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KEY ELECTION OFFICIAL IN MINNESOTA SECRETARY OF STATE OFFICE PREVIOUSLY WORKED FOR GROUP ATTEMPTING TO INFLUENCE RECOUNT EFFORT
By Michael B. Brodkorb | November 7, 2008
Beth Fraser, Director of Governmental Affairs with the Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie’s office and a key figure in the upcoming recount effort, has deep roots and connections to Take Action Minnesota, a liberal leaning group that held a press conference yesterday to claim voter irregularities.
Ritchie has repeatedly denied that any voter significant irregularities occurred on Tuesday, something Team Franken and their attorney, David Lillehaug have claimed took place during the election.
It is becoming clearer and clearer that there are groups like Take Action Minnesota that are associated with DFL causes didn’t like the outcome of Tuesday’s election and want something more than just a simple recount.
Please pay close attention to how Fraser and Ritchie behave over the course of the next several days, especially as vote totals begin to mysteriously change without a reasonable explanation.
This will remain the top post on Minnesota Democrats Exposed for the next few hours. New posts will appear below, so please check back for additional information.
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49 Responses to “KEY ELECTION OFFICIAL IN MINNESOTA SECRETARY OF STATE OFFICE PREVIOUSLY WORKED FOR GROUP ATTEMPTING TO INFLUENCE RECOUNT EFFORT”
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November 7th, 2008 at 9:55 AM
So, your theory is that Ritchie is going to turn the recount over to his lobbyist to do?
Yep. This post makes perfect sense. I heard a rumor that the janitor will soon start processing business registrations also.
November 7th, 2008 at 10:04 AM
You’re a liar. Disgusting, Michael. There’s people in this state that want a fair election and for every vote to count, and there’s people that want to spread rumors and fear about the process to win an election.
November 7th, 2008 at 10:05 AM
Fortunately, when Franken pulls ahead in the first count, Coleman will stick to his position that there shouldn’t be a recount and we can all move along.
November 7th, 2008 at 10:10 AM
Anti-American Aaron is calling someone a liar.
That’s like Oprah accusing someone of being an Obama lover.
November 7th, 2008 at 10:13 AM
To piggyback on what PD said above, I predict that Franken will be in the lead by the end of the day on Monday. When that happens, Norm Coleman will have painted himself in the corner with his position that there should not be a recount. This is the problem of making campaign statements after only a few hours of sleep in a 72-hour period.
November 7th, 2008 at 10:15 AM
Ritchie is an absolute crook – Norm might as well start packing his appartment because I don’t see any way this thing works out in his favor.
November 7th, 2008 at 10:16 AM
And here I thought Coleman had put you back on the leash Michael.
Oh wait … maybe he did.
November 7th, 2008 at 10:17 AM
Ritchie is a crook? You prepared to back that up, Marc?
November 7th, 2008 at 10:20 AM
Aaron, if the shoe were on the other foot, you would be doing exactly the same thing. Intellectual honesty is not your strong suit… or even within your capacity… neither is courage.
Still, I don’t believe that Michael’s actions should be justified by how Democrats would act.
This is a non-story, unless you really believe that people who have always been active in political circles shouldn’t work within or for government.
If you want to question Beth Fraser’s integrity, just do so. And let us know why.
I mean, yes, the house-odds are rigged. But this individual’s actions haven’t been cause for serious concern yet, have they?
November 7th, 2008 at 10:24 AM
None of that is true. If the election was within 1500 or more even, as a voter, I would still support a recount regardless of who it is. The other stuff you said was just made up. Nice work.
November 7th, 2008 at 10:28 AM
I’m interested in hearing what Michael means by “more than just a simple recount.”
November 7th, 2008 at 10:29 AM
At the rate the Democrats keep “finding” votes for Franken, he will win by 10 percentage points.
November 7th, 2008 at 10:29 AM
I have no doubt you’d support a recount, Aaron. But if Coleman was behind and the SOS was a Republican who had a partisan who had worked with similar conservative groups as a key member of the recount activity, you would most certainly be screaming bloody murder with the same intent as whatever Michael is doing now.
And the rest of what I said was not made up…
“Still, I don’t believe that Michael’s actions should be justified by how Democrats would act.
This is a non-story, unless you really believe that people who have always been active in political circles shouldn’t work within or for government.
If you want to question Beth Fraser’s integrity, just do so. And let us know why.
I mean, yes, the house-odds are rigged. But this individual’s actions haven’t been cause for serious concern yet, have they?”
November 7th, 2008 at 10:40 AM
I’m extremely concerned about where these other votes are coming from. The explanation about this whole thing has been vague from the start.
And B.S. Aaron. If this was flipped and the GOP wanted a recount you’d be throwing darts.
November 7th, 2008 at 10:47 AM
You’re a lazy, dishonest intellectual coward, Aaron. Now won’t you just scurry back to your little echo chamber where the only comments you allow are from those deranged enough to affirm your ego and agree with the crap you post.
November 7th, 2008 at 10:52 AM
Can someone please explain how Mark Ritchie’s lobbyist a “key member” of the recount effort?
You make it sound like SOS is an office of six people, and everyone is being called in to help out. There are nearly 100 people on the SOS office staff. Is there any evidence that Ms. Fraser is doing any work directly on this issue, or is this just a case of Michael trying to cast dispersions on the whole office in an effort to brace people for the outcome that appears to be coming?
November 7th, 2008 at 10:54 AM
I have zero faith that Mark Ritchie, an extreme partisan endorsed by communists and aligned with known perpetrators of voter fraud, can oversee or carry out a fair election.
November 7th, 2008 at 10:54 AM
Kyle, TRUM: LOL.
November 7th, 2008 at 11:06 AM
I am shocked, SHOCKED, to find that vote totals are changing, nearly universally in Franken’s favor, due to mysterious typo’s and “forgettting to call in” vote counts. Seriously, they forgot to call it in?! Another scenario, and I am just sying, not accusing anyone, would be that precinct was waiting to see what the tally needed to be before they called in their results.
As this election is slowly getting stolen away, the Dems will keep saying “move along, nothing to see here” while Iron Range union bosses are frantically stuffing ballot boxes to put Franken in the lead prior to the totals going to the canvassing board.
November 7th, 2008 at 11:24 AM
Now, I don’t underestimate the capacity of the party of Scrubs when it comes to cheating, lying, or anything else they might feel the need to use. I’m from Chicago; I’ve seen the masters at work. But it’s a little early to get upset just yet.
Norm’s no idiot. I’m sure he has very competent people watching this thing unfold very carefully.
When Norm pulls the alarm I’ll get worried, but until then I think we should just let the recount be completed per state law.
November 7th, 2008 at 11:35 AM
Oh, and BTW.
Aairhead, you little gerbil; do you ever realize thta every time you drag your little sideshow over here it puts a bit, hot MNpubic’s hypocritical habit of deleting our coments?
Hah..that was a rhetorical question, of course. You don’t even know what day it is half the time.
November 7th, 2008 at 11:36 AM
That’s a big hot spotlight.
November 7th, 2008 at 11:48 AM
Ritchie wants what every first-term politician wants: a second term. So, despite his partisan nature, he probably is more interested in getting that second term than he is in Al Franken. Stealing a high profile election probably is not on his to-do list as a result.
November 7th, 2008 at 12:06 PM
Ritchie already has a track record of fudging numbers. For over a half-century, the SOS office used eligible-voting-age-population figures supplied by the Center for the Study of the American Electorate (headed by Curtis Gans–by no means a conservative) to figure out the voter turnout stats. (See http://www.sos.state.mn.us/docs/election_result_stats.pdf)
Instead of using this year’s figure from CSAE (3,824,000), Ritchie decided to use a figure (3,741,514) from someplace else (who knows where, but definitely not consistent w/the past) so that he could say the state achieved higher-than-ever voter turnout under his watch (recall that he was estimating over 80%).
Thankfully, the effort failed; still, the voter turnout figure that his office is touting is a couple percent higher than it would be using a denominator consistent with the past.
Bottom line: You gotta watch this guy.
November 7th, 2008 at 12:09 PM
North Star; Exactly, unfortunately the hyperpartisans are driving the train, the foxes are guarding the henhouse, and Quis custodiet ipsos custodes. I will attempt to come up with more tired cliches as the day wears on; but for now, we should keep our powder dry and our eye on the ball.
November 7th, 2008 at 12:13 PM
“Stealing a high profile election probably is not on his to-do list as a result.”
Yet that’s what he’s doing. We need to restore the original vote results as they were when 100% of the precincts first reported Wednesday morning. Then we need to get a complete explanation of Ritchie’s new numbers.
November 7th, 2008 at 12:14 PM
Question…..each precinct has election judges approved by each party. Since you all don’t understand how these vote totals could be changing as election supervisors are certifying after checking returned spoiled ballots, why don’t you ask some of your Republican election judges? I worked with one all day and night at my precinct very closely as we were paired up by our head and associate head judge – also both Republicans. I can’t understand how the GOP doesn’t trust other Republicans approved by the Republican party to run elections? Each precinct has spoiled ballots returned to the election supervisor after the final ballots are counted. Those odd ballots are the ones that are changing the results. Our precinct had 2 out of 2000 votes cast. Check with your Republican election judges. They can explain how these votes needed to be validated before being counted. All election judges – from both parties and independents – are trained and sworn in. Everything done is completed by a judge from both parties. I’m in a very Republican precinct with Republican oversight and I have no qualms at all that we all did our job properly – all of us. We worked together well, had a wonderful time and enjoy being together each election – even if we don’t agree on policy.
November 7th, 2008 at 12:26 PM
Thanks for the insight there West Metro. But from what’s reported the “spoiled” ballots are not why the numbers are changing.
Richie and others are telling us that the numbers are changing because of “typographical” errors, etc. that are getting corrected.
I think its a fair question to ask why these typos all seem to favor Al Franken.
November 7th, 2008 at 12:39 PM
Of course, these dems are crooks………and with Obama as President, I seriously doubt if we will ever have a fair election again. Welcome to Havana!
November 7th, 2008 at 12:43 PM
That makes sense, too. There are tons of forms that are filled out by judges at the end of the night. Everyone tries their very best to complete them properly and attach the final tapes from their optical scan machines. I can easily see transposing and missing a digit here and there, frankly. It would take one pair making a mistake and then everyone signing off on everything before sending to the election supervisor. The election supervisor would – with a fresh pair of eyes – pull the tapes and verify that the numbers are all entered correctly. Everyone was tired after a minimum 16 hour day and mistakes do happen. Luckily we have certified election supervisors in each area who can double check tapes against forms and correct results to the SOS office.
Additionally, spoiled ballots do need to be checked and will make these small corrections. For example, the 2 ballots that spoiled from our precinct will be counted most likely. One was an incorrect ballot sent to an absentee voter that couldn’t be read by our machine. It went back and the city supervisor can recopy the ballot and scan it on the main machine. The other one was an absentee ballot sent to the wrong precinct. It didn’t have an new voter registration form and didn’t appear on our voter rolls so it was “spoiled” or returned to the city for verification. If the voter is indeed registered in another precinct, that ballot will then be registered in the right precinct and the ballot processed. If the voter is not registered and doesn’t return the new voter form appropriately it won’t be counted. There are 4,138 precinct. Watch for these changes to occur. This is precisely why the results are not certified until Nov. 14. It gives city election supervisors time to verify and clear up all of the spoiled ballots and handle the verification of results versus the tapes. These results are then submitted to the SOS office. Our city election supervisor is a good Republican and she runs a very clean election. It’s time to stop looking for conspiracies everywhere and start understanding the system. The GOP has lots of people in the process who know how it’s done. They’re not the ones out here screaming about fraud. They know what’s up.
November 7th, 2008 at 12:43 PM
Has anybody got a good track on how Frankin’s and Coleman’s numbers have changed since election night?
WMD? What precinct are you in?
November 7th, 2008 at 12:46 PM
I’m not convinced that there isn’t something going on with Norm’s incredible shrinking lead. First it was over 700 votes with 100% of precincts in, then it was over 400 votes with 100% of precincts reporting. Now it’s just over 200 votes with 100% of precincts reporting. Combine this fact, with how DFL election officials burned ballots in a fireplace in 2002, and we have a recipe for disaster. With all precincts using electronic voting machines, it seems highly questionable that they can’t get the numbers right.
November 7th, 2008 at 12:47 PM
Curious:
” 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, as I understand it, requires that tape to be signed by the election judges and publicly displayed.”
November 7th, 2008 at 12:49 PM
Check the updates to this post
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2008/11/022024.php
It’s not the western metro that we’re concerned about.
November 7th, 2008 at 1:01 PM
MoN, I understand but my point still remains. Every precinct everywhere has certified, trained election judges from each party. Start asking your party’s judges for their comments. Each judge has their party identification marked specifically on the sheets available when we take the oath of office to do our job fairly. Judges are approved by your state party so it’s not like someone just said they were GOP and weren’t. That’s how each head judge knows which sets of judges to pair up for the closing process….one from each party. Judges identified as independent aren’t allowed to do certain jobs, only party-approved judges from each party.
Chestnut….west metro area is close enough. You’re too vicious to anyone that doesn’t agree with you for me to identify myself further.
November 7th, 2008 at 1:04 PM
Stealing this election in increments of 100?
November 7th, 2008 at 1:05 PM
WMD – I’m the one that asked which precinct. You don’t need to answer, I was just curious.
November 7th, 2008 at 1:06 PM
Note to Ritchie:
“In a government of laws, the existence of the government will be imperiled if it fails to observe the law scrupulously. Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.â€
Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438, 469-471.
November 7th, 2008 at 1:11 PM
Sorry, Chestnut…..same answer, though, MoN…..you guys are scary to an old lady.
November 7th, 2008 at 1:18 PM
That’s OK, old lady democrats are scary to me.
November 7th, 2008 at 1:34 PM
MoN I got some data from Thursday but not Wednesday.
http://deltondigest.blogspot.com/2008/11/al-franken-and-allies-attempt-to-steal.html
Thur
11/6 1:56PM
Norm 1211538
Al 1211197
(341)
Thur
11/6 4:07PM
Norm 1211542
Al 1211206
(336)
Thur
11/6 4:33PM
Norm 1211077
Al 1210487
(590)
Thur
11/6 5:08PM
Norm 1211542
Al 1211206
(336)
Thur
11/6 10:09PM
Norm 1211542
Al 1211306
(236)
Fri
11/7 12:29PM
Norm 1211540
Al 1211301
(239)
November 7th, 2008 at 1:57 PM
Thanks Jamie. I’ll hunt around for Wednesday’s numbers and try to get a summary posted.
November 7th, 2008 at 2:06 PM
I just went to the Secretary of State’s office to try to check to see what the margin is right now.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE’S OFFICE DOESN’T HAVE A WEBLINK TO ALLOW ME TO GET THE GENERAL ELECTION RESULTS ANYMORE!
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
November 7th, 2008 at 2:15 PM
Walter,
Just use the direct link to the races:
http://electionresults.sos.state.mn.us/20081104/ElecRslts.asp?M=S&R=all&P=A&Races=%27%27
November 7th, 2008 at 2:19 PM
This works too Walter for the other races:
http://electionresults.sos.state.mn.us/
November 8th, 2008 at 5:58 AM
Another smokescreen by MDE. This is about discrediting Beth. Why? Because Beth is investigating the allegation against Coleman Staffer Mahmoud Wardere broke the law by illegally operating inside the polling place.
November 8th, 2008 at 11:46 AM
Beth is a completely incompetent partisan hack who is a discredit to an otherwise fine team that Ritchie brought into office with him.
November 9th, 2008 at 10:38 AM
[...] office to fund his campaign, is under the gun in this election. His political associations (and members of his official staff) with groups that make no secret of their desire to influence the outcome of the election through [...]
October 25th, 2009 at 1:55 PM
[...] in our system (even though it is currently run by doctrinaire DFL activist Mark Ritchie and his cohorts) is a strong [...]