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SICK AND UNMINNESOTAN: TEAM FRANKEN HUNTS DOWN 84 YEAR OLD STROKE VICTIM TO GET AFFADAVIT FOR LAWSUIT
By Michael B. Brodkorb | November 13, 2008
Al Franken and his team of D.C. Lawyers are going all out to deprive Minnesotans of any right to privacy at the ballot box.
This from a story written by Don Davis, of Forum Communications, about Team Franken new lawsuit:
“ST. PAUL – The story of an 84-year-old Beltrami County woman, whose election ballot was rejected, helped convince Al Franken’s campaign to go to court seeking the names of all Minnesotans whose ballots were not counted last week.
Franken campaign officials said the Beltrami woman, a nursing home resident, told a campaign volunteer that her signature had changed due to a stroke after she first signed her voter registration forms. Her signature on absentee ballot paperwork did not match her signature for this election, so election officials rejected the ballot.” Source: Forum Communications, November 14, 2008
Click here for the complete story.
Now, how did the Team Franken track down an 84 year old woman who had a stroke?
It may have been from the list of private voter information that Beltrami County gave to them, which is the same kind of private voter information that Team Franken is suing to gain access to in Ramsey County.
Is this what it comes down to for Team Franken? Seeking out 84 year old stroke victims and asking them to sign affidavits in order to gain more votes before the recount begins?
Who showed up at this woman’s nursing home? Who drafted the affidavit? What pressure was put on this poor woman to get her to agree to this tactic orchestrated by Team Franken?
This is not the way Minnesotans do elections and this is not the way Minnesotans do recounts.
Team Franken literally wants to go door-to-door, asking Minnesotans the most private of information about their votes in order to try to shove more votes into the ballot box.
This strategy is going to backfire for Team Franken. They have crossed the line, and to invade the privacy of people’s homes in order to get the votes they want to shove them into the ballot box after the election has occured is just sick. Sick.
Topics: Uncategorized | 29 Comments »
November 13th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
[...] Brodkorb thinks its disgusting that the Franken campaign is fighting to make sure that the absentee ballot of an 84 [...]
November 13th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
What about all the people who cast their votes and their signatures changed because they’ve been dead for the past 10 years?
November 13th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
Where’s Ashwipe Madia? Seems he’s got a bunch of time on his hands now.
Madia: Ready to Lose!
November 13th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
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November 13th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
Eligble voters who cast ballots must be counted. The GOP tactics to suppress the votes are sick, just sick.
How did I do Michael?
November 13th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
Now we know why Franken and the DFL doesn’t want secret ballots for Union elections – they want the same lack of privacy in the voting booth to apply to all voters.
November 13th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
I am not against angry Al finding this kind of wrongful disqualification. As long as we are able to check for felons who have voted, check death certificates against absentees, noncitizens, and check for people who have voted in other locations (ie students and snowbirds).
When and if we find illegal voters have them prosecuted.
November 13th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Hey, when I am in a nursing home at 84 or any age at all really, I hope there will be people around protecting my right to vote and my right to have my vote counted.
November 13th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
Seriously. If it is sick and unMinnesotan to believe that the right to vote extends past the age of 60, then I think you will find that there are a lot of sick unMinnesotans living throughout this state.
November 13th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
Some of Franken’s very best precincts in the whole state are Indian precincts in Beltrami County. He got 90.1 percent in Little Rock; 88.8 percent in Red Lake; 86.2 percent in Ponemah. His best precinct in the state off an Indian reservation is 89.3 percent in Minneapolis 9-11, in a heavily Indian area of Minneapolis. I think Franken knew what he was doing by putting forth this allegedly disfranchised woman in Beltrami County.
This analysis excludes six tiny precincts where Franken got all votes (<6).
November 13th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
So, she has her vote rejected because at 84 she has a stroke and her signature doesn’t match the previous one. The campaign gets her to sign an affidavit that she is who she is and filled out that ballot.
Why does Mike Brodkorb and the Republican Party want to suppress this elderly woman’s vote?
Oh, the anything to win thing, I got it.
November 13th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
The stuff that you spin, Michael — I can’t believe you sometimes. And that’s hard for me to believe that I can continue to be surprised by you.
November 13th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Michael, this post of yours is just more proof GOP now stands for GreedOverPrinciples.
The simple fact is: the less votes there are, the better the GreedOverPrinciples candidate’s chances.
Voter suppression is a rightwing tactic, and Un-American.
November 13th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
If a nursing home staffer had vouched for this woman voting and put the completed postage paid envelope in the USPS box outside of the front entrance of any nursing home a day or more before the election there wouldn’t be a problem because there would have been a postal time stamp. This ballot was probably not timestamped. A neutral third party like the FBI should do all questioning so a vulnerable person isn’t coerced.
What, if any time stamp is there on this absentee ballot? What percentage of absentee ballots are normally filled out and returned? I had mine vouched for by a Notary Public when I got licence tabs in Richfield. The notary public (correctly) insisted that I mail the complete absentee ballot myself.
I retired a year ago after more than thirty years at the Hennepin County Gov Center (and before it was built.) I used to “courthouse vote” showing a drivers license and having the voting clerk vouch. All proper but this year I voted absentee and needed to have someone vouch. I called the Hennepin County voting and was told (inaccurately) that I could have a registrars vouch when I got license tabs. I did it anyway knowing that a Notary Public can witness any document. At the Richfield registrar there was a short “chit chat” since this was a non Richfield ballot but they got it right and insisted that I mail it myself. I mailed it more than a week before the election so it was timestamped.
The magic term here is “time stamp”. If early and timestamped they can ask the voucher. I recall Richfield took my ballot and drivers license to scan or photocopy.
Again, I want to stress that Richfield got it right, no complaints against them. I purposely tried this registrar vouching to see if it worked. (Besides I had to get tabs anyway)
Just remember, “time stamp” and if you go by a Nursing home or other shelter facility look for the USPS box outside the main entrance. I’ve checked four and they all have the USPS drop box. Check a few yourself. The proper procedure for a filled ballot is to drop it into this USPS box. These USPS boxes at the entrances to nursing homes and other “care” facilities are the “message in a bottle” for vulnerable people and those who want to help them without “getting involved”. They placed the USPS boxes there for a reason.
I drove by a few nursing homes today. All had a USPS box right outside the front door.
November 13th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
Mikey,
Can you explain whether Team Coleman thinks this woman’s vote should count? If not, why not. If you do think it should count, how do you propose we make such a determination on the other votes that have not been counted?
November 13th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
Regarding the 32 ballots found in the back of the car, people really should read this:
http://tinyurl.com/5cfmtx
November 13th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
This is just sad. Get over yourself, Michael, and have a little humanity, fercrissakes.
November 13th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
Begich is now ahead by over 300 votes in Alaska…Franken will be ahead at the end of the recount. 60 U.S. Senate seats looks like a done deal. Oh well.
November 13th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Judy, two potential factors here, time stamp and potential cohersion. I’ve described the time stamp factor, the next is cohersion. Did the campaign “volunteer” vouch for the women with the stroke rather than have a nursing home staffer do the vouching?
When my mother was in a nursing home she was somewhat “out of it” but I got her to sigh conditional power of attorney away from me to my brother for regular administrative stuff. (what was I thinking? ) My mother was “very persuadable” with all those nursing home drugs but she trusted me and my judgement. A needed revision is to require a nursing home staffer to vouch for an absentee ballot and require the staffer to document all who “helped” someone vote.
My mother wasn’t in a nursing home long and I don’t recall any elections but I would have been proud to be documented helping her vote. Everything should be documented.
These “Acorn types” troll nursing homes and other care facilities for democratic votes. Voting is empowerment for vulnerable people but document every thing and all political contact with vulnerable people. In the case of my mom, she was my mom and when alive she would have trusted me.
No investigation is going to involve “family” but these Acorn types troll nursing homes and other care facilities for votes.
Remember the USPS box is right outside the door
November 13th, 2008 at 6:50 pm
Al Franken, the potty-mouthed, dirty-minded, carpetbagging, porn-writing tax cheat, leader of the party of no conscience, gives us one more reason why he’s not worthy of this office (or any elected office): he’s a pathetic excuse for a human being.
November 13th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
DUH! These people are really stuck on stupid…the problem is..duh!….how did Frankin get information on private voters and now he demands access to information on all voters and how they voted. Are you that brain dead that you don’t get it?
November 13th, 2008 at 7:23 pm
Good comment by Matt Lewis at Townhall.com today.
The Franken Campaign said they will have 1,250 lawyers on the recount. As someone close to the recount emailed me, “that’s roughly 6 attorneys for every ballot they want to try to get to overturn the outcome of the election.”
It seems like a lot of attorneys just to make sure the recount is fair and square…
November 13th, 2008 at 8:03 pm
Hey, I’ve got a story for you. It’s called “Judge throws out Coleman ad complaint.” Meanwhile, yet another lawsuit has been filed against Coleman, repeating the allegation that $100,000 was diverted to Coleman through his wife in the name of corporate interests.
I just thought that you might be interested in that, because you said that Coleman’s lawsuit was legitimate and that the lawsuit against Coleman was ridiculous. Interesting how this lawsuit was filed “only to divert from the issues of the election cycle” and yet it continues after all the votes had been cast. Hmmm… It turns out that you were 100% wrong. I mean, you couldn’t have been more wrong.
Alright, I’ll let you get back to attacking the candidate who isn’t receiving thousands of dollars in bribes to work for corporations instead of average Minnesotans. Have fun sleeping at night!
November 13th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
now we know that franken made the whole thing up….so all of yuo DFL pinheads.. Aplogies to Michael are in order…Franken is a disgrace to human kind…. jackass
November 13th, 2008 at 10:26 pm
What can we do to prevent the Dems stealing the State and the country from us? They are denying us our right to vote and instituting a one party state against our will.
November 13th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
What’s funny after reading the hyperventilating outrage from the likes of DJZ, Tommy, et. al., is to learn that Al Franken completely fabricated the entire fucking story.
This woman’s ballot wasn’t rejected. Franken told an other fat fucking lie.
Nice one, dip shits.
November 13th, 2008 at 11:32 pm
Kyle… your ignorance is astonishing.
That is NO LIE.
November 14th, 2008 at 12:13 am
danbrome, your not only just plain stupid, your smut!
November 14th, 2008 at 8:00 am
danbrome…. your redundancy is tedious.
That is NO LIE.