Al Franken Heads to Washington

[Aramike]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090630/...nnesota_senate

Republican Norm Coleman conceded to Democrat Al Franken in Minnesota's contested Senate race on Tuesday, hours after a unanimous state Supreme Court ruled the former "Saturday Night Live" comedian should be certified the winner.

This is certainly no surprise to anyone, but I must admit to feeling a tad put-off by the fact that votes were counted using standards clearly favorable to one candidate. I can't help but think that, if it isn't already, our system is almost irrepairably broken.

[Platapus]

Now we will see if Coleman kicks in with that $94K to Franken.

Bet he tries to weasel out of that also.

Now the Obama agenda is free from filibuster. The decline of the US is set in stone. The rest of the world is on its own as Mr. Obama attacks his own countrymen for your benefit. Enjoy!

[Platapus]

The Democrats are only "free" of filibuster if all 60 Democratic Senators always vote the same way. Events show this is not a given.

Filibusters could have been stopped before this if some of the republicans or the independents voted along with the Democrats. Events show that this is not uncommon.

[Onkel Neal]

Originally Posted by CastleBravo

Now the Obama agenda is free from filibuster. The decline of the US is set in stone. The rest of the world is on its own as Mr. Obama attacks his own countrymen for your benefit. Enjoy!

Uhhh... ok Since we are all d00med, can I skip my house payments?

Anyway, I think the real problem is the closeness of the election. Just like the Bush/Gore election, when it happens to be that close, it's reeeeelly hard to say with 100% accuracy who won. I don't blame both candidates for trying to push it over the goal. Solution: come on, people, let's have a few more landslides, ok?

[SteamWake]

The funny thing about this 'election' is that Franken's opponent won outright.

Then on the demanded recounts Franken got more and more votes.

Very curious indeed.

Seeing as how Franke is a but... uhhh... unstable I think he will self destruct.

Already polling data is beginning to show that americans feel that the feds have become 'too liberal'. Wait untill some of these agendas really start to hit home to the average clueless dork then the stuff will really hit the fan.

Oh and the mortgage payments.. wasent Obama supposed to help with that?

[Buddahaid]

At least this government joker has qualifications.

Buddahaid

[Aramike]

Originally Posted by SteamWake

The funny thing about this 'election' is that Franken's opponent won outright.

Then on the demanded recounts Franken got more and more votes.

Very curious indeed.

Seeing as how Franke is a but... uhhh... unstable I think he will self destruct.

Already polling data is beginning to show that americans feel that the feds have become 'too liberal'. Wait untill some of these agendas really start to hit home to the average clueless dork then the stuff will really hit the fan.

Oh and the mortgage payments.. wasent Obama supposed to help with that?

This smells like the ghost of George Parr has his hands all over this...

[Aramike]

Originally Posted by Buddahaid

At least this government joker has qualifications.

Buddahaid

That got a laugh out of me.

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by SteamWake

The funny thing about this 'election' is that Franken's opponent won outright.

Then on the demanded recounts Franken got more and more votes.

Very curious indeed.

Not curious at all. The entire purpose of a recount is to re-do the count for the purpose of checking accuracy. The fact that the vote count changed is indicative that the decision for a recount was appropriate.

My major concern, and this is not limited to the MN election is the election officials attempting to determine voter intent. This is wrong!

A ballot is either valid or invalid. If a citizen is too stupid to to mark a ballot correctly then their vote should not count.

Putting election officials in the position of trying to determine voter intent is inappropriate. Voter intent is demonstrated by the ballot, not an interpretation of what the ballot may or may not indicate.

The various states have been setting a, in my opinion, very bad precedent with "voter intent" evaluations.

I am an election official in my state. In our elections at any time before the vote is scanned, the citizen can request a new ballot and we will void the old ballot. This is explained to every voter in person when they vote.

Mistakes are understandable. Especially in ballots using markers. If any citizen mistakenly makes any stray marks on their ballot, all they have to do is tell an election official and a new ballot will be issued. no embarrassment; no problems. There is a procedure for this.

In order to make our elections as fair as possible, we simply can't be putting election officials in the position of having to determine voter intent with mismarked ballots.

I may be a bit harsh but I feel that if a citizen is too stupid to operate a paper ballot they probably are too stupid to have their votes counted.

[SteamWake]

Have you seen some of those mismarked ballots?

I have and I agree that they should have been thrown out. But it seems that if there was any doubt it was given to Franken.. Im just saying.

[mookiemookie]

Originally Posted by CastleBravo

Now the Obama agenda is free from filibuster. The decline of the US is set in stone. The rest of the world is on its own as Mr. Obama attacks his own countrymen for your benefit. Enjoy!

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by SteamWake

. Im just saying.

No you are spreading rumours. If you have evidence of election fraud then you needed to have sent it to the state election board.

Election officials are ordinary people working hard to make the democratic process work. Our elections are not perfect and there are ways of improving it. However to spread rumours that the election officials somehow violated their oaths is inappropriate unless you have evidence.

I have not met a single election official who did not take their oath seriously. I only wished the citizens realized that.

[SteamWake]

Originally Posted by Platapus

No you are spreading rumours. If you have evidence of election fraud then you needed to have sent it to the state election board.

Election officials are ordinary people working hard to make the democratic process work. Our elections are not perfect and there are ways of improving it. However to spread rumours that the election officials somehow violated their oaths is inappropriate unless you have evidence.

I have not met a single election official who did not take their oath seriously. I only wished the citizens realized that.

Im just an ordinary citizen whom keeps up with the news. Unlike 90% of the rest of the citizens of this country.

We both know that even if I had proof positive of election fraud it would be laughed at and dismissed.

Im not saying anything about the election officials there job was long finished before this circus began.

[Aramike]

Originally Posted by Platapus

No you are spreading rumours. If you have evidence of election fraud then you needed to have sent it to the state election board.

Election officials are ordinary people working hard to make the democratic process work. Our elections are not perfect and there are ways of improving it. However to spread rumours that the election officials somehow violated their oaths is inappropriate unless you have evidence.

I have not met a single election official who did not take their oath seriously. I only wished the citizens realized that.

Have you seen the ballots in question, and the comparisons on what was accepted for Franken but rejected for Coleman? The reason I ask is because I think you'd be shocked at some of the comparisons.