Dec 21 2008
The Endless Senate Races

What’s going on with the MN Senate recount? We still don’t have a winner! Lots of frowning, incomprehension, and indecision. See the picture here? Some people actually vote like that. I wonder if they should even be allowed to vote at all if they are that indecisive.
There are still daily, nearly hourly, reports of Norm Coleman falling behind and Al Franken taking the lead, or vice versa, but this situation changes frequently. This week, it will change again. Both sides are full of “projections”. (It seems the only candidate’s team that gets their projections into print lately are those of Franken). Gradually, as this drags on and on, people care less and less. Misinformation still abounds everywhere online. This isn’t over yet, no matter what Franken’s people project. When the recount is finally over, there will be weeks to follow of lawsuits.
There will not be a new Minnesota Senator on January 6th unless Governor Tim Pawlenty appoints an interim senator (I hope he chooses Jesse Ventura, but he won’t), and there are signs he may appoint one. Lately, he has reportedly been asking around for advice on how and when to do that. Meanwhile, this endless senate race is going on and on and on. Some of us are bored with it. Both men seem to have more bad qualities than good, at this point. I still want Franken to win, but only because he’s not Norm Coleman.*
This will all have to be reviewed when the recount is over. The problem is that there seems to be no hard and fast rules when dealing with absentee ballots, and many of them were rejected, and now they are supposedly going to be counted — but not all of them. See what a mess this is? I have lost all faith in the Minnesota voting system. I don’t even know if MY vote counted after all of this.
Here’s why people have reason to wonder: (from the Strib)
“Ray Hermanson of Roseville had his absentee ballot rejected along with his wife’s. The cryptic reason cited by Ramsey County for the rejection of the ballots — “AB materials for R-1 issued, should have been R-2.”
What does that mean??
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