Spoiled ballots are ballots returned at the polling place because the voter decided to change his mind while voting at the polls. It can be difficult to erase a mark, so he asks for a clean ballot and the spoiled one is defaced and placed in the spoiled box so it is not accidentally counted.

Wethal on November 18, 2008 at 8:43 AM

Rywall is too simple ..you may need to restate the post.

If you can’t keep up with a simple discussion, stfu.

Dave Rywall on November 18, 2008 at 9:12 AM

If you’re not a citizen of this country, STFU.

Go to hell, Minnesota. Find yourself another country.

Percy_Peabody

Sounds like somebody didn’t get their frosted flakes this morning!

This may break Franken. I’m serious, friends-Al Franken may not come back from this failure. What might do him in is how close he came to winning.
I’m not gloating-I have always felt sorry for Franken-he is his own punishment, and that’s sad.

I wouldn’t be surprised if that happens. I mean his original SNL persona was pretty much a self absorbed, self important jack*ss that was petty and had the maturity of a 5 year old. (I don’t say stupid because to be blunt one think Franken is not is stupid.) Of course as the years have passed and we hear more of his antics from his books and actions in the public eye it’s pretty clear that the persona is largely based on what he’s really like. Something like this, to lose public when he came so close could be quite crushing. (He doesn’t have an out this time that lets him claim a “victory”. At least with his radio show he could always claim it was to stick it to Bush or position himself for public office.)

On the other hand I hate Franken so I won’t be even slightly sorry if this dirtbag can’t deal with it if the results in the end are a loss for him. (But I fully expect him to try to steal this one by any method possible. Something I don’t associate with Franken is honor or honesty.)

Minnesota Recount: Coleman victory certified today, recount tomorrow
Without a doubt, Franken will wind up suing over the absentee ballots
after the recount, but the recount has to take place first. The
certification has to take place before the……

tneloms on November 18, 2008 at 11:08 AM

As I stated, when faced with the facts (you asked for facts), you just move on to another argument. Not recognizing that your challenge to find substance was answered.
You never challenged me about “shady” dealings. That is your way to shift the argument away from you not admitting that Franken is looking for the undervotes. Did I say that was underhanded, no, but do I think he is a scumbag, yes.
As I said, showing people like you facts is fruitless…you just change the subject.
As I so easily predicted…

I need the numbers broken down. Supposedly Harry Reid can pick off some Moderate Republicans like Snow…so is Joe Lieberman’s seat on homeland security committee, hanging by a thread in Alaska because the Dems still need him?

) Where the box for Franken is completely blank, but OBama got a vote, one should “assume” the voter meant to vote for Obama. This assumes that voters can’t split a ticket or leave some offices blank because they can’t stand either candidate. This is pure speculation.

According to the current vote totals, Franken got 28% less votes than Obama, while Coleman got 5% less votes than McCain. How can Franken “assume” that an Obama voter wanted to vote for Franken if he “forgot” to vote in the Senate race, if at least 361,964 known Obama voters deliberately did NOT vote for Franken?

That’s a lot of people who violated the Franken assumption!

It will be interesting to see if they appear, in original form, and the ballots (sorted and sealed into unused, spoiled and voted packages) are still secure.

Wethal on November 18, 2008 at 8:51 AM

Unused ballots may be what enables Franken to steal the election. If they are not secure, some Democrat operative may “vote” them for Franken and slip them into the “voted” pile, if there are no Republican observers keeping an eye on the process.

Another possibility is “undervotes”–where the real voter voted for President and/or House member but left the Senate vote blank. Cheaters could try to “vote” in the Senate race on these ballots, then slip the altered ballots into the machine recount. Hopefully, there will be sharp-eyed Republican observers in all precincts, to ensure this doesn’t happen.

Excuse my immaturity for a moment – I can’t stand that douche bag Franken

right2bright on November 18, 2008 at 10:44 AM

Asking for voter information is a Data Practices request. Coleman made a similar request: http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2008/11/022028.php. The reason is that each campaign wants access to as much information as possible as the recount proceeds and ballots are challenged or reconsidered.

Why does this seem shady to you? Franken believes, based on several studies and analyses, that there are many votes that were incorrectly miscounted and that they will favor him on balance. He may be wrong, but he certainly has reason to believe it, and is completely right to push for rejected ballots to be reconsidered.

Of course, Franken has no control over what actually happens in the recount in terms of how each ballot is determined. The commission for the recount seems non-partisan (or at least bi-partisan) enough that no vote will be counted for Franken without clear physical evidence. So all this talk about undervotes is just speculation about what will happen once things are in fact recounted, on the part of analysts and the campaigns. There is no reason to be angry at someone speculating about an outcome that you don’t want.

…. must find Katherine Harris…….

tneloms on November 18, 2008 at 10:20 AM

God I hate this…when it is so simple, and the simple get entrenched.
The suits filed by Franken never carried the words “undervote” that is a descriptive term to describe the strategy of his legal team.

Dartmouth professors Michael Herron, Jonathan Chipman and Jeffrey Lewis have put together a terrific study of the recount situation in Minnesota. They suggest that — while many African-American voters in the Minneapolis area may have skipped the senate race intentionally — the majority of unintentional undervotes that will be counted during the recount process are also liable to favor Franken.

That is why he filed the suit to have the names of all rejected voters, hoping to find the “undervotes”.
Saying it wants every vote counted – including some rejected absentee ballots – Al Franken’s Senate campaign filed suit in Ramsey County District Court within the past hour seeking the names of those voters whose ballots were rejected.

Get it, it is his legal desperate as it is, legal campaign strategy.
How much clearer does it need to get…do you want tapes of his discussions with his attorneys?
He has close to a dozen different challenges from his legal tema…all to find those mysterious “missing votes”, or undervotes.
Please, I don’t mind a discourse, but don’t be coy and pretend you don’t know what is happening…