The Secretary of State’s website shows (and has for most of the day) that for the Ward 3, Precinct 1 tally in Hennepin County, they have apparently re-posted the original vote tally from the early morning of November 5th. That re-posting was done as of as of 8:51:57 this am, December 9th.

Advantage Franken. The difference is now a 192 vote lead for Coleman, at least on that portion of the SOS website.

But curiously, the statewide recount tally does not as yet reflect the change, as the tally for that Precinct is still obviously not included.

I’m curious . . . does this mean that the canvassing board has voted in favor of the “proposal” by the Sec’y of State to go back to the original count, even though the precinct had taken the position that they had double counted ballots? And even though they cannot produce the ballots?

There may be several possible “good” reasons they cannot produce those ballots . . . reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with a valid election!

Why the discrepancy in what is posted?

In addition, reportedly during the search for the “missing” ballots, which cannot be found, but which are being counted none the less, they claim that during the “search” they found some 12 additional ballots — supposedly 12 military absentee ballots that were never counted, and that have not been in a secure chain of custody! Franken is demanding they be “counted.”

The summary information for that precinct is somewhat astounding.

At 7 am election day morning, there were a total of 1,690 registered voters in the precinct. A total of 901 people registered that day to vote in that precinct alone! There were a total of 1,778 “signatures” that day, plus 42 military ballots and 8 federal absentees, for a total of 2,028 total votes cast.

A little quick math indicates that there was an astounding 53.3% increase in registrations during election day alone!

In fact, 44.4% of all the people who voted that day in that precinct were people who registered that day.

Anyone who knows about “same day” registration in Minnesota, knows that any previously registered voter can “vouch” for someone — i.e., sign a form avering that the new voter registration applicant (who may or may not not have anything even approaching a valid ID) actually lives in the precinct! In fact, a previously registered voter can “vouch” for up to 15 brand new voters in one day! A few partisans, in other words, can completely change the outcome of a race.

And the election officials are thereupon obliged to register that new person, and hand the person a ballot — even if they had no ID at all!

Now, just think about the “process” in that small precinct for a moment as well! Consider that over the course of 13 hours (7 am to 8 pm) 901 people were registered to vote in that tiny precinct.

That would be 69.3 approved registrations per hour, that is, if it was non stop for the entire 13 hours, with no slow down or breaks in the action, which of course, is highly unlikely! That is less that one approval in every single minute for the entire 13 hours — about one every 52 seconds!

Boy, they must have been really checking whatever credentials and sworn statements that were produced very carefully, huh?

Plus, consider that the election officials only do this process once or twice a year, so it’s not like they get used to being thorough or efficient about it!

How many fraudulent votes would any reasonable person guess probably slipped right through the cracks in Ward 3, Precinct 1 of the City of Minneapolis on November 4th this year?

And, mind you, they did not set the record in Minnesota, or even in the City of Minneapolis, for the highest number of same day registrations that day.

For example, Ward 6, Precinct 1 in Minneapolis registered 1,178 new voters on election day, November 4th. But they has 3,522 prior voter registrants, so they undoubtedly had or anticipated a bigger operation. Still, they “newly registered” 90.6 people every hour, giving them about 40 seconds per application!

But it looks like Ward 3, Precinct 1 had the highest percentage increase in the city.

Franken is a good joke gone bad.

tarpon on December 8, 2008 at 6:40 PM

Just how do you define ‘good’? In my view, Franken is a bad joke made worse by his ego, his stolen millions (thank you Air America) and his chutzpa.

don’t get this missing ballot or counted twice stuff.
When I voted on election day I walked into the precinct showed my ID and then signed a slip of paper that stated that I was a registered voter at that precinct and was given a ballot. I than voted and the ballot was scanned and placed into a box.
Everybody who voted did the same as I had to. So at the end of the day when the votes are tallied the number of signed ID slips should match the number of ballots cast.If you have more ballots cast than signed slips somebody is stuffing the ballot box. More slips than ballots someone is stealing votes.
If the people running the election at the precinct can’t keep track of two separate stacks of paper they are truly incompetent and should be not allowed to work as precinct workers in the future.

jellybelly on December 8, 2008 at 9:28 PM

I’m not sure whether “jellybelly” lives in Minnesota, or whether that’s the way elections are run there. Where I voted (CT), the precinct has logbooks containing the names and addresses of all the registered voters, and a voter shows ID, is given a ballot, and the voter’s name is crossed off in the logbook as having voted.

Under such a system, if a batch of ballots was counted twice, the number of counted votes would be greater than the number of crossed-off names in the logbook, and this should be easy to check.

Has anyone counted the number of people who showed up to vote in Dinkytown, and compared it to the number of ballots? If they agree, THERE ARE NO MISSING BALLOTS!

Does anyone from Minnesota know what happens if, after the Canvassing Board reviews the challenged ballots, Coleman is declared the winner? Can he be sworn into the Senate in January, or can Franken prevent him from being seated by court challenges?

“Al Franken”

….. and the response is

“Excuse me? Come again? What’s a Franklin what’s it?”

Do us all a favor.

Even if those ballots existed (which now seems extremely doubtful) how could the original count be reinstated now, if there are no ballots?

And yet, one of the members of the canvassing board, Secretary of State Mark Rich, is openly suggesting that they could always go back to the original count!

As reported by Reuters, in this recent story:

Officials combed through a Minneapolis church where many college students voted and a warehouse where ballots were stored in search of a packet containing 133 missing ballots.

“It’s just one packet, it’s not very alarming,” Ritchie, a Democrat, said in an interview with Reuters. The canvassing board can accept the precinct’s original election night vote total as an alternative, he added.

Why is he taking on the role of a partisan participant, by suggesting a way to reinstate a questionable “count” that would give a distinct advantage to one of the parties?

Precinct officials have already admitted that at the time of the recount, they counted the “133″ ballots twice in their initial count. The ballots do not now exist, so there is no way of verifying the actual votes on those ballots, or even whether one or more of them might be open to legitimate challenge. So how could they go back to the “original count?”

Why is Coleman’s camp not demanding that Richie withdraw from any further consideration of this issue? He is acting in an extremely partisan manner by making such a statement.

And, how is it that they have been going through the motions of ostensibly “searching” for an envelope of ballots that were lost — knowing that they do not exist?

My understanding is that, under Minnesota law, that even with “same day” registration, each precinct obtains a pretty solid count of the actual number of people whose votes count on election day. Those who were previously registered and show up, sign the register. I assume that those who “same day register” also sign some cumulative register of sorts as well.

So, if you add the number of people who were previously registered and signed in, to the number who registered that day, and then add to that the total number of absentee ballots cast, that should be exactly how many people who voted that day in that precinct.

If the number of ballots reported to the county on election night from that precinct exceeded the total above, there are simply no missing ballots . . . they just counted some of them twice.

I used to defend Andrew. But this over the top attack on Palin just showed how mentally unstable he has become. It was not even close to rational, it was nuts.

I hope one day he will come to his senses. But I doubt it will happen

RBMN on December 8, 2008 at 7:26 PM

Strangely enough, earlier that same year, Zimmerman/Dylan attended a Buddy Holly show in Duluth. Two nights later, Buddy’s plane went down in Clear Lake Iowa.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/515r%2BbkpC8L._SL500_AA240_.jpg

I’m sure the Dems can find one liberal judge in the state who believes that Al Franken should be in the senate.

Just like Kalifornia’s Supreme Court, judges know what’s best regardless of how the people vote.

It was fall, 1959 when 18-year-old Robert Zimmerman arrived from Hibbing, Minnesota. [...] The summer before he arrived in Dinkytown, Dylan actually traveled to North Dakota to audition for Bobby Vee’s band. Not yet a star in his own right, Bobby Vee had a regular need for backup touring musicians, and when Bobby Zimmerman showed up in the summer of 1959 calling himself “Elston Gunn,” he let the kid play the piano for a couple of gigs. But they soon parted ways—Vee wasn’t overly impressed with Zimmerman. Anyway, Zimmerman was on his way to the big city.

When Bobby arrived at the University in the late summer of 1959, he was a typical Jewish boy ready to matriculate in general studies like Theater Arts and Astronomy. Of course, he’d brought along his guitar and his delusions of grandeur. But he still respected the wishes of his parents, who wanted him to be a good student. Zimmerman signed up for classes and made plans to rush Sigma Alpha Mu, the Jewish fraternity at the University where at least one of his cousins had rushed. But like so many abortive freshmen before him, Bobby suddenly and spectacularly went to seed. And like so many University freshmen before and since, the corrupting influence was Dinkytown.