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SECRETARY OF STATE RITCHIE: RECOUNTS ARE REALLY DONE TO HELP THE LOSER UNDERSTAND THAT THEY LOST THE ELECTION
By Michael B. Brodkorb | November 6, 2008
At his press conference yesterday afternoon to discuss the upcoming recounts, Secretary of State Mark Ritchie said that “…recounts are for really the loser to understand and see and then believe that they in fact did not win the election and for their supporters to come to the same conclusion.”
The recount will help Team Franken “..to understand and see and then believe that they in fact did not win the election…”
Please check back to Minnesota Democrats Exposed for more information on this developing story.
Topics: Uncategorized | 51 Comments »
51 Responses to “SECRETARY OF STATE RITCHIE: RECOUNTS ARE REALLY DONE TO HELP THE LOSER UNDERSTAND THAT THEY LOST THE ELECTION”
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November 6th, 2008 at 9:40 am
Just how big a loser do you really have to be to not believe you are a loser when you lost?
November 6th, 2008 at 9:42 am
“”“…recounts are for really the loser to understand and see and then believe that they in fact did not win the election and for their supporters to come to the same conclusion.—"
It is clear by his remarks, there is currently no winner or loser yet. The loser he is referring to is the official loser AFTER the recount.
So when Franken wins by over 1000 votes, the loser, Coleman, and his supporters can confidently come to the conclusion that they lost.
Thanks for that clarification, Mike!
Will you go on record that A) You support the rule of law, and that B) you will accept, unconditionally, the results of the recount. I will!
Flash
November 6th, 2008 at 9:48 am
Flash:
we have a system unlike Florida where our votes actually do get counted with no controversay. Furthermore recounts show the intial count is off by maybe one or two votes. certainly not like the 475 Franken needs or the 1,500 you’re dreaming of.
by the way we do have a winner his name is Norm Coleman.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
November 6th, 2008 at 9:49 am
I think Mark needs to see a doctor. That comment made him sound like a nonpartisan secretary of state which is trying to send his party a message, but we know that Mark is a very partisan democrat.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
November 6th, 2008 at 9:51 am
Wow. I don’t care for this guy, but for once I am in completely in agreement with him.
November 6th, 2008 at 9:56 am
Close Circuit to all democrats: We will be meeting at the same place we usually go to burn American Flags, preform unnecessary abortions and gay kiss each other to fill out bogus ballots to steal this election. If you have never been to the flag-burning, abortion-having gay kiss place, ask your democratic friends. We need a ton of help, but CAN’T let republicans know where it is, or what we are doing. If you have a spare hour, come on down and fill out a stack of ballots. Fill out 1,000 and you get a free Weather Underground umbrella personally signed by William Ayres!
November 6th, 2008 at 10:04 am
Leroy….I think everybody knows you guys meet at ACORN… do they have any free Newports left from the election?
…. will you be showing the Michelle Obama “Down with whitey” video ?
November 6th, 2008 at 10:17 am
Show an ounce of integrity, and state right now, that you will stand by the recount results. It is the law. If you don’t like the law, then lobby your representative to change it. Otherwise, let’s have some law and order to our democracy, not ad hominen demagoguery.
Let Democracy rule! Endorse the results of the recount on principle, not partisanship.
November 6th, 2008 at 10:22 am
Team Coleman must really be worried about a recount.
November 6th, 2008 at 10:31 am
Coleman has only a little to gain by the recount, and a lot to lose (like, potentially, the seat).
Why shouldn’t he want it not to happen, and — since it clearly will — get all the political advantage possible out of it? Sounds reasonable, doesn’t it?
I don’t expect Franken to make the rational calculation of, on one hand, seeming to be a poor loser by dragging this out vs. actually winning, but, even if he did, it’s not clear that dragging it out is the wrong strategy for him. It’s not like he really has much of a chance of losing gracefully at this point, anyway, and making some sort of comeback. So, for him, it’s all or nothing.
It’s not impossible that, out of the 6000 or so questionable ballots, there could be as many as five hundred or so more Franken than Coleman votes in it, after all; makes sense for him to go for it, and for Coleman’s observers to question and argue over any, err, questionable questionable Franken ballot.
While I’m not a partisan, I won’t unquestionably accept the results of the recount; depends on how it’s done. My guess is that it’ll be done fairly, and, if it seems to me to be done that way, I’ll certainly accept the result; if I see what I think to be cheating and fudging, I won’t.
November 6th, 2008 at 10:32 am
Didn’t you trash him like 10 posts ago? Why do you care what he has to say now if you think he’s incompetent? Consistency is not the hallmark here.
November 6th, 2008 at 10:40 am
Other Recounts triggered:
SD16 race: By 85 votes!
R: 22271
D: 22356
Olson as a write in: 1462 (OOoo, that has to sting)
Other write ins: 237
HD16A race: By 89 votes!
R: 10955
D: 11044
Write in: 45
HD12B race: By 76 votes!
R: 9995
D: 10071
Write in: 33
= = = = =
So is everyone demanding Franken to step aside also in agreement that all three of these recounts to be suspended by the GOP ‘loser’ as well. Same law applies. Mike, come on, is there a consistency in your application of ‘loser’ and ‘law’
Here, I’ll show you how it is done. I believe in every case that the law should be applied and that the recounts that meet the statues should be carried out, irregardless of party in the lead in those elections.
See, that’s not tough!
Flash
November 6th, 2008 at 11:05 am
So we are going to spend $100,000 of Minnesota tax dollars to help Angry Al feel better about his loss?
November 6th, 2008 at 11:13 am
Ritchie sounds like therapist who took Death and Dying classes. We’re all familiar with the stages from denial, anger, to acceptance. Another liberal emotional play.
November 6th, 2008 at 11:47 am
“So we are going to spend $100,000 of Minnesota tax dollars to help Angry Al feel better about his loss?”
No, we are doing it so Coleman understands his!
November 6th, 2008 at 11:58 am
I believe some of the Franken people are trying to figure out …some way…any way… to change the results of this election. This would be extremely foolish of them for the following reasons : 1) They already have a DEFACTO win. Nobody expected FRANKEN to get this close. Engaging in ballot shenanigans now will only taint the promising careers they could have by coming this close.
2) The last minute,phoney charges that the Franken campaign cooked up with the apparent complicity of some from the Star Tribune on (Coleman and his wife), will receive NATIONAL MEDIA scrutiny and will expose the close relationship of the FRANKEN campaign and the local media. It will go away if Franken loses.
3) O’Reilly and Foxnews will never let go on exposing EVERYTHING about AL FRANKEN. He will be NATIONAL embarrassment for OBAMA and the Democratic party.
4) Ritchie and Swanson will forever be questioned about the integrity of Minnesota elections and their connections to organizations like ACORN. Look for the Bush Justice Dept. to start an investigation of the FRANKEN/DFL campaign apparatus. Obama will FIRE the prosecutor? that should really make it FUN for Foxnews.
So DFLers have a nice day with a FRANKEN “WIN” .
November 6th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Al’s always been a laughing stock to the real Washington Democrats.
They never did want him to win and embarrass them. They only really pushed for him when they thought he might be the magical “60th vote”.
Now that’s it’s clear he won’t be the 60th vote they would just as soon see the sexist, racist, porno writing, elitist, angry, bitter little man have his hissy fit and slink back home to New York.
November 6th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
JimJ-
You were great on Hollywood Squares, but I have to say, you are MUCH funnier posting here.
The way you pretend to be so crazy and conspiratorial, well, it is just a refreshing change from all these loons who actually ARE crazy and conspiratorial.
Keep up the good work!
November 6th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
Hey, wait a minute. Two headlines in a row where you didn’t insert the words “non-partisan” in front of Ritchie’s name. I wonder why.
November 6th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
“”recounts show the intial count is off by maybe one or two votes”"
A recount to remember from the MN-Pol E-Mail list today:
==
In looking at the recount and the potential of Franken winning this I would encourage people to look at the results of the Wilson – Garza City Council race in Saint Paul’s Ward 1 in 1989. All of the ballots were basically the same optical scan that most of the metro uses.
In that race the results on election night had Garza ahead by 49 votes – 3562 Garza – 3513 Wilson
After the recount was completed the results were 3645 Wilson 3644 Garza (and eleven for the “canvassing board”)
After the “canvassing board” ruled the final vote was 3649 Wilson and 3647 Garza. 4 votes in the trash.==
= = = =
I look forward to Senator Elect Franken taking office. As long as the other candidate is declaring premature victory, I might as well, too!
November 6th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
I wonder if it ever occured to Team Franken to ask Priscilla Lord Faris for some help in the general election. Geez, the fact that she took 30% of his base with a couple of ads and 3 or 4 weeks of half-assed campaigning might have suggested to him that he had some problems with disaffected DFLers.The same reason he’d make a horseshit Senator ie. his inability to reach out to anyone who disagrees with him,probably prevented him from asking for help or an endorsement. Someone from the LF campaign told me that they had scripted a very positive endosement ad for Al but were never asked to help.I bet a few of her 75,000 votes would look awefully good to Team Franken right about now.
November 6th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
So, is Norm going to stick to his “no recount needed” when the spoiled ballots are checked and matched to the corrected precincts and counted and the vote count shows Franken up? The ballots not counted are the spoiled ballots. There reasons ballots are spoiled – one of which is an absentee voter requests a ballot, the incorrect ballot is sent and the absentee ballot is sent to the wrong precinct to be counted. Since it doesn’t show on the voter roll and there is no registration form included, it isn’t counted, or is spoiled. Let’s have election referees check those spoiled ballots. Why is it the GOP is so upset about actually counting all the votes?
November 6th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
WMD: I’m not upset about a recount. Why are you hyperventilating over it?
Damn you’re dumb.
November 6th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
Beyond that, if the recount shows Coleman to still have one, even by 1 vote, will all you dumb Democrats shut the fuck up?
I’d appreciate it. Shut the fuck up, and get on with the business of destroying the country. That IS what you’ve voted for.
November 6th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
So are all spoiled votes for Al? or just your typical Moonbat fantasy?
November 6th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
SOS Website Update: Margin is now down to 342!!
November 6th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
“if the recount shows Coleman to still have one, even by 1 vote, ”
He will be the official winner and I will honor and respect him as Senator as if he won by 100,000.
Now, how about if Franken wins by 1 after the recount, I will say the same thing — He will be the official winner and I will honor and respect him as Senator as if he won by 100,000.
Can you?!?
Flash
November 6th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
I don’t trust the left & Ritchie in this matter. The stakes are so high, especially since Smith lost in Oregon. This may turn out to be a Florida repeat, where the liberal fascists try to steal one. I say get the word out across the country to those who still love democracy–send liquor, guns and money to Minnesota fast… and oh yeah, lawyers too.
November 6th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
Down to 328 votes guys. Wonder what you all would be saying if Franken was ahead by this many instead?
November 6th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
If Franken were ahead I’d still say that it stinks to high heaven that the “final” numbers with all precincts reporting keeps getting “adjusted”, mostly toward the party of the one sitting in the Secretary of State’s office. The stench I smell? Me thinks it’s a rat named Ritchie!
November 6th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Chestnut, I’m not upset at all about a recount. It seems that Michael is – as is Coleman. Why else would they keep posting over it and why else would Coleman have asked for Franken to have asked for it to stop? You have had a wonderful time slandering everyone with whom you do not agree. I really do feel sorry for you. You call Al the angry man. Frankly, by your posts and insults that you openly hurl at people you don’t know, it would seem to me you are the angry one here.
November 6th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
Nice try WMD- Do you have a 401K? It sounds like they might want to take that and put the value into your Social Security. Wow that is such great news – right up there with the Market dropping 10% in two days after the election – real nice!
November 6th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
Keep it Simple Says:
November 6th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
“Al’s always been a laughing stock to the real Washington Democrats”.
Why? He isn’t anymore crazy, psychotic, fascistic or deranged then the rest of the Democratic party.
November 6th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
“Down to 328 votes.” I thought the re-count hadn`t started yet.
November 6th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
I see D voting dead people!!
November 6th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
This is the Clearest evidence of Fraud in a recount that I know of in 2008. First the margin is 725, then it is 477. Net change? 248 in favor of Franken. Next recount, from 477 to 236. Net change? 241 for Franken.
Random? I don’t think so. Someone is stuffing the ballot box by about 240 votes every recount. The result of course, will be the right one, as soon as it is in favor of Franken. Numbers do NOT behave this way. Random errors DO NOT BEHAVE THIS WAY.
November 6th, 2008 at 9:40 pm
The real question is whether Norm will waive a recount if he falls behind. At this rate Franken willk be ahead by tomorrow.
November 6th, 2008 at 11:17 pm
“The result of course, will be the right one, as soon as it is in favor of Franken. Numbers do NOT behave this way. Random errors DO NOT BEHAVE THIS WAY”.
As I said yesterday if you don’t think Marky Rich ain’t going to steal this thing you haven’t been paying attention to the fascistic DFL.
November 7th, 2008 at 12:13 am
And yet the righties still have yet to prove Ritchie commited anything wrong in this case. Oh well, proof and facts didn’t matter to them in Iraq, and I guess it won’t here either.
November 7th, 2008 at 12:39 am
Uh…recount hasn’t started yet. The numbers are being corrected as counties verify and finalize their counts before sending them to the canvassing board, and while it’s favored Franken, the numbers did move back Coleman’s way at one point yesterday, and could well do so again.
The fact is that the vote count isn’t even finalized yet — counties are still finishing, cross-checking, and retabulating. The number on Nov. 18 will be the number — and it will probably within 300 votes of where it is now. Which means that Coleman will probably have the lead, and the advantage, going into the recount.
But if he doesn’t — if Dakota County, say, finds out they had Franken’s totals from one precinct marked down as 104 when it was really 401, and Franken takes the lead — will Coleman concede, and refuse a recount? Will he pledge to do what he’s urging Franken to do?
Of course not. Nor should he. This is close enough that a recount should happen. If, as I expect, that recount confirms Coleman’s victory, then fine — Coleman wins. But we all know that he won fair and square. Isn’t that what you want?
Sorry, I lost my mind there — of course you don’t care about winning fairly. The last eight years is proof enough of that.
November 7th, 2008 at 6:01 am
We are down to a 200+ vote lead, funny how the three other races that triggered a recount haven’t seen a more than 50% drop in their vote count since 100% of the precincts reported. Do not underestimate Ritchies ability to steal this election. Mark Ritchie is not to be trusted and we are counting on you, Michael, to expose him for who he really is.
November 7th, 2008 at 7:10 am
[...] wise explanation of recounts: they are done to help the [...]
November 7th, 2008 at 8:30 am
I find myself in the odd position of agreeing with Jeff Fecke. Franken isn’t a jerk for wanting a recount (Al is a jerk but not for this) and not every irregularity can be chalked up to cheating.
However, our system depends upon honest people and not everyone involved in government is honest. I would not be surprised to see some magical “votes” appear in Hennepin County or from da Range.
November 7th, 2008 at 9:02 am
Brodkorb,
Why aren’t you running a story about Norm’s incredible shrinking lead? I read this morning that his lead has shrunk from 700 votes down to 236. When you consider that all election officials do is push a button on the voting machines to get a receipt of the results, something very fishy is going on here. Is the Secretary of State incompetent or is the DFL trying to steal the election?
November 7th, 2008 at 9:04 am
Don’t trust Ritchie to run an honest recount as he just ran a dishonest election by knowingly not counting every vote.
He didn’t count what he calls “defective” ballots. Now, it turns out they weren’t “defective” at all. They simply weren’t read by the computer.
By his own admission he knowingly disenfranchised 6,000 Minnesotans. Now he’s changing the rules to count them.
Of course, those 6,000 voters whose ballots he didn’t count probably voted in every race, not just Senate, so this should for all intents and purposes be a recount of every race. If a guy circled “Coleman” he probably circled “McCain” too and that should be counted. Could make a difference in those close mayor and city council races.
What sheer incompetence. It wouldn’t take a rocket scientist to set up a system where the 1 or 2 ballots per polling place that the computer rejected could be reviewed by both parties when the polls close and intent determined. Take about 30 seconds.
The Secretary of State designed a system he knew didn’t count every vote.
That’s crazy…… maybe even criminal.
November 7th, 2008 at 9:48 am
kiss, our system is good and Ritchie didn’t design it. Having your vote count is as simple as filling in a circle next to the candidates name.
However, attempting to devine what another circle, underline, or checkmark means smacks of what Gore, Lieberman, and Daley tried in FLA.
November 7th, 2008 at 10:28 am
Every time I have voted over the past 20 years, when I get my ballot the poll worker gives me a little slip of paper that shows you how to fill in the bubble, and they also explain the whole “fill in the bubble” concept. If someone circled, underlined, put a check next to, or otherwise expressed intent without properly filling in the ballot, they disenfranchised themselves! Yes, everyone’s vote should count, but let’s apply some level of personal responsibility here. If failure to properly fill out a ballot is an excuse, the slipperly slope will move down to a bunch of people who did not vote on Tuesday, but really really meant to and would now like to vote. Should their vote count? After all, they have expressed intent. I know, reductio ad absurdum, but the point stands, if you did not fill in the little bubble next to the candidates name, you did not vote for them.
November 7th, 2008 at 10:48 am
jay and Mustang,
I’m fine with that too. The rule should either clearly be “Only filling in the bubble signifies intent” OR “If you are too stupid to fill in the bubble we’ll try and read your mind”.
It should not be one rule for the election and another for the recount.
January 7th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
[...] A little blast from the past (well, November 5, 2008): at a press conference, Mark Ritchie reminds us that “recounts are really done to help the loser understand that they lost the election.” [Hat Tip to Michael B. Brodkorb] [...]
January 7th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
Does that mean that Mr. Coleman (Not senator coleman, as sworn to and signed in the contest) is too stupid to realize that he lost….even after the recount?
May 10th, 2009 at 10:30 pm
[...] complexity is particularly problematic in the context of Minnesota Secretary of State’s claim, “…recounts are for really the loser to understand and see and then believe that they in fact [...]