Franken Race: Examples of Coleman challenges here

[wellstone dem]

http://blogs.twincities.com/politics/2008/11/want_to_see_some_more_ballots.html


Coleman is challenging votes where McCain voters voted for Franken.

That said, I think most challenges for both sides will be overruled.

Here are some Franken Challenges. I think these will be overruled, but they are more legitimate than the Coleman challenges.

http://blogs.twincities.com/politics/2008/11/want_to_see_some_ballots.html

[Tatiana]

1. Yeah those look like they will be overruled.

Most of the ones Coleman is challenging are clearly Franken votes where he split the ticket.

[camera obscura]

2. When I was canvassing I met people who were voting McCain and Franken.

I didn't quite understand it but I did meet them.

Wonder what the deficit will be between them...

[wellstone dem]

3. another similar link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQy18YR6E70

[LisaL]

4. I fail to see how this can possibly stand.

McCain voters are allowed to vote for Franken, and for whoever they darn please. If there are many ballots like this, they got to be admitted.

[Bjorn Against]

7. It won't stand.

The vote challengers working for the campaigns are mostly volunteers who have never done something like this and thus know nothing about election law. A very large number of the challenges are frivolous and will be dismissed. I actually heard Franken is supposed to review some of the challenged ballots from their campaign this weekend and determine which ones are legitimate. I suspect the campaign will probably decide not to challenge a good number of them as the campaign's lawyers know election law much better than the volunteers do and they will not want to waste the judges time on ballots in which they know what the judges ruling will be.

[LisaL]

8. Of course it won't stand. You can vote for McCain and Franken.

Ain't any law against that. LOL.

[democrattotheend]

5. Franken should do the same - challenge all the Obama-Coleman votes

Since there are probably 4 times as many of those.

[Bjorn Against]

6. Challenging votes in which the intent is clear is undemocratic.

I don't like to see either side doing this, those ballots are very clearly marked and to not count a vote based on the flimsiest of technicalities is a crime against democracy. Thankfully we have a panel of judges that I believe will do a fair job of determining the voters intent. My job involves processing paper surveys which are setup pretty much the same way as a ballot. I have spent a huge amount of time determining the intent of people filling out surveys incorrectly, and I can say that it is usually not terribly difficult. There are always those few people who are totally unclear in the manner in which they fill the forms out, and occasionally we are forced to drop responses because it is impossible to determine what the intent was. Despite those few tough cases however for the most part it is not very difficult to determine intent, plus the law is pretty clear on what counts so I am sure Mark Richie and the judges on his panel will do a fair job of figuring this all out.