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COLEMAN FOR U.S. SENATE PRESS RELEASE: “AS HUGE CHUNKS OF VOTES APPEAR AND DISAPPEAR, COLEMAN CAMPAIGN FILES DATA PRACTICES REQUEST WITH COUNTY AUDITORS AND SECRETARY OF STATE”
By Michael B. Brodkorb | November 7, 2008
ST. PAUL – As improbable and statistically dubious chunks of votes appear and disappear, overwhelmingly benefiting Al Franken, the Coleman for Senate campaign today filed a data practices request with county auditors and the Secretary of State requesting data related to Election Night results, records related to ballot security and information relating to all revisions made to the results since being reported on Election Night.
“Minnesota has a history of fair and clean elections, and we are committed to ensuring that this election is no different. That is why it is so troubling to us that instead of the normal slight changes in vote totals one would expect during this process, we are now seeing huge chunks of votes appearing and disappearing – statistically dubious and improbable shifts that are overwhelmingly accruing to the benefit of Al Franken. And, as many of these unexplained and improbably vote swings are taking place on the Iron Range, we’re asking that local and state election officials provide us with the necessary data to reassure the public that the canvassing process has not been tainted,†said Cullen Sheehan, campaign manager.
It has been reported that during the night, 100 new ballots were reported to the Secretary of State’s office from the Mountain Iron area. These previously unreported ballots contained 100 votes for President-elect Barack Obama and DFL candidate Al Franken.
A copy of the letter [click here] is attached.
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55 Responses to “COLEMAN FOR U.S. SENATE PRESS RELEASE: “AS HUGE CHUNKS OF VOTES APPEAR AND DISAPPEAR, COLEMAN CAMPAIGN FILES DATA PRACTICES REQUEST WITH COUNTY AUDITORS AND SECRETARY OF STATE””
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November 7th, 2008 at 2:21 PM
Really classy to see Coleman waste taxpayer dollars on this — this has to do with the initial balloting and has nothing to do with the final results that will come out of the recount. This is nothing more than taxpayer waste for political gain.
Everyone knows that these initial numbers are not the final tally. If they were actually interested in a fair election, they would explain to their constituents why these fluctuations occur. This is normal. To get people wearing their tinfoil hats to think there’s some kind of conspiracy theory on the numbers before the recount is a complete waste of time and money.
November 7th, 2008 at 2:23 PM
This is a prudent course of action given the shenanigans that are coming to light.
November 7th, 2008 at 2:24 PM
Aaron: LOL.
November 7th, 2008 at 2:26 PM
If they were “normal” fluctuations, why would the all be one sided.
Why are these “normal fluctuations” inconsistent with the tapes recorded on election night? Why can’t the official tapes be found in St. Louis County?
These are legitimate answers, and the Coleman campaign is prudent to demand answers.
November 7th, 2008 at 2:27 PM
And here I thought Aaron supported a transparent, fair and accurate recount.
What are you afraid of Aaron.
November 7th, 2008 at 2:27 PM
This is a shameful attack on Minnesota’s 87 county auditors. Norm Coleman should be ashamed of himself.
November 7th, 2008 at 2:34 PM
Jeff:
Here’s the problem. Vote totals are changing. They are trying to as quickly get what the offical county results are recorded because just a couple of more precints creating a fictional 100 votes at a time will steal this election.
Furthermore part of the job of the county auditor is to say each precint has properly reported their results. This precint has raised some questions which the Saint Louis county at a minimum to have a fair and honest election needs to answer like was the election held on November 2, 2008 which is what was on the tape that the Coleman campaign got.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
November 7th, 2008 at 2:38 PM
KARE11: Typo correction brings Franken closer to Coleman
November 7th, 2008 at 2:39 PM
“Everyone knows that these initial numbers are not the final tally.”
In my experience, anytime someone uses the phrase “everyone knows”, everything that follows is complete bullshit.
November 7th, 2008 at 2:39 PM
All 100, every one, is for Franken.
If all 100 mysteriously showed up for Colman, Franken would be a fool not to question it.
Shameful attack? This is a huge statistical improbability that any sane person would have to question, DNC stronghold or not.
November 7th, 2008 at 2:42 PM
I don’t know, Jeff Rosenberg.
Is requesting data, especially data that they should have right on hand, an attack?
No. Please, come down off of ‘hyperbole hill’.
November 7th, 2008 at 2:49 PM
Like I said the other day, do FERCs on declared “republican election judges, especially in areas with questionable counts.
November 7th, 2008 at 2:50 PM
“”The fluctuations are normal, said a spokesman at the Secretary of State’s office, as county’s double check their work and report minor changes.
A typo in Pine County got fixed Thursday, giving Al Franken 100 more votes and tightening Minnesota’s unresolved Senate race even tighter.”"
Coleman shoved his foot down his throat, and instead of pulling it out gracefully, has shoved it further.
I know the Right is afraid, very afraid, of the rule of law, but at least LET THE SYSTEM WORK should be the unified banter, not petty posturing.
Coleman is getting bad advice, but that’s fine, everyone is watching.
From my Best Friend and proud Republican:
“”Coleman’s statement that if the shoe was on the other foot he would concede is laughable and a stupid statement. Recount is automatic at that level anyway and no one can blame Franken for wanting the recount.
I don’t blame Coleman for declaring victory either as he has more votes. (now)…..
All valid ballots need to be counted…”"
==
I think the victory declaration was premature and disrespectful to the system, but I do agree with my Republican Counterpart, ALL valid ballots should be counted, and once the recount provision kicks in, they should count them one more time.
Again, I will go on record stating that regardless of who is declared the winner at the canvassing board, a recount should take place, and whoever is certified at that point, will be my Senator!
November 7th, 2008 at 2:50 PM
Mark my words, Franken will be the next US Senator because liberals will allow him to steal the seat that was honestly and fairly won by Coleman. It sounds to me like Coleman doesn’t have many helping him to hang onto the seat. It would be a real shame for democracy if Franken steals this seat which I think will happen. That pig faced little j……..
November 7th, 2008 at 2:56 PM
Heh…the party of Scrubs is breaking out it’s bag o’ tricks.
Pffft.
As that well known election expert, Cuba Gooding, once said “Show me the tapes!”
C’mon moonbats. All of you clean election, count the vote hypocrits, shout it out…..“Show us the tapes!”
November 7th, 2008 at 2:57 PM
Mikey,
How does it feel to be Bush v. Gore’d?
I love it.
2008 Minnesota Senate Race: Now it is our turn to steal an election
November 7th, 2008 at 3:03 PM
Are you saying that this case is already headed to the US Supreme Court, Judy?
Or are you just blowing bubbles in yur kool-aid?
Moron.
BWAHAHAHAA!
November 7th, 2008 at 3:05 PM
Ritchie needs to step aside. He’s too partisan with too many dubious connections to be trusted to conduct a recount of this magnitude fairly.
Did he appear at any campaign events with Coleman? That would completely discredit his objectivity. You can’t ojbectively oversee a recount when you campaigned for and with one of the participating candidates.
November 7th, 2008 at 3:07 PM
Judy,
Steal election? Every recount done showed Bush would have won by an even larger total.
You are an idiot!
November 7th, 2008 at 3:10 PM
Judy:
What election was stolen in Bush V Gore. Bush had more votes than Gore. What happened was that Al Gore just couldn’t create enough votes to steal the election. Furthermore if it wasn’t for the interference of the Florida State Supreme Court Miami Dade county would’ve finished the recount they had started, but stopped because they thought they couldn’t complete an accurate recount by the Florida State Supreme Court’s deadline.
Okay a typo of 100 votes in Pine county is believable. But 100 new votes which all happened to be for both Obama and Al Franken (Franken was off about 15% of Obama’s vote) and a tape is shown to the Coleman campaign that is dated November 2, 2008.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
November 7th, 2008 at 3:14 PM
Where were all you winers yesterday when Norm’s total increased?
November 7th, 2008 at 3:19 PM
I’m so glad Coleman is showing a fighting spirit and an honest count!
November 7th, 2008 at 3:20 PM
I’m so glad Coleman is showing a fighting spirit for an honest count.
November 7th, 2008 at 3:34 PM
C’mon Leroy, you stinkin’ gerbil…shout it out “Show us the tapes!!”
We’re all about clean, transparent elections and traceability, right?
November 7th, 2008 at 3:58 PM
Wasn’t the basis for Coleman demanding Franken give up that it would cost tax payers money?
Further, isn’t Coleman’s concerns PRECISELY why we should have a hand recount?
November 7th, 2008 at 4:00 PM
Hey PlyDim, you Dempcrap skunk…join the chorus for clean, transparent elections and traceability…”Show us the tapes!!”
November 7th, 2008 at 4:23 PM
Hey Flash a 100 votes(why not 92 votes or 105 votes) suddenly appearing out of nowhere and a tape dated Nov. 2nd is not the rule of law…at least not in my book…but you being a Dim I guess it is perfectly fine.
November 7th, 2008 at 4:34 PM
Hey Democrats?
*crickets*
Pffft. There’s today’s Democrap party in action: Stinking hypocrits…big mouthed liars….dishonorable, anti-American lowife.
November 7th, 2008 at 4:39 PM
Swiftee….exactly. There are tapes from every optical scan machine that are verified and signed off on before the totals are transferred to the reporting sheets. If these totals are changing because of a dropped number (human error) then showing the tape to the auditor should be easily handled. These tapes are not required to be viewable by everyone but they should be readily available to the auditor. Multiple tapes are run in every precinct when the polls close on election night. The error isn’t in the tapes. It’s in the transferring of the numbers on the tapes to the sheets that report the totals. Human errors do happen. That is exactly what this certification process is: city election supervisors auditing the tapes to the reporting documents. Additionally, spoiled ballots are being examined and processed as necessary which is the smaller vote changes.
If anyone has an issue with the way we vote, next time – sign up to be trained to be an election judge. Judges are approved by each party and each precinct has identified judges of both parties. Each process at the closing of the polls is done by a judge of each party together and all papers are signed and double checked by each. Human error does happen. It also needs to be corrected.
November 7th, 2008 at 4:44 PM
“This is a shameful attack on Minnesota’s 87 county auditors. Norm Coleman should be ashamed of himself.”
How so. Please explain how a data practices request constitutes a “shameful attack.” This ought to be good.
November 7th, 2008 at 4:45 PM
“KARE11: Typo correction brings Franken closer to Coleman”
Intellectually dishonest and lazy, half-retarded ape named Aaron Laundry confuses Pine County with St. Louis County.
Go back to your echo/masturbation chamber Aaron.
November 7th, 2008 at 4:49 PM
“How does it feel to be Bush v. Gore’d?”
How so? Bush won the election and prevented Al Gore from stealing it. Every re-count demonstrated that as fact.
In other news two wrongs don’t make a right, no matter what the voices in your head tell you happened in 2000.
Bush won legally. This election had better be decided legally as well.
November 7th, 2008 at 4:51 PM
“These tapes are not required to be viewable by everyone but they should be readily available to the auditor.”
That’s the heart of the problem. It’s reported that “oops St. Louis County can’t find their election night tapes…. oopsie!”
November 7th, 2008 at 4:56 PM
Like I said, it is our turn to steal an election. Revenge is oh so sweet!
November 7th, 2008 at 5:08 PM
Judy, Who stole an election earlier? Pawlenty? Bachmann?
November 7th, 2008 at 5:10 PM
Judy you are an idiot! go lay down by your water dish.
November 7th, 2008 at 5:13 PM
WMD – 100 new votes counted for Al- not one for Norm? come on! You really need to stop smoking the dope!
November 7th, 2008 at 5:24 PM
The Franken sleazebag tactics have been picked up by HotAir.com and I would expect it to be on the cable news tonight. O’Reilly will undoubtedly nail Angry Al’s butt again.
“More evidence of fraud. Last night at around 7:30, a precinct in Mountain Iron, St. Louis County, mysteriously updated its vote total to add 100 new votes–all 100 for Barack Obama and Al Franken.”
“Mountain Iron uses optical scanning, so the Coleman campaign asked for a copy of the tape documenting the ballots cast on election night. St. Louis County responded by providing a tape that includes the newly-added 100 votes, and is dated November 2–the Sunday before the election. St. Louis County reportedly denies being able to produce the genuine tape from election night, even though Minnesota law requires that tape to be signed by the election judges and publicly displayed.”
November 7th, 2008 at 5:25 PM
Woodbury Conservative….I am not smoking anything. I can see – as an election judge – how that would happen. The tape reports one number. The person who copies it over forgets the first digit and signs it. Tired eyes also sign. The auditor for the city gets the tapes and sheets the next day and finds the error. Is it so hard to understand?
Election judges are approved by each party. Each party signs off on them before they are trained. Every tape, sheet, etc. is signed off by both party’s election judges that night. After 18 hour days mistakes do happen. That is why there is a period afterwards for election auditors to certify the results – it requires taking the tapes, verifying them against the tally sheets and reports and submitting final copies to the SOS office. The smaller number changes are the city/county election supervisors going through the spoiled ballots and figuring out which are valid and counting them. For instance in my precinct one ballot was sent to our precinct by mistake. It was “spoiled” (i.e., not counted) and returned to the city election supervisor. The city election supervisor (a Republican) will find out which precinct the ballot should have been sent to, check it against the rolls, register it if it is valid or spoil it if it isn’t, and count it if necessary.
I am shocked that people are so uninformed of the process of voting and counting votes here. People uninformed and interested – sign up next time to be an election judge. It’s several hours of training, approval by your party and lots of work the day of the election but well worth it.
November 7th, 2008 at 6:11 PM
An incomplete list of stupid statements above:
“If they were “normal†fluctuations, why would the all be one sided[?]”
“WMD – 100 new votes counted for Al- not one for Norm? come on! You really need to stop smoking the dope!”
“Shameful attack? This is a huge statistical improbability that any sane person would have to question, DNC stronghold or not.”
Vote total fluctuations caused by clerical errors are random by definition. Show some evidence (or anything really) of some sort of intentional fraud and then you can consider fraud..but not without even a scintilla of proof.
Clerical errors are to be expected given that 3 million votes were cast and counted in basically one day. It has nothing to do with statistics until you actually accurately record the information to begin with…those were the unofficial results. You can’t assume there’s a fire just because you see smoke.
So the solution is to give 100 votes for Coleman to make it even? The damn clerical errors must be partisan…Its not just the liberal media anymore. Now its numbers too.
“Further, isn’t Coleman’s concerns PRECISELY why we should have a hand recount?”
–Have you ever tried to count 3 million of anything?…by hand!!!?
November 7th, 2008 at 7:24 PM
West Metro:
If it was a hand count that had to be recorded maybe we can eventually buy that mistake of 100 after all that was the explanation that Pine county has tried to make. But the one from Saint Louis County rings very wrong:
* They have electronic scanners which are suppose to send in a report. Even if the hand wrote down the same wrong number twice (both Franken and Obama got 100 votes – did the rest of the candidates like Oberstar, the state house candidate get 100 votes also another question for the auditor of Saint Louis county to check out)
* Somebody explained to the Star Tribune when a test scan was made the date was wrong. Based on the explanation Powerline reported the dates aren’t adding up.
* Okay lets see election days was November 4th. You do a review on the 5th. Okay you do a double check during normal business hours on the 6th. This list isn’t updated until after 7 p.m. on the 6th? This is just like Dulth (I assume the home office of the Saint Louis county auditor) which I assume that uses opitcal scanning machines can’t get their votes to be listed until after 2 a.m and needs three hours to get about 30 precints listed on the Secretary of State’s website (I know because I was up the whole night checking and seeing just how slow Duluth was reporting) on the fifth. It was like they were trying to get their precints reported last on purpose! Why report last unless you were trying to create the votes that Franken needed to win. Otherwise their results should’ve been in hours earlier. Dulth and the Saint Louis auditor unlike the comment made by Jeff have not been acting honest and should be forced to answer tough questions.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
November 7th, 2008 at 8:14 PM
Judy-As in crinal law, please prove that the election was ‘stolen.’ Remember, ‘innocent until proven guilty,’ so it`s up to your side to ‘prove,’ you know, with actual evidence, that anything was stolen. It`s been 8 years now, and we`re still waiting. I`m sure you have it in some boxes in some back room, right? And some brilliant reason why you haven`t sprung it on us yet, right? Repeating “How does it feel..”, especially after having many facts thrown at you after your first, ” how does it feel,” does not constitute evidence, except to confirm your debating skills are like a fifth- grader. Part of that whole mess was the fact that Gore wanted a re-count done only in a few counties of his choosing, which surprisingly happened to be heavily Democatic- you know, the counties that the adults couldn`t figure out how to use the voting machines, the same ones they`d been using for several years. The Florida Supreme Court agreed, but the U.S. Supreme Court said basically that it wasn`t fair to re-count only those few counties. Is that what you mean by ‘stolen’? Sure. Oh, and by the way, is the Mn. re-count being done in only several counties, or the whole state? The whole state you say? Why, then that must be the fair way, and the ‘only several counties way’ the un-fair way. That must mean you were wrong about Florida… oh well, we`re waiting!
November 7th, 2008 at 8:16 PM
crinal-criminal, sorry.
November 7th, 2008 at 8:39 PM
West Metro:
“The tape reports one number. The person who copies it over forgets the first digit and signs it.”
This doesn’t really explain why or how an electronic scanner that transmits its data to a central St. Louis County collection point transmitted the wrong data.
I can understand the manual tape having errors. But the scanner couldn’t have sent in the wrong data.
Try again.
November 7th, 2008 at 8:42 PM
“–Have you ever tried to count 3 million of anything?…by hand!!!?”
WiDem, you left the dumbest comment of all. First, we’re not talking about “clerical” errors. The scanner in question would have electronically submitted it’s tallies. Machines don’t make clerical errors.
Second, your closing statement (quoted above) underscores the peril of this recount which will take place entirely by hand.
It’s a slim margin, and I think concern is warranted. Why do you have such difficulty with an open, honest and transparent process?
November 7th, 2008 at 8:43 PM
[...] COLEMAN FOR US SENATE PRESS RELEASE: “AS HUGE CHUNKS OF VOTES … “Minnesota has a history of fair and clean elections, and we are committed to ensuring that this election is no different. That is why it is so troubling to us that instead of the normal slight changes in vote totals one would expect … [...]
November 7th, 2008 at 9:11 PM
Unfortunately, Kyle et al, most precincts did not transmit electronically this year. We wrote tallies on paper sheets and attached the tape to those sheets and drove the results to City Hall. Previously we have transmitted but we were told there was a problem with the reception from the antennas on the optical scanning machines. This is one reason why there is a variation in reporting methods. Some could transmit and some couldn’t.
I’m not making justifications….just explaining as someone who is a certified, trained election judge with years of experience at it. Every election things are just a little different in process. That’s why they have trainings before every election.
November 7th, 2008 at 9:37 PM
“Previously we have transmitted but we were told there was a problem with the reception from the antennas on the optical scanning machines.”
Yeah, it’s hard to get a good connection when you have a lying, lowlife moonbat hanging off the antenna.
The more you idiots yammer, the worse this looks.
November 7th, 2008 at 9:50 PM
Swiftee….our election supervisor is a Republican. Our head judge and assistant head judge is also a Republican. Are you calling them corrupt? I’ve never felt that they ran unfair elections and still don’t. I think they are exceptionally ethical professionals and have worked very well with them for years.
November 7th, 2008 at 10:13 PM
Are you in St. Louis County?
November 8th, 2008 at 9:12 AM
Google has 1.6 million hits for Impeach Obama!
http://www.google.com/search?q=Impeach+Obama!+&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
November 8th, 2008 at 10:39 AM
Note to those who are doing this- you will be caught- you will go to jail- enjoy your short time of freedom.
November 8th, 2008 at 2:05 PM
“This is one reason why there is a variation in reporting methods. Some could transmit and some couldn’t.”
Huh. Funny that this issue just happened to have popped up in this election. Curious… but not really…
This election count gets fishier by the minute.
November 8th, 2008 at 2:07 PM
In fact, if this is the problem that the process changed AGAIN and that the voting machines are just suddenly not working properly, THIS IS ANOTHER REASON WHY MARK RICHIE SHOULD BE FIRED IMMEDIATELY.
He is incapable of doing his job. What a disgrace.
November 9th, 2008 at 10:38 AM
[...] Statistically improbable, completely murky, and simply hard to believe. [...]