Minn. justices deny GOP effort to change gov tally

[cal04]

Source: Associated Press

– Republican Tom Emmer failed Monday to convince Minnesota's highest court that signed polling place rosters must be matched with the number of votes tallied in the state's undecided race for governor.

In a rapid ruling issued within two hours of a court hearing, justices declined Emmer's request to order the comparison prior to an automatic recount in the race, which could have led to some ballots being randomly disqualified. Emmer trails Democrat Mark Dayton by 8,770 votes.

The court's order came with little explanation. Justices said they wanted to get it out quickly "so as not to impede the orderly election process" and would follow up with a detailed opinion later.

Emmer's team didn't offer an immediate response to the ruling but said one was coming. Dayton attorney Marc Elias told reporters before the court acted that his client's lead was "insurmountable absent some kind of evidence that something went very wrong, and we have seen nothing to suggest that."

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101122/ap_on_el_gu/us_minnesota_governor_3

[Hawkeye-X]

1. Well, after Coleman v Franken, I'm sure they are quick to settle the issue

so fuck off Emmer. You lost, period. It's time for you to go back to whatever hole you crawled out of, and stay there.

[AndrewP]

10. +1

[truthisfreedom]

2. That's excellent news.

We've got to get Dayton in there asap. I hope we manage to kill their stall tactics every time they rear their ugly head.

[Angry Dragon]

3. Republicans are just poor losers

[DCKit]

6. And vindictive winners.

Why we still play with them is a mystery.

[peacetalksforall]

4. Now is the time to show the country that Repubs can be fair and dignified.

I hope so, though the first time I heard about Emmer was when he struck out at waiters/waitresses/baristas - anyone? who made money through tips. Can they go from bizarre to reasoning?

[greiner3]

5. I do not understand your post.

[peacetalksforall]

8. Two years ago Al Franken ran against Norm Coleman and won by a narrow margin automatically.

setting up a recount by law. The behavior of the Republicans was apalling. They dragged it out for about eight months. It cost the State a lot of money. It cost Coleman his dignity and ALL their lawyers ended up looking ridiculous while Frankens' lawyers won kudos.

This time it is a repugnant candidate Emmer combined with an incumbent Republican Gov. Pawlenty and a Republican House and Senate (MN) and it looks like they are going to try the same thing. Many newspapers are weighing in and trying to send the message that the vote lead is great enough that it would be hard to make up the difference and rise to the minimum of votes over that to win - all this amid the talk of the money and time.

The ugly opinion I hold of Pawlenty, the uglier opionion I've formed of Emmer, the opinion I hold of the legal batallions of the Republicans after Bush-Gore, Bush-Kerry, Coleman-Franken, and many small elections added to the degree of contempt I feel. I add the contempt I hold for the Republican legal sanity on the Republicans on the Supreme Court.

It is their right to fight, but they also alwasys have ulterior motives and want to take advantage of any situations to come up with six wins from a loss. That is their ratio for dirty tricks. Rove taught them how to do it.

[hughee99]

7. Not a fan of Emmer, but does anyone else see an issue

with having more votes than voters signed in? Is there a scenario under which a voter can avoid checking in, but still legally cast a ballot?

[naaman fletcher]

12. shh..

don't raise the issue that only republicans have an incentive to cheat in elections. You will lose friends here.

[glinda]

15. The more the media gives them air time to every"made up" situation the more they cast doubt.

[dflprincess]

13. At this point there has been no solid evidence that this happened

When we sign in to vote we are given a numbered receipt that we take to the next table. We hand that receipt to an election judge who then hands us our ballot. No receipt, no ballot and you can't get the receipt without signing in. And 2 different election judges are involved in the process.

At the end of the evening, the number of receipts and the number of ballots must match. The election judges cannot leave or even tally the votes for the precinct if those counts do not match.

At one time Minnesota law said that the election judges had to balance the number of ballots (not actual votes, just the count of ballots) with the number of people who signed in on the roster that day. Several years ago the law was interpreted to as saying counting the receipts was enough and met the legal requirement. This made it easier to balance voters & ballots after we adopted same day registration.

What Emmer's team was arguing was that counting the receipts was not enough and that every county should have to go through the sign in books from every preceinct to balance the ballots before the recount even begins. This was just a delaying tactic as the counts in question were balanced on election night.

If there actually were more votes cast than voters showing up, that would probably mean the scanner miscounted and errors like that should be found during the recount.

[hughee99]

14. Ah, okay.

Reading the OP, I was under the impression that this had happened (where there were more ballots cast than receipts) and that's what Emmer was complaining about. Now it makes more sense.

[glinda]

16. Delays so that T-Paw can keep power to bolster support for new Repub Majority.

I think it is in relationship to his joining a lawsuit against the HC Bill.

[Igel]

9. When I helped staff a precinct location--not in Minn.--it was expected.

We had to account for discrepancies if our pollbook and number of votes cast didn't tally. We were expected to keep a log to account for any differences--e.g. the voter stood in line and left after signing in. Fewer votes than voters wasn't a big problem. More votes than voters, *that* was a problem.

It's the first place to look for improprieties, and one of the first things checked when the official polling of the machines took place: If there are 200 votes and 190 signatures, what happened? Usually nothing bad. But potentially so. It's the easy way for ballot box stuffing. Something lots of people are concerned about. Depending.

On the other hand, if the receipts don't match the number of signatures, I'm not sure what that means in Minn. Did they forget to sign? Were people handed receipts inappropriately?

And raising the issue this late is, I agree, a problem. The guy's fishing. Again, the possibility of ballot-box stuffing is apparently only a morality-based principle if it's your guy (or gal) who lost.

[hayu_lol]

11. Seems to me that during the '04 election...

that a precinct/township in Ohio had about twice as many votes as there were voters. The Bush/GOP election machine was working at high speed. Never did hear how that particular segment finally turned out.

Rather than use their own dirty tricks, this time around, the repugnants are blaming the Dems for the ummmmm...errors. Gotta give the buggers credit for never giving in.