Deep Thoughts now in the Senate?

I admit it, the specter of Al Franken in the US Senate is even more repulsive to me than Obama as President. On election night, Norm Coleman seemingly won re-election by about 775 votes. Now the total has flipped 1100 votes in favor of Al.

The Wall Street Journal - "Under Minnesota law, election officials are required to make a duplicate ballot if the original is damaged during Election Night counting. Officials are supposed to mark these as 'duplicate' and segregate the original ballots. But it appears some officials may have failed to mark ballots as duplicates, which are now being counted in addition to the originals. This helps explain why more than 25 precincts now have more ballots than voters who signed in to vote. By some estimates this double counting has yielded Mr. Franken an additional 80 to 100 votes."

Why is it that we believe random error favors Republican Candidates and perpetual recounting moves us towards the "truth," which is, a Democrat won? This supposes in reality, an evil force that twists elections like Gremlins or Leprechauns during the process and always in favor of the Dark Side, which would be conservative candidates, or in the case of Norm Coleman, candidates more conservative than Al Franken.

Even the Wall Street Journal shows what pantywaists conservatives are when it comes to process because, instead of taking election night totals (unofficial I know) and noting the full size of the swing, they take another total, 215, which is a total most conservative observers view as already containing the first onslaughts of fraud.

Election totals are always a near universal canvas of the whole. The idea that we can accurately count every vote makes for nice soundbites, but it's impossible. Even if it were possible, we'd never know we did it. In polling statistics, error rates center around the size and randomness of the sample or how representative it is of the whole. We then here error rates of plus or minus 5% or 3% depending on the size of the sample.

On election night though, all the ballots are cast. They may not all be counted, and in fact we can be certain that they are not, but all of them are in fact cast. The count so closely approaches the whole that error rate has to be considered almost non existent. You can count on the notion that the ballots erroneously excluded from the count will fall neither on one candidates side, or the other at a rate different that the voting total, as counted.

Putting it another way, you can be certain that if due diligence is the same, across the board, that if there were 1000 ballots not counted, and one candidate got 43.11 percent of the vote total that was counted, and the other got 43.09 percent of the votes that were counted, that you would have about 429 - 433 uncounted votes for each candidate. The larger the uncounted vote total, the more it would match the total as a whole. The idea that Al Franken could make up 1100 votes in a recount is fanciful. It is only slightly less fanciful that Al Franken could make up 440.

There are some vote pools that tend one way, or the other. In some states like Florida, which has a large number of military personel, absentee ballots swing conservative. A large number of uncounted absentee ballots could swing the vote one way or the other, for that reason. It depends on why the voters in a state vote absentee.

Another thing to keep in mind is that in districts that tend to vote heavily one ideology or another, the elections officials also tend to mirror that ideology. If any hanky panky goes on, it's generally controlled in favor of the party in control in that district. What the Journal points out is that more votes have been counted in the precincts accounting for most of Al Franken's gains, than people who voted. Votes were counted twice. It also seems as if a sort of deliberately slack set of standards in those precincts made that fraud possible. Believing that Al Franken made up this kind of ground also requires that you believe that the Gremlins attack Democrat controlled districts only, and need to be exorcised by recounts, for the truth to be known.

With the thin Republican membership of the Senate, they still have a sort of veto power over the Obama Administration, if they stick together. One rogue Republican on each cloture vote means they have no power at all, if Al Franken maintains his theft of this election. The sort of thing that has happened in Minnesota is treason, it should be punishable by death. It won't be, and Republicans will roll over and play dead I am afraid, and lose this one and the media will not even attach the name "controversial" to Al Franken's supposed election. More →

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Coleman Gains Ground on Franken's "Turf"

Hat Tip "Minnesota Democrats Exposed."

Pioneer Press - "As Minnesota's recount in the U.S. Senate race marches on, campaign operatives have focused on the color of the ballots being counted.

Are the piles of recounted ballots from red counties, where Republican Sen. Norm Colman might be expected to pick up a few stray votes? Or blue counties, where DFL challenger Al Franken might have the advantage?

But Minneapolis — the biggest, bluest pile of all — is turning that logic on its head. With nearly half of its ballots recounted, the city Franken calls home isn't doing the candidate any favors. And that could be dimming Franken's hopes of catching Coleman before the state canvassing board meets Dec. 16.

'Things are clearly moving in the wrong direction for Franken,' said Larry Jacobs, director of the University of Minnesota's Center for the Study of Politics and Governance.

With fewer than half of the ballots counted in Minneapolis, Franken has lost 86 votes, while Coleman has lost just 37. In other words, the city could be blunting any recount advantage Franken might have in the rest of the state as the recount rolls toward its Dec. 5 deadline."

That's a net gain of 39 votes for Coleman. It isn't over until it's over, but I find the recount disparity on Franken turf to be fascinating. Could it be someone padded things a little for Al?

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Coleman - Franken Senate Race Recount

It seems enough attention has been directed to the Al Franken, Norm Coleman Minnesota Recount that I could possibly hope to be the one to bring anything new to the table. To that end, I have included "Minnesota Democrats Exposed" on my blogroll, and would point you to this site; "Election Reporting," for recount news every evening. It's updated every evening shortly after 8:00 pm (Central Time).

Norm is the certified winner of the race. Minnesota law requires a recount when the race is as tight as it was. That recount proceeds. Even if the original margin of 7oo + votes were still the certified margin of victory for Coleman, Minnesota law would required a recount. Except for about 540 questionable votes "found" for Franken shortly after the election, all is as it should be. There will continue to be flurries of court action around ineligble/eligible absentee ballots that Franken says should be counted, and Norm says didn't come into the precincts for counting in a legal fashion. So far Minnesota elections officials agree with Coleman that they should not be counted. If the margin of victory is ultimately smaller for Coleman than the number of "uncounted ballots," look for there to be a huge blow up over counting them. Even if they didn't show up on time or have disqualifying irregularites.

This article by MDE shows how Dems are insulting their own to gain acceptance for the idea that improperly marked ballots would swing for Franken. More →

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Coleman Margin Grows for the first time

By two votes. Coleman's advantage is now 206. More →

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FrankenFraud Continues, Monday Vote Count

Oh, what a SURPRISE. Random numbers continue to march ONLY in one direction. It's like watching a sand castle rise out of the beach with (cough) no help. Coleman and FrankenFraud have gone from 221 apart, to 204 apart as of this morning.

The Minneapolis-St. Paul Democrat Advocate Rag - "Al Franken's deficit just keeps on shrinking as the state adjusts the unofficial tally in the U.S. Senate election last week."

That reporters who try to make us think they are objective DON'T NOTICE this intelligent migration of votes is yet another sign of the day the media died. Maybe the decade. Longer? I digress.

The "hand recount" of statewide ballots?

"(Minnesota Secretary of State Mark) Ritchie has said he's hoping that the hand recount of about 2.9 million ballots will be complete by mid-December."

Ritchie is saying that this is normal. Yeah. Normal. When it's not close, they can't cheat. It's NORMAL to see partisan Democrat cheating in a close election. Nothing to see here, move along.

This is not a POLL, it's an ELECTION. The "Sample" which is the initial vote count is about 99% of the whole number and is representative of the whole. There would be SOME "sampling" error if this were an "exit poll" that asked a percentage of voters how they voted, the whole vote doesn't behave that way.

When the numbers start to swing away from the near universal sampling of the whole, SOMEONE IS STUFFING THE BALLOT BOX. Now it appears that Mark Ritchie needs until mid December to finish perpetrating his fraud.

You can just hear the "reporter" cheering Franken on, as if it were still a race. That's because it is. More →

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FrankenFraud Ballot Shenanigans Continue.

A mysterious 32 ballots show up, Coleman contests them immediately, and loses. This is a primer in stealing elections;

The Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune - "A Ramsey County judge on Saturday denied a bid by lawyers representing U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman's campaign to delay the opening of 32 absentee ballots from Minneapolis.

The request touched off a fresh war of words in a Senate race where 221 votes separate Republican Coleman and DFLer Al Franken in unofficial tallies.

The 32 Minneapolis ballots were part of the normal delivery of absentee ballots late in the polling day, according to Election Director Cindy Reichert.

She said they were retained when they couldn't be delivered because some polling places had shut down for the day. She said the ballots were kept sealed until other election duties were completed and were being counted Saturday afternoon, with results to be delivered to the state on Monday.

However, the Coleman campaign contended that the integrity of the ballots 'is in serious doubt.' Its argument for a temporary restraining order was dismissed on jurisdictional grounds by Kathleen Gearin, chief district court judge in Ramsey County.

The Franken campaign accused Coleman of a 'Saturday morning sneak attack' intended to short-circuit the counting of ballots. But Coleman's campaign said it merely wanted to delay the opening until it could be assured in a future hearing that the ballots were in the continuous possession of election officials."

This is how you know something foul is afoot. Coleman is merely saying "wait a minute." After all, there is a statewide recount coming. There is plenty of time to open the ballots. But remember, the BALLOTS INSIDE the envelopes have no markings on them to trace them back to the 32 envelopes they came from. While they are sealed, their authenticity can be examine. Once UNSEALED and cast in with the rest of the absentee ballots, they can no longer be traced. It can be determined later that the ballots are valid and there's no harm. If it is determined later that the ballots were INVALID, there's nothing that can be done since there is no way to pull those now anonymous ballots out of the population of absentee ballots. Look for the Coleman margin to shrink by at least 32 more votes by Monday. Maybe even tilt in FrankenFraud's favor if this sort of treason is being performed all over Minnesota. 32 here, 32 there, pretty soon it's Al Franken, Senator Elect.

Behavior tells you everything here. Coleman is not trying to get the ballots disqualified, he's trying to SEE if they came from a legitimate source. If they did, with voting split almost evenly between FrankenFraud and Coleman, it stands to reason that the ballots wouldn't help FrankenFraud much. 13 for FrankenFraud, 13 for Coleman, the balance going to the third party candidate doesn't help Al at all. So why does FrankenFraud lobby so ardently for the acceptance of the ballots? Is it because he "wants every vote counted?" No. It's because he knows what is in those 32 envelopes. 32 votes for Al. If they're sequestered. If they're DENIED as real ballots. If they're OPENED and there are 32 votes for one candidate, it's nearly ironclad proof of voter fraud. If they're opened now, as they have been and stirred in the pot with the rest of the ballots, no one will ever know for sure.

Less heinous is the simple possibility that FrankenFraud is trying to get LATE ballots, ones that should not be counted, counted. Why? Again this is not because FrankenFraud wants "every vote counted," it's probably because it's a FrankenFraud leaning district. In this analysis Al doesn't gain a lot of votes, but he gains. If the precinct is voting 70-20-10, Al, Norm, Third Party, then Al probably picks up at least a net of 19 or 20 votes.

I have not checked to see if he latter is true. I don't think Norm is such a boyscout that he would be challenging absentee ballots in a district favorable to him if they were just late ballots. If the ballots are not simply late, I'm almost certain they are outright frauds. It's too late now and I'm afraid we simply saw the tip of the voter fraud iceberg in this little scenario.

What we DO know about the 32 ballots is that they were "found" in someone's car according to the blog Minnesota Democrats Exposed. That someone? Election Director Cindy Reichert. For now I do not know the party affiliate of Cindy Reichert or Judge Kathleen Gearin, but I could probably safely bet a large sum, that they are DFL'ers. That's Minnesotan lingo for "Democrat." More →

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Further FrankenFraud Update

And of course, all recounts lead to more votes for.....FrankenFraud.

It's now 221 in favor of Coleman. Someone found 15 more FrankenFraud Votes since this morning. We're watching now, so it's a bit harder to stuff the ballot box. Small moves are the order of the day. With the official recount coming in a week, there's plenty of time to find the remaining votes.

Of course, the first recount that shows FrankenFraud ahead, will be the "correct" count. More →

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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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Franken Coleman Update

See if you can read the bias. Oh, I highlighted the most OBVIOUS part. Sorry.

The Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune - "Just as Secretary of State Mark Ritchie was explaining to reporters the recount process in one of the narrowest elections in Minnesota history, an aide rushed in with news: Pine County's Partridge Township had revised its vote total upward -- another 100 votes for Democratic candidate Al Franken, putting him within .011 percentage points of Republican U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman.

The reason for the change? Exhausted county officials had accidentally entered 24 for Franken instead of 124 when the county's final votes were tallied at 5:25 Wednesday morning."

Oh, those poor things. Exhausted are they? Is the question being asked why someone is not exhausting themselves looking for Norm Coleman votes?

"(Al) Franken called reporters to talk about the prospects for a continued narrowing of the count.

'Coleman said there was no reason for a recount, that there would be no movement,' Franken said Thursday, a day after unofficial results initially showed Coleman with a 725-vote advantage. 'But you see that it's more than halved and the recount hasn't even started. This election will be decided by the voters, not by the candidates.' "

Again, numbers dispassionately counted don't continue to migrate in one direction. Why is it that errors only cluster around miscounted Franken Votes? Minnesota is hardly a conservative Republican state. It's apparatus is populated by "exhausted" election workers urgently scouring vote totals to find Extra Franken Votes. THIS IS NOT A FAIR RECOUNT, this is a BIASED recount. This is the origin of machine voting and counting.

It has always been known that when the human factor entered the counting process, the process would be polluted as political goals spilled over into the counting, the process itself becoming a way to elect a candidate. Machine voting never was offered as error free, but as MORE accurate and spreading the errors around randomly. The much vilified punch card ballot would never produce the same result twice, but the number would float one way or the other around a center value that would roughly be assumed to be the true number. The reason? Ballots contain imperfections and would count one time, and not the other, or be destroyed dispassionately and randomly during the recount. They remained however, the physical representation of the voting event.

Even Florida's law in 2000 that was questioned was designed to call the vote count representative of the actual count and that the ideal real vote count could never really be attained, only a representation of it. This is true for anyone who thinks about it. The process of "counting every vote" has become a code word for "stuffing" the vote. Florida even set it's recount limits at a place where recounts were triggered by margins far too high to change in a recount, just to make sure there would be no appearance of defrauding the voters. No one watching the election count in 2000 in Florida thought a 5000 some odd vote margin for Bush would dwindle to about 200 some odd votes, unless of course someone was stuffing the ballot box between counts.

Let us also remember, Al Franken is actually correct, it is not the CANDIDATE that is defrauded by a bad count, it is the VOTERS. The voters as a WHOLE always deserve the most accurate and dispassionate fraud free count possible. It is their will we seek to discern, the candidate that loses is not the wronged party. The wronged party is always the voting public, if there is fraud.

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