Recount! The Mayhem in Minnesota
by Claudine ZapDec 11, 2008
Illinois has its disgraced governor enmeshed in a corruption scandal. New York is abuzz with possible candidates to replace Hillary Clinton in the Senate (Caroline Kennedy? Fran Drescher?). Meanwhile, the craziest story may well be in Minnesota, where they are still stuck on Election Day.
What's that you say? Didn't we pick a president already? Yes, we did. But the Senate race between the Republican incumbent Norm Coleman and Democratic challenger Al Franken is yet to be decided.
Think of it as the movie "Groundhog Day" for our Election Day. In Minnesota, they are replaying that day over and over, with no end in sight. The race unofficially remains within a few hundred votes, which triggered a hand recount. That instigated thousands of challenges of questionable ballots by the two campaigns. Now a panel is reviewing challenges to the ballots. It sure is sounding like a sunnier state from the year 2000. The disputed results could end up in state court or even go to the U.S. Senate Rules Committee if they aren't resolved soon.
While election officials sure seem to be taking their time, some decisions are getting made in this slow-going process. According to the Huffington Post, the state canvassing board recently ruled that absentee ballots rejected due to "administrative or clerical errors" should be counted. The board also ruled that 133 absentee ballots that had mysteriously disappeared should be tallied anyway — based on the results from Election Day. Both of these decisions are said to favor Franken, but this race is still way too close to call — and that's where reconsidering rejected ballots comes in.
The campaigns want every vote to count, but these ballots are far from obvious. How tough can it be to review the challenged ballots — which don't even have hanging chads? You can judge for yourself. But be warned: When it comes down to a handful of individual votes, it's scary what you find. One ballot for Coleman is also marked with a write-in comment: "bad people." Another voted for both candidates and then wrote "NO." Then there's the truly baffling vote for Franken along with a write-in preference for "Lizard People."
The people — lizard or no — have spoken. Now it's time for Minnesota to decide what the people actually said. Over and over again.
