11 Responses to “MUST READ: BRODKORB HAMMERS SOS RITCHIE IN INTERVIEW FOR LET FREEDOM RING BLOG”

1. Hector Says:
   November 2nd, 2009 at 11:21 am

   Can’t speak for Ritchie, but my own standards for apallment are pretty high.

   But I do agree that Minnesotans have a legitimate right to question anything they want. The 2008 elections exposed weaknesses in the election that were both present and dormant under secretaries of state of both parties. Now that they are out in the open, I am waiting to see how this secretary of state addresses these issues, and how the legislature, including the Republican minority respond to what Ritchie proposes or doesn’t propose.

2. chile Says:
   November 2nd, 2009 at 11:42 am

   “The 2008 elections exposed weaknesses in the election that were both present and dormant under secretaries of state of both parties.”

   Both parties? BS. What proof do you have, Hiram?

   We know that election judges ignored the law under the watch of ACORN-endorsed Ritchie, this is his problem.

3. Hector Says:
   November 2nd, 2009 at 11:51 am

   What proof do you have, Hiram?

   I don’t recall Mary Kiffmeyer coming up with proposals to reform the absentee ballot procedures. Maybe that was because she subscribed to the conventional wisdom of the time that absentee ballots skew Republican. Or that she didn’t want to deal with the issue of Republican absentee ballot solicitation campaigns which were an open invitation to fraud.

   But I do agree, Ritchie is the secretary of state, and ballot issues are his problem.

4. chile Says:
   November 2nd, 2009 at 12:17 pm

   Hiram, the biggest problem with the absentee ballots in 2008 is that the judges were not following the law. Had that been an issue under Kiffmeyer, you can bet she would have led the charge to fix problems.

   “Maybe that was because she subscribed to the conventional wisdom of the time that absentee ballots skew Republican.”

   Not in Minneapolis, at least not in the past 60 years.

5. Chris Says:
   November 2nd, 2009 at 12:56 pm

   Hector,

   I’m not blaming Mark Ritchie for the fact that electoin judges in Minneapolis and elsewhere counted improper absentee ballots. It takes an election as close as the 2008 Senate race to expose such flaws in our system. The same was true in Flordia 2000.

   What I do blame Ritchie for is his cavalier attitude toward those mistakes and his refusal to acknowledge they occurred. We’ve had nearly a year since the election and to my knowledge neither Ritchie nor the legislature has proposed anything to reform the absentee ballot process. Maybe it’s because they are satisfied with the results of counting improper absentee ballots in core DFL areas.

6. Hector Says:
   November 2nd, 2009 at 1:18 pm

   “What I do blame Ritchie for is his cavalier attitude toward those mistakes and his refusal to acknowledge they occurred.”

   I think if Ritchie were asked that question, he would say mistakes occurred. You can’t blame him for not answering questions that weren’t asked.

   “We’ve had nearly a year since the election and to my knowledge neither Ritchie nor the legislature has proposed anything to reform the absentee ballot process.”

   The legislature did pass an election reform bill last year that was vetoed by the governor. Republicans at that time had the opportunity to bring absentee ballot issues to the table had they wanted to do that. They chose not to, preferring the joys of holding partisan press to getting the real reforms I am not convinced they want.

7. walter hanson Says:
   November 2nd, 2009 at 5:57 pm

   Hector:

   Lets remember that Mark Ritchie campaigned against Mary K. because she was trying to run the office for the Republicans. A lot of the things she was doing wrong such as being tough as to what documents Indians needed to register to vote was because she was trying to do her job to regulate who registered vote.

   So lets see:

   * Ritchie doesn’t care about the possible fraudlent ACRON voters.

   * Ritchie was encourging counties to count votes that shouldn’t have otherwise been counted. Oh by the way created different standards by accident instead of one standard.

   * Ritchie by appointing the chief justice of the Minnesota State Supreme court in a move that got little attention from anybody allowed Alan Page who had two reasons to be bias against Norm Coleman to appoint the panel that gave the joke ruling that got us Al Franken to be our senator.

   That’s more than enough incompetence to show he doesn’t deserve to be Secretary of state.

   Walter Hanson
   Minneapolis, MN

8. Hector Says:
   November 2nd, 2009 at 7:46 pm

   I think Ritchie ran as someone who would make it easier to vote and for votes to be counted. He won and Kiffmeyer lost.

   “* Ritchie doesn’t care about the possible fraudlent ACRON voters.

   The SoS should be checking registrations no matter where they come from.

   “* Ritchie was encourging counties to count votes that shouldn’t have otherwise been counted. Oh by the way created different standards by accident instead of one standard.”

   I see no evidence of that and none was produced in the KSTP report. I assume the election judge manual was distributed throughout the state.

   “* Ritchie by appointing the chief justice of the Minnesota State Supreme court in a move that got little attention from anybody allowed Alan Page who had two reasons to be biased against Norm Coleman to appoint the panel that gave the joke ruling that got us Al Franken to be our senator.”

   The Chief Justice, while a Republican and a Pawlenty appointee, is universally respected across the political spectrum for his absolute integrity and high intelligence. To be honest, appointing him to the canvassing panel, the crucial level where this matter was decided was a political masterstroke. Because the chief justice is so widely respected, it was never possible to challenge the canvassing board’s findings as being at all partisan. While two Supreme Court judges recused themselves, the decision of courts on all levels were unanimous. And I can tell you based on settled law, not at all surprising.

9. Jude Says:
   November 2nd, 2009 at 8:06 pm

   Walter what bunk.

   * Ritchie doesn’t care about the possible fraudlent ACRON voters.

   There were no fraudulent ACORN votes. There have never been any fraudulent ACORN votes. Indeed much of Coleman’s court case revolved around too rigid application of registration standards. Face it you don’t like ACORN when they register poor people. Just like the Bush administration didn’t like ACORN screaming about subprime lending.

   * Ritchie was encourging counties to count votes that shouldn’t have otherwise been counted. Oh by the way created different standards by accident instead of one standard.

   Where did Ritchie encourage anyone to apply different standards. The only intervention was an attempt to get the counties to re-look at the rejections with a very clear standard.

   * Ritchie by appointing the chief justice of the Minnesota State Supreme court in a move that got little attention from anybody allowed Alan Page who had two reasons to be bias against Norm Coleman to appoint the panel that gave the joke ruling that got us Al Franken to be our senator.

   Alan was in the minority in the Supreme’s most consequential decision. The choices he made for the election panel were seen as incredibly fair and balanced. Indeed the court system and the SOS came out of this covered in glory.

   The incompetence displayed was in the Republican legal and PR camps.

10. walter hanson Says:
    November 5th, 2009 at 2:09 am

    Jude what bunk by you!!!!

    If you pick up the telephone and said there is a crime going on you expect the police to check out and see if a crime is going on. Yet Mark Ritchie who has a job to make sure that people who aren’t elgible don’t vote looks the other way just like that cop in the movie Casbalanca who was shocked that there was gambling going.

    ACRON when properly investigated has been CONVICTED OF CRIMES for illegal voter registration and other election related crimes. Yet here in Minnesota where we want clean elections Mark Ritchie doesn’t want to do anything to stop ACRON from breaking the law. Oh that’s right he was endorsed by ACRON in part because he was going to allow them to get away with murder.

    Jude did you miss those statements by Ritchie and his staff that coutnies should look at their ballots to create a fifth pile of votes to examine. One’s that might have been rejected in error. Some counties did and others didn’t. Thus people were treated by different standards.

    The only reason why you think the Secretary of State, Alan Page, and the judges did a good job was because they went and stole the election for Al Franken. That isn’t something to brag about Jude!

    Walter Hanson
    Minneapolis, MN

11. walter hanson Says:
    November 5th, 2009 at 2:11 am

    Hector:

    He ran because Democrats realized how important it was to control the office of Secretary of State. After all Ritchie demonstrated by being Secretary of State he can misapply the law and allow a US senate seat to be stolen.

    Of course he can’t say that when he is running for the office.

    Walter Hanson
    Minneapolis, MN

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