Okay, campers, rise and shine, and don't forget your booties 'cause it's cooooold out there today.
It's coooold out there every day. What is this, Miami Beach?
Its not Miami Beach. Its the frozen tundra of Minnesota, rampant with chapped lips, wood chuckers, aquavit, recounts and December.
That soft fluttering sound from along the Canadian border you've been hearing? Some of you might think its snow flakes but actually, its the Minnesota Recount. 2.1 million ballots are being hand recounted one by one and they make a soft, fluttering sound. 30,000+ pollworkers, election judges, lawyers, challengers as well as anyone from the general public who want to watch, are going at it.
After Monday's launch things were a bit more routine yesterday but here's what happened .....below the fold....
CROSS POSTED AT Minnesota Progressive Project
YOU GOT ME, BABE!
Sonny the WineRev is singing nasal baritone to your straight-haired mezzo soprano Cher-Kos. Join in now as the clock flips over to
6:00am "I got you, babe" and Mark Dayton (D) still leads Tom Emmer (R). After day one of counting Monday Dayton had picked up 20 votes in the Recount. At the same time Emmer had lost 4, making the new/unofficial/semi-imaginary/stronger than you think margin of 8794 in Dayton's favor.
Need insurance? Assurance?
"You've got Ned, babe!" Ned Ryerson showed up, in this particular repeat played by walk-on actor Tom Emmer. Republicans local and national going back to the 2008 Recount took shots from time to time at the Recounters and even the voters of MN. They would accuse them of being sloppy, biased, stupid, evil or incompetent. They had a Ryerson kind of air: obnoxious, pushy and overbearing. They were obliviously surprised when people didn't take this kindly.
But in yesterday's replay Tom Emmer changed his script and got off this rather classy statement:
"First, we all need to take a moment to thank the thousands of Minnesotans, from both sides of the aisle and thenonpartisan election officials, who have taken time from their busy lives to partake in the ultimate show of civic engagement," Emmer said. "At the day’s conclusion, Minnesotans should be proud of the open and transparent recount process on display. Minnesota deserves election integrity. We are committed to ensuring the law is followed so voters will never have to question the value of their vote."
Thanking?......"from both sides of the aisle"...."civic engagement"..."value of their vote." Who would have thought? This sounds....you know....civic....even civil!
Mr. Emmer sir? Well said! If you mean it....well done!
A chorus of the "Pennsylvania Polka"
We take a break, babe, from the 6:00am musical refrain to break into something completely different, campers!
"Strike up the music the band has begun
The Pennsylvania Polka
Pick out your partner and join in the fun
The Pennsylvania Polka"....
Who are these recounters? Pretty ordinary folk really. The crowd scene at Gobbler's Knob, each finding a partner to join in a polka or two. If they would live in Punxatawney they would believe in groundhogs. Instead they live in Minnesota so they believe in Recounts, like this young man. (Don't miss that short E ("eh", rather than the usual "ee") double-T name coined in the nearest fjord!)
Petter Eriksmoen, 23, of Minneapolis, did just that. A recent graduate in political science from Concordia College in Moorhead, Eriksmoen said the chance to do some non-partisan public service appealed to him.
After helping sort and count 1,200 ballots in about four hours in Hennepin, Eriksmoen said the work had been tedious, challenging and rewarding. The experience had been "neat" and the process "transparent," he added.
The Star Tribune has the rest of the blog entry here:
http://www.startribune.com/...
Bunch of guys in tails & top hats
Will the groundhog see its shadow? Six more weeks of winter? Early spring? Thats what everyone wants to know. Reading the stripes on woolly-bears or the entrails of a goat is not enough. We need a groundhog report.
And at 6:00am, babe, all those guys in tails and top hats reported in after Monday, day one, and said:
Dayton’s biggest gains came from Clay, Goodhue, Hennepin and Olmsted counties, where he picked up a total of 48 votes, despite Emmer’s challenges of 21 ballots in those four counties. Emmer’s biggest gains came in Clay, Otter Tail and Steele counties, which together gave him 16 more votes.
Clay County: western border and North; Moorhead (the gateway to Fargo just across the river.)
Otter Tail: one step SE of Clay and Moorhead; Frostbite Fergus Falls (no recent gridiron reports of the Fighting Moose of Wassamatta U.)
Goodhue: SE of St. Paul along the Mississippi River; Red Wing, (where the entire recount team is in workboots...and proud of it.)
Steele: Straight S of St. Paul about 60 miles; Owantonna (Yes, I owe a tonna money too, don't you?)
Olmsted: SE corner of the state; Rochester (the other Rochester; NOT the home of Kodak but of the Mayo Clinic...where they likely developed lots of Xrays on Kodak film....)
Hennepin: Minneapolis metro.
Rachel Stassen-Berger of the Star Trib posted Glen Howatt's entry here, complete with a county by county readout of how its going.
http://www.startribune.com/...
Larry the Camera Guy
The tech geek with social skills appropriate to the species got up after 6:00am and is lugging the equipment around. Give him half a chance and he'll say something dorky or try to put his arm around Nancy while Phil, Phil Connors! riffs at the piano.
On the second day of the Recount St. Paul's Pioneer Press went looking for Larry moments on the ballots...and found them. In the breakfast room at the B & B, you can get coffee, toast (unless Phil Connors has borrowed the toaster for his morning bath) and you can read Jason Hoppin's story, babe, right here: (Pioneer Press ) He closes with this set of Larry-isms:
....the county is discovering some unusual votes, including a write-in vote for the "Flying Lizard People."
That's a riff on a famed ballot from the 2008 U.S. Senate recount, which caught national headlines.
But another Ramsey County ballot caught the attention of observers there, this one with a message written on the ballot that read:
"THIS WHITE BOY DOES NOT WANT TO BE IN PRISON. I WANT TO BE COMMANDER IN CHIEF. LEGALIZE DRUGS & 2 GAIN CONTROL OF THE PANAMA CANAL."
You see when Chekhov saw the long winter, he saw a winter bleak and dark and bereft of hope. But Larry sees the Panama Canal. Lizards sprouting wings and becoming dragons. Way to go Larry! (And can I have a hit of what you're smoking?)
The Lovely Rita
She is careful and unsure, but loves French poetry, boats but not the ocean, rhinestones, and is amazed by ice sculpture. Ah, to wake up next to her at 6:00am, babe, would be worth any number of destroyed, flip-clock alarm clocks.
In a precise, focused way she hangs out with the Dayton number crunchers, who are also precise and focused. They have honed their ice sculpting talents from 2 years ago and are even willing to run circles around the Secretary of State's office.
Figures from Dayton's recount team had him picking up 177 votes Monday, more than the 24 reported by the secretary of state's office. Election officials watched by partisans for both sides are conducting a hand recount of 2.1 million ballots in government centers and city halls across the state.
Dayton spokeswoman Denise Cardinal said her side got results from the field after the secretary of state's deadline and tracked challenged ballots based on the call of election judges at recount tables where Emmer's observers made three times as many challenges.
I wouldn't bet against the Dayton/Franken people or Andie MacDowell (always a bad move to root against the love interest.)
The AP sent out more on this here:
http://www.twincities.com/...
Evil Phil
When Phil notices he can't die, and can't get off of Feb. 2, first he sleazes out with money, wine, women, song (including that all time favorite oldie, "I got you, babe!") But after a while he feels trapped and in a crazed moment kidnaps the Groundhog, intent on nothing good.
Right on cue yesterday, the evil Phil emerged. Played in this repeat segment by the less than estimable Salsa Satrap Sutton the Hutt (last seen playing the chair of the MNGOP), evil Phil made dangerous noises about dragging this thing out in an election contest court and bringing on the Dark Scenario. (V. 3.0 of this series; long court challenges while hold-over governor Pawlenty gets to work with a GOP run legislature for the first time Timmy has been Top Groundhog.)
Only a few lines in a very brief story, but evil Phil delivers them well:http://www.startribune.com/...
The Good-er Phil
Phil Connors improves as life goes...well, if not on, then at least in a familiar loop. After all, there's something comforting starting the day with a golden oldie like, "I got you, babe!" His piano playing improves steadily (although he started from a high base; after all his father was a piano mover so its in the family.) Things go smoother as Phil grows as a person.
This Recount is smoother than the last one, tighter focused yet not resembling the hand-to-hand, ballot by ballot trench warfare from 2008. We see the head of the Emmer legal team and hard-boiled Joe Mansky, Ramsey county election director, locked in earnest, serious, vigorous discussion about....the BCS? College football? Really? Yep!
Jay Weiner at Minn Post says this is because although it is only day 2 of the Recount, this is going so well that "unexcitement" is settling in, so the BCS is what Mansky & Toner are doing to fight off rising levels of ennui.
This led us to one conclusion on Day Two of the governor’s recount: the thing is already losing a little steam. Or, as Dayton recount director Ken Martin put it hours later during a yawn-inducing news conference, "Unfortunately, we don’t have anything exciting to add today...Things are slowing down quite a bit."
Just ask Mansky and Toner. In Ramsey County, with about 10 percent of the state’s votes on Nov. 2, Mansky is helping to reduce the fires, the smoke and the steam. Toner is being a perfect gentleman.
This is not 2008 Recount Redux. That was the Great Minnesota Recount. This is the Legally-Mandated-Let’s-Make-Sure-Everything’s-On-The-Up-and-Up- And-Get-It-Over-Soon Recount.
http://www.minnpost.com/...
The Little Old Ladies from out of Town
That Phil Connors, what a guy! Up at 6:00am every day. If some little old ladies arrive from out of town and blow a tire, why Phil might JUST happen to be there with a jack and the right replacement tire. They simply ADORE that nice young man.
After Phil is done ("the best jack in Jefferson County"), and before the dance (and bachelor auction! hubba hubba!) later that night, the little old ladies from out of town go to the courthouse. It takes a few trips but they carry in all those ballots from their car trunk.
If you ask them how the recount went back home, they'll say things like:
The recount went smoothly again in St. Louis County (Duluth) where Elections Director Patricia Stolee said county officials are well on schedule to finish re-counting ballots by Thursday.
More than half the county’s ballots were counted by the end of the day with only seven ballot challenges for the day. The recount has been within a vote or two of the election day count in every precinct.
or like this:
ROCHESTER, Minn. - Two recounts in southern Minnesota have confirmed more Republican wins for seats in the Minnesota House, adding to a new GOP majority.
http://www.startribune.com/...
Maybe they'll say that very handsome reporter from the AP came by, "You remember, Edna! The one who you said talked like Joe Friday." "Thats right, Shirley! There we were, outside the St. Cloud Times building and he left us with facts, just the facts, after 2 days counting."
Democrat Mark Dayton held an 8,770-vote lead over Republican Tom Emmer in unofficial results before a statewide recount. A challenged ballot is not awarded to either candidate until reviewed by the canvassing board. The Minnesota Secretary of State is reporting the progress of the recount by comparing each completed precinct with its Nov. 2 vote totals:
Precincts recounted: 83.37 percent
Percent of votes recounted: 69.87 percent
Dayton net: minus 38
Emmer net: minus 1
Ballots challenged by Dayton: 143
Ballots challenged by Emmer: 597
____________
OK, its 6:00am. I'd like a cup of Irish coffee in hand. Then I can say a prayer and drink to world peace. You've got me, babe and I've got you, babe, and we're all forever here in Recount loop, yust southeast of Lake Wobegon.
Shalom....babe.