FrankenFraud Update

Now several bloggers are on it. Powerline is debunking the 100 "found votes" that were all for Al Franken. Exhaustion, has nothing to do with it. Nothing at all.

"Optical scan ballots are used nearly everywhere in Minnesota. The system is simple: once the polls close, absentee ballots are run through the machines with Republican and Democratic poll watchers both present. The machines are then locked down. The machine prints a tape that looks like a grocery store printout that summarizes the number of votes cast for each candidate in each race. At the same time, the totals are uploaded electronically, via a secure phone line connected to the box, to the county where the precinct is located; from there, they are reported to the Secretary of State. The tape showing the precinct's vote totals is signed by the precinct's election judge and is required to be publicly displayed.

There is essentially no human input here. There is no room for new ballots to be 'discovered,' or for counting 'errors' to be corrected. The process is electronic. My understanding had been that optical scan voting is in use in every one of Minnesota's several thousand precincts. Based on the Strib's account of what happened in Partridge Township, it appears this may not be the case.

Some very basic questions need to be answered. What are the precincts that have allegedly 'corrected' the vote totals they originally reported? On what basis were the alleged corrections made? Did both Republicans and Democrats participate in the alleged corrections? Have the original paper ballots been securely maintained since the polls closed? What assurances are in place to prevent Democrats from fraudulently adding new paper ballots? Do the precincts that have revised their vote totals use the optical scan system that is, as I understand it, nearly universal? If not, why not? If so, what do the ballot machines' tapes show? If the totals now being claimed are inconsistent with the tapes that were signed by the precinct's election judges, on what basis can they be accepted? Why is it that each 'correction' seems to favor Franken?"

This was noted by your Pharisee yesterday, and expanded on this morning. The Jawa Report is on it too, pointing to the Powerline Blog.

If I may be permitted to pound my own drum, I think I may have been on it first. Shameless self promotion. After all, I'd like to retire to full time blogging in this wildly prosperous economy with all this internet money being thrown around. I need to toot my own horn.

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