Today is the day, by the dawn's early light.
The ghost of Yogi Berra haunts the state, rattles his chains and growls, "Dis is deja vu all over again!" The Recount of the Governor's race begins!
Tom Emmer (R) trails Democrat Mark Dayton by 8770 votes (0.42%; no US election in the last 40+ years has seen a Recount overcome a margin of more than 0.11%.)
So why are we doing this? MN state law says a state-paid recount is automatic if the margin is less than 0.50%---unless the trailing candidate concedes, which Tom Emmer has not done.
SOooo...the "fiscal conservative/anti-wasteful spending/cut waste, fraud & abuse/we hate government" Party will now force the state of MN to spend at least $250,000 for... what, again?
They're doing this so you can read what's below the fold?....
Cross posted at Minnesota Progressive Project
A MOMENT FROM KOS HISTORY
(Sound of trumpet fanfare....)
As it was written Nov. 19, 2008 in diary MN-Sen. v. 7.0:
"From Thief River Falls to Pipestone to New Caledonia to Grand Marias, let the Great Minnesota Recount begin!
"Coffee is brewing (this is required; for hard-core Minnesotans, brewed with a raw egg in the grounds), ballots are being stacked in groups of 25 for easy counting. Jello salad with shaved carrots or tiny marshmallows is jiggling in the fridge, and (if you're lucky) someone will bring some lefse to pass around at lunch time. (If you're UNlucky, someone will bring lutefisk to pass around. Lutefisk is horrid but biblically sanctioned as "the piece of cod that passeth all understanding.")
If you'd like to read the first 6 entries before this, or the 149 after this, you can! Just go to All Things WineRev and (he says in a Paul Harvey voice) you can get "the rest of the story." (And if you don't like that one there are 2 others at the same address, along with instructions on how to bring the WineRev to your bar association, law school, church, business or trade group's assembly, convention or dinner....if there's pie.)
WHAT'S WHAT? WHO'S WHO?
The Minneapolis Star Tribune newspaper, having tried everything to become birdcage liner in the 2008 Recount, continues its efforts to practice journalism and redeem itself from its own fiasco. Keeping reporter Pat Doyle in an undisclosed location has been a good first step. Hiring reporters Rachel Stassen-Berger and Eric Roper for political coverage have been good second steps.
As a result, instead of imagining stuff about the recount or just playing stenographer to the GOP, the Star Trib today, as the Recount begins, offers us......facts. Background. Profiles. Its enough to make Minnesota readers look twice and maybe spike their morning coffee with Kahlua. Information? In the Star Tribune? Whoda thunk it? (M*A*S*H, BJ Hunnicutt: "Lets serve the steaks in the mess tent. Its the last place anyone would expect to find actual food.")
First, the Strib let Brian Bakst of the AP tell us the Recount starts today (9:00am) and is slated to be finished across the state by next Tuesday, Dec. 7. ("Will this be someone's Pearl Harbor? Who will be bombed?") The Canvassing Board would then chew through challenged ballots the rest of that week and be done (we'll see) Tuesday, Dec. 14. You can read this outbreak of facts here:
http://www.startribune.com/...
Second, the Star Tribune then turned loose some of its own reporters to fill in readers on the characters involved and who we might hear from and read about in the coming days. All the major players at this stage are covered: candidates, lawyers, the Canvassing Board.
AND NOTHING ELSE. Wow! Its like Joe Friday has taken over the Recount coverage. "Just the Facts, ma'am." Here's the link that will fill you in on the main players in the case. Enjoy it with a glass of fresh, wholesome milk alongside your Wheaties, produced from golden grain grown in Kansas and other states on the Great Plains...
http://www.startribune.com/...
HOW TANGLED A RECOUNT?
Across the river in St. Paul, David Orrick (vacuum? No relation) of the Pioneer Press puts the question of "challenged ballots." Two years ago saw the total rise as high as 6500 challenges. The State Canvassing Board brought out the rubber hoses, third degree lights and threatened to lock all the lawyers in a sealed room with 30 grams of hot lutefisk on the table to get both camps to cut down the number. It worked and only about 1500 were finally handled by the Board.
A lot of these were for old rules about "stray marks" which have been done away with in a reform of election laws passed last year.
Here's the new recount rule that's supposed to put the kibosh on ballot challenging run amok:
"A challenge is frivolous if it is based upon an alleged identifying mark other than a signature or an identification number written anywhere on the ballot or a name written on the ballot completely outside of the space for the name of a write-in candidate."
In other words, no challenges for stray squiggles, smiley faces or, as was notoriously the case in 2008, a write-in vote for the "lizard people." Pretty much, challenging a ballot on the grounds of voter identification for anything short of a Social Security number or John Hancock's John Hancock is frivolous and, therefore, not allowed as a challenge, the rule reads.
But the big wrangle on Tuesday was over who should make the calls of frivolous: local officials? Or the Canvassing Board? The outcome was each precinct will create a "frivolous pile" and forward those to the Board. Will that help? No one knows, but the Board hopes it will help.
Rest of story here:
http://www.twincities.com/...
OTOH Orrick's roommate at the Pioneer Press, Jason Hoppin, lifted his feet while David tidied up the office and over the noise of the carpet being cleaned, wrote a story looking back at the challenges of 2008. Judge Gearin from that Canvassing Board sounds almost wistful at the shopping lists, doodles and (of course) the Lizard People ballot the Board dealt with.
Everyone quoted in the story HOPES (6 "hopes" or "hopefuls" and 1 "optimistic" thrown in) this time will be different, but then this is Minnesota, where the phrase "that's different" has a deep, passive-aggressive meaning. (Tr. "You are completely wrong & I disagree totally, and I signal this by saying, 'That's different'")
"What I would say, generally speaking, is that the 2008 recount was a great civics lesson for everybody," said Mark Halvorson, director of Citizens for Election Integrity Minnesota, a nonpartisan group that oversaw the audit.
"And I hope the voters learned their lessons and learned how to more accurately mark their ballot, but we won't be able to say for sure until the recount."
But this is Minnesota, and this a Recount! Anything can happen...even in Bemidji!
Not everyone is so hopeful. The infamous Lizard People write-in ballot came from Bemidji in Beltrami County, and Auditor/Treasurer Kay Mack said not much could change a mischievous mind.
"I don't personally think that a recount is going to change people's quirkiness," Mack said. "That Lizard People guy, he got his honks out of it. It wouldn't surprise me if he did the same thing with his ballot from here to eternity."
If you want to get the rest of your honks for the morning you can go here:
http://www.twincities.com/...
And see below from Mankato more news & opinion on frivolous challenges.
IT WOULDN'T BE A RECOUNT IF...
In addition to the Governor's statewide Recount the Secretary of State's Office is also recounting 3 state legislative races.
(One of these is near Rice County, Northfield, about 45 miles south of Twin Cities, home of St. Olaf College (world class vocal music! Drop outs go to Julliard!) The margin is 31 votes. Another is in Austin, Mower County, south central on the Iowa line, home of Hormel Meats, world class Spam! Drop outs go to RedState.com!). The margin is 57 votes.)
http://www.startribune.com/...
The third of these is in District 15B, (Stearns County, St. Cloud, about 45 miles NW of Minneapolis). The GOP challenger King Banaian (thats his real name) leads (Dem,) Carol Lewis for an open seat (formerly Democratic)....by 10 votes, out of 10,971 votes total votes. (The number crunchers have already worked out if this were the governor's race with 2.1 million votes, these 10 votes would translate into a margin 1900+.)
Now the reconciliation and number-checking have been done and guess what? 3 votes (for Lewis) have not been included in her total. Why? Banaian and Lewis (and minor party candidates) were all on the printed ballot with the blank oval next to their names. At the bottom of the list is another oval, the words "write in" and space to do just that, write in a candidate's name.
3 voters who really, REALLY like Carol Lewis were so determined to vote for Carol they went right past her printed, on-the-ballot name to the write-in line and WROTE IN her name (complete with filled in oval.)
BUT the law says a write-in candidate has to file papers and pay a fee to be an official, write-in candidate. Neither Carol or King did this (why should they? They are ON the ballot for crying out loud.) So because Carol Lewis is NOT an official, filed, write-in candidate, the election officials have set aside these 3 votes.
BUT hold on! When the Recount comes the standard for counting a ballot is "voter intent." Writing in somebody's name sure seems like an intent voter to me.
SO here you have it. If you want to play the home version of Judge/Canvassing Board, how do you call this one? Lawyers, snap those briefcases. Here's a beaut of case! Those scales of justice sure look dead level and evenly balanced from here.
(BTW, Judge Denise Reilly, from the Election Contest Court 2 years ago, and this year on the Canvassing Board, was told about this situation. She thought for a moment and quoted Judge Elizabeth Hayden, who was the ECC presiding judge: "Sometimes you can't save voters from themselves.")
A fuller story from Jay Weiner here:
http://www.minnpost.com/...
THE VIEW FROM THE GREAT TURN OF THE MINNESOTA RIVER
The Mankato Free Press (about 60 miles S & a bit W of Minneapolis) thought the MN Supreme Court moved with impressive speed on Monday and kept things moving. This is what editorials should be: thoughtful, reasoned, explanatory.
http://mankatofreepress.com/...
However....Editor Joe Spear on his blog was more vigorous and feisty. He thought the Court was sending a shot across the bow of the SS Emmer and its accompanying vessel, the scow MNGOP. He thinks both sides (but especially one side) needs to be careful of "frivolous" challenges during the Recount. As Joe put it:
I've seen many a judge use the rule that "their impartiality ends where your frivolity begins."
Here's the whole thing from a Mankato point of view and its worth a read:
http://katojoe.blogspot.com/...
AND JUST ONE MORE!
Not all the Recounts are coming up, or are state paid. Up in Brainerd (Crow Wing County, center of the state) a City Council seat ended with a margin of 13. The trailing candidate paid for a Recount (it was more than the % margin, even though it was only 13 votes.) Took 2 hours, both candidates watched, and $450 was paid. No lizard people found. Case closed.
http://www.brainerddispatch.com/...
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OK let the counting begin! Blessings, patience, honks and care to all the judges, counters, and challengers! We'll fill you in with any updates from yust southeast of Lake Wobegon.
Shalom.