27, 37, 300, 22, 10, ahead, behind.....?

[mikelgb]

Can anybody make sense of wtf is happening in Minnesota Senate race?

:crazy:

seriously though... What is actually the latest news?

[trumad]

1. LOL--Great confused minds think alike...

1 minute apart...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4586386

[Silent3]

2. At this point, I think Norm Franken will win.

:sarcasm:

[tabatha]

3. LOL

[Sal Minella]

4. Thought-provoking op-ed in today's New York Times by Seife

Not Every Vote Counts

By CHARLES SEIFE -- Op-Ed Contributor
The New York Times -- December 4, 2008

-snip-

Before the recount began on Nov. 19, Mr. Coleman and Mr. Franken were within about 200 votes of each other. With a little under three million ballots cast in the election, that margin was unbelievably small: a few thousandths of a percent separated the two candidates. So, as Minnesota law requires, election officials began counting, by hand, every single ballot from the more than 4,000 precincts around the state.

-snip-

...Before the recount began, the state ran a post-election review to gauge the accuracy of the voting process. The review involved auditors going into select precincts and, like the recounters, counting by hand, doing the most careful job humanly possible. So in some precincts, we have not just a recount but a re-recount. Both auditors and recounters were hypervigilant to possible sources of error, and yet they disagree on their tallies by about 20 thousandths of a percent.

-snip-

Minnesota’s instruments for counting votes are simply too crude to determine the winner in a race this tight. This is not the state’s fault. In fact, Minnesota’s election laws, procedures and equipment are among the best in the country. The problem is that a voting system that is based on physically recounting chits of paper is inherently error-prone, and in a close election like this, the errors are too large for the process to determine a winner. Even though, at the end of the recount, it will seem as if one candidate has won by a hair, the outcome will really be a statistical tie.

Luckily, Minnesota’s electoral law has a provision for ties. After all the counting and recounting, if the vote is statistically tied, the state should invoke the section of the law that requires the victor to be chosen by lot. It’s hard to swallow, but the right way to end the senatorial race between Mr. Coleman and Mr. Franken will be to flip a coin.
=============================
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/opinion/04seife.html?pagewanted=print

[Hassin Bin Sober]

5. His premise regarding a tie vote is stupid.

A "tie" vote does not mean "statistical tie."

He mentions the Minnesota tie vote law and then launches in to some extra legal fantasy of enacting a tie breaker by drawing lots based on a statistical tie.

State law does not recognize a statistical tie.

Does he honestly think the "winner" would submit to this extra legal procedure? Would the court?

What is a statistical tie anyway? The recount kicks in at .5% , or 14,500 votes in this case. The machines are said to have a .2%, or 5800 votes in this case, error rate. Should we just skip the recount an flip a coin in any race that doesn't meet those thresholds?


I'm being a little biased here because I fucking HATE republicans and love Al Franken but I think Al will pull it off by 50 or so votes. I would be supremely pissed if he submitted to a coin toss in the event of a very slim victory. I'm not above hypocrisy and asking Coleman to submit to the toss of a coin, should the shoe be on the other foot - but it ain't never gonna happen.