one to be over, and to end fair and square.

By: dcblogger

dcblogger — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 19:58:10 +0000

Thank you for staying on top of this.

By: Broadstreetbuddy

Broadstreetbuddy — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 19:56:54 +0000

Man this thing needs to end soon. This is like an irriatating splinter in your finger that you cannot get out. Who is winning anyway?

By: rwcole

rwcole — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 19:52:27 +0000

Since they are setting aside the most difficult ballots, and since they are doing the Franken challenges first ( I believe), it’s difficult to say where we are in this thing.

By: egregious

egregious — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 19:51:26 +0000

C-ape the Uptake link has a running total.

By: egregious

egregious — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 19:46:20 +0000

The livestream is geek heaven

By: cinnamonape

cinnamonape — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 19:41:41 +0000

What they need is some sort of counter so we can see if the ballots are going towards Coleman or Franken. I realize that all the Franken challenges are occurring now…so Coleman is going to get a lot of these (but there have been some rejections) and it would look like his lead was shooting up. But at least we could see where things are going once the Coleman challenges start being examined.