Al Franken: Steal an election if you can

December 4, 2008

Franken Wants 'Forensic Search' for Ballots


Democrat Al Franken's campaign called Thursday for Minnesota officials to engage in a "systematic, forensic search" for 133 ballots missing in a Minneapolis precinct favoring the Democrat.

The Franken campaign made the request while maintaining it has a 10-vote lead over incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman (R) in the recount.

"We are calling upon the Secretary of State, Hennepin County, and the City of Minneapolis to complete an intensive search," said Franken attorney Marc Elias in a conference call, addressing reports that 133 votes have gone missing in a Minneapolis's Third Ward. Elias said every person who touched or transported the ballots should be interviewed, and any polling place, vehicles, or warehouses that have held the ballots should be searched.

The ballots are said to favor Franken by 46 votes.

"The outcome of this election may be at stake," Elias said. "The integrity of the Minnesota electoral process is also at stake."

“We have a plausible explanation from Minneapolis election officials as to what occurred,” Coleman lead recount attorney Fritz Knaak told reporters. “The issue in Ramsey County is pretty serious, but it may end up not mattering.”

Elias said that their internal tally, which assumes all challenged ballots will be overturned by the state's Board of Canvassers, shows Franken leading Coleman by ten votes.

"We expect that we will not see any significant movement in the margin between now and the end of the hand recount," he said.

According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune's tally, Coleman leads Franken by 316 votes in the state's contested recount, with 98 percent of votes having been recounted. The campaigns have together lodged a total of 6,326 challenges to ballots. Coleman's campaign announced it would withdraw 650 challenges today, while Franken withdrew 633 challenges yesterday.
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Let every vote count. Count every vote.

This is the same tired refrain we heard in 2000.

The Losercrats yelled and screamed and demanded, threatened, hired hundreds of lawyers, and spent tens of millions of dollars - and Bush still won.

But wait, I am sure after all their efforts to ensure that every vote was counted in 2000, that in 2004 and 2008, they fought to ensure EVERY vote was counted in every state - because that would be the logical, consistent, correct position.

So they must have!

Wrong.

Tens of thousands of votes iN California were disqualified (READ: Never counted)
Thousands of votes in Arizona were disqualified. (READ: Never counted)
Over ten thousand in Oregon and Washington. (READ: Never counted)
Tens of thousands in Ohio (READ: Never counted)
Tens of thousands in Florida (READ: Never counted)
Tens of thousands in NY (READ: Never counted)
Tens of thousands in Oklahoma and Texas (READ: Never counted)

So what happened to the COUNT EVERY VOTE?

Apparently, COUNT EVERY VOTE unless it doesn't matter.

They really care.