Democracy is messy

By Libby

Every votes counts, or not, in Minnesota. The ongoing drama in the Franken/Coleman race shows no signs of resolution. Today yet another mysterious batch of ballots surfaced to counter the yesterday's reported lost votes. The 133 found in Minneapolis apparently cancelled the advantage Franken enjoyed from the 171 found in Maplewood earlier this week. This on top of the 12,000 rejected absentee ballots that still remain a point of contention. Yesterday, the Franken camp also announced their internal calculations indicated a lead of 22 votes. It's unclear if this latest find will have any impact on that rosy prediction. The only thing clear to me in this mess is that Minnesota's election workers could probably use some additional training on proper procedure before the next election.

Meanwhile, it's not all that surprising that Saxby Chambliss won the runoff in Georgia. He was quick to credit Palin for the win saying, “When she walks in a room, folks just explode.” I guess that's true enough, for some, more so than others. But I can't help but remember the 2002 election when Chambliss also inexplicably outperformed the polling for a win after that mysterious midnight software patch in critical counties. They still use Diebolds, don't they?

Comments

[Kat]

Due to being a bit under the weather, I haven't kept up with all the news lately.

What's the deal with the 12,000 absentee ballots that were rejected?

[Libby]

Not sure Kat. Last I heard they were breaking them down into five categories. Four for the various legal criteria for rejection and a fifth for 'other.' I think it's the other category that might be looked at and judged for inclusion in the vote. The whole thing is so convoluted at this point, I'm just of sort of waiting to see what happens.