OK, I've been trying to be, well, if not objective, at least open about my prejudices and leanings in this race/recount/: pro-democracy, pro-recount, pro-patriotism and pro-humor. But now, as we close in on the last 1300+ ballots left to count, as various deadlines loom just days away, as lawyers swing their light sabres and judges duck and dodge, you know, I have to admit.......I'm becoming a bit miffed at one of the campaigns!
No, really. I'm sorry my language may offend some (and 'miffed' may well call in the diary police; I go willingly to the slammer) and I feel sorry to have to descend to feeling almost acrimonious (GASP! I've done it now), but I'm driven to say the low-tax/no-tax party is MIGHTILY taxing my patience with them. (Thanks and h/t to Vote for America for breaking the story yesterday afternoon here on Kos.)
Come on over the fold with me to the (recount) infinity....and beyond, but grit your teeth. (And feel free in the comments to add your more 'colorful' vocabulary....)
UPDATE: The Star Tribune Editorial Board gets off a fine piece praising and defending the Canvassing Board. Remember they endorsed Coleman during the campaign so its ALSO interesting to read (hopefully in a clean government sort of way, but at variance with a certain endorsee's position) they think Minnesota should "count every vote." Here:http://www.startribune.com/...
UPDATE 2: Hmmm... maybe (over?)reading tea leaves here, but in going over this diary and the sources behind it I notice the Franken team has sent out a Kevin Hamilton, attorney, to do its talking. This is a new name from their side. Mostly its been Marc Elias, in court its been William Pentelovitch, and the eminence gris among the attorney's is David Lillehaug (whose name has appeared on the occasional court filing.)
But on the Coleman side its been Fritz Knaak as the main man, Magnuson in court and Tony Trimble as the heavy hitter.
Maybe talks are continuing, maybe Elias, Lillehuag and the rest are just exhausted from a long weekend and longer campaign but maybe something else is happening.
Chess players? If Trimble is the queen piece why is the Franken side sending out a new knight like Hamilton? I mean for weeks we've had bishop vs. bishop or maybe rook vs. rook in Elias vs. Knaak. But now Trimble (Trimble!) vs. Hamilton?
It may be nothing, but Trimble showing up more is noteworthy I think. I'm mostly a wood-pusher in the great game, but I know when the opponent moves their queen its always worth burning a bit of time off your own clock. Thoughts any one?
Improperly Rejected Absentee Ballots
According to Secretary of State Mark Ritchie the county (and city---in some of the larger populations) election boards have produced 1346 of these ballots, ballots that have 'passed' the 4 statutory requirements for being counted but nonetheless have not yet been (the so-called "5th pile" ballots.)
Both camps need to work out a process to agree on how to admit these ballots to be counted (in conjunction with county/city boards.) The FRANKENites have said, "Count 'em all."
Yesterday came word the COLEMANIKS only wanted to count 131/133/136 of these, depending on the report. Then Noah Kunin at the UpTake weighed in with the gory, muddy, throw-dirt-in-the-face, work-the-refs- glory:
The Franken campaign issued a blanked (sic; should this be blanket? Or is the statement really "blankety-blank" blanked out for children?--WR) statement accepting the opening of 1,346 ballots local election officials listed as improperly rejected.
Coleman campaign lawyers rejected a blanked (sic) assertion on the list. Instead, Coleman is requesting the following:
>778 absentee ballots OPENED on the basis of recommendations from local election officials.
>544 absentee ballots LOOKED at more closely before they are opened (or not)
>67 absentee ballots OPENED that are not currently on the list from local election officials
>587 absentee ballots LOOKED at more closely before they are opened (or not) that are not currently on the list from local election officials
Note that 778 plus 544 does not equal the total of 1,346 absentee ballots released by local election officials.
Those last 2 items? 67+587= 654....
According to the Associated Press, Coleman's "proposed additions skew heavily toward suburban and rural counties where he did best in the election."
So WHERE are all those ballots coming from that Norm all of a sudden wants counted? From the 1st 4 piles.
Quickly now, on or before 11/4 about 290,000 voters voted absentee. About 278,000 passed muster and were counted that day. The remaining 12,000 were rejected for one of the 4 statutory reasons OR mistakenly so (the famed "5th pile.")
The narrowing focus of the last couple weeks has been on those last 1000-1600 "5th pile" ballots (now a precise 1346 according to Ritchie's office.) Coleman's team now wants to wade back into the other 12000-1346= 10,654 absentee ballots in the first 4 piles and mine them for votes......and naturally being a partisan, chiclet-chewing, SWINE, ALSO wants to say, "I get to do this and you don't" to the Franken side.
You CAN (if you look at it with a certain squint-eyed askance) consider this a negotiating stance...open by asking for the sun, the moon and the stars, assume your opponent will do likewise in the opposite direction, and eventually settle for just the moon.
BUT I DON'T THINK SO!.....
(Was up late Monday night with WineRev-ette, WineRev-er and the one-time S.O. WineRevSpouse watching the Northwestern-Missouri Alamo Bowl go into OT---and WineRev-ette's (she is NU frosh) Wildcats dropped a heart-breaker--*sniff*, but your WineRev lost some outrage/ keyboarding time, so what follows will be rawer than usual.)
From Star Trib/ Pioneer Press/ various blogs:
Deputy SoS Gelbmann has been trying to broker a deal between both campaigns with a final heavy meeting Monday. This broke up in an UN-Minnesota Nice kind of way so that Gelbmann is quoted on the front page of the ST as telling both sides to "be civil". (If you have to go public with a line like that you can IMAGINE what it must have been like in private!)....Also said Coleman's late proposal to include his favorite 654 ballots could really wreck things.......
Republican Strategy Confirmed: (via the highly reliable "project on/accuse your foes of what YOU, a Rethug, are doing" indicator):
Tony Trimble, major Coleman atty.:
"They want to count every vote as long as it's a vote for Franken -- but not otherwise," Tony Trimble, a Coleman recount attorney, told a cluster of reporters.
Franken efforts:
Over the weekend, the Franken campaign agreed to review only the 1,346 absentee ballots that local election officials had acknowledged were mistakenly rejected. Franken campaign officials said they had spent most of the weekend, without success, trying to get the Coleman campaign to join them.
Star Trib number crunchers looked at 1260 of the 1346 county ID's absentees and going from the precincts where they came from said there is a 93% probability those votes would favor Franken (and add to his lead.)...sounds like they've got a stat major or 2 over there.....Their first pass at Coleman's 654 suggests (HAH!) these might favor Norm-- while some were from Hennepin County (Greater Minneapolis metro) only 6 were from the city itself while several many others were from 2nd & 3rd ring ex-urbs like Minnetonka (old money), Minnetrista and Orono (new McMansion money).
Our new favorite new media TheUpTake:
The Canvassing Board meets TODAY, 9:00am CT and McIntee and crew will be there.
2nd: TheUptake calls for help. Some of those "regional meetings" happen today (which Tony the Trimble from Norm's side said, "would be 'very amiable'...'It's [sic] going to be a very, very easy meeting'....(was he wearing a black pinstripe suit with a white tie when he said that? Bulge under the breast pocket? In a raspy voice..."It would be most unfortunate if our meeting might become acrimonious"---like the more polite a gangster the more ominous....)
Anyway, TheUptake calls on citizen journalists to turn out with video cameras at the "regional meetings" in Bemidji, Duluth, Hastings, or Wilmar to record the 'very amiable' meetings happening today (obviously the UpTake wants to record these to contribute to the season of "peace on earth, goodwill toward all").
So did you get a new toy for Christmas? Want video beyond a family video album? Well you know what to do now.....
OK thats what I've got so far from yust southeast of Lake Wobegon. Got he late shift today so I'll be here for comments and see if I can update this with more/better info.
Shalom.