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Memo To Minnesota, Just Follow The Rules

Posted by PATRICK EDABURN in At TMV, Politics.
Dec 14th, 2008 | Comments

In the never-ending saga that is the Minnesota Senate race, we have been hearing rhetoric from all sides (I’d say both sides but, given the mess, I think it’s more than two sides). Some are yelling about stopping possible fraud while others talk about the need to count ‘every vote’.

Well the simple fact of the matter is that no side is going to be happy here. Fraud happens in every campaign and in every campaign there are votes that don’t get counted. In theory a totally honest campaign where every single vote gets counted is a nice idea but human beings are, after all, human and mistakes will happen. Most of the time it doesn’t matter because the race is not this close.

But in this case it is and that is why I want to encourage Minnesota to follow all of the rules. There is a reason we have rules in place before the voting, and this circumstance is precisely why. In a contest like this it is only natural for both sides to do everything they can to help their man win. A predetermined set of rules allows things to be as fair as possible.

This is where I am growing increasingly concerned about the direction the vote counting is proceeding. It seems every time we have a close race like this, you have people wanting to change the rules in midstream (usually the person who is behind, but it has no partisan bias).

So if the rules say that a given ballot should be counted, then count it. If the rules say it cannot be counted, then don’t count it. This may certainly result in some people having their ballots rejected on technical grounds and that is unfortunate, but if you don’t like the rule, have the legislature change it for the next time.

If kids on the playground can play by the rules, then so can adults in Minnesota.

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surakmn

What patronizing nonsense. Minnesota is neither a banana republic, nor Florida. It's process and personnel are among the best to be found anywhere. Everyone wants this to be over, but the election really is that close and there's nothing to do but keep counting. The unanimous rulings from the tri partisan commission is a good sign that things are proceeding fairly and according to the rules.

AustinRoth

Pre-existing election rules are only to be adhered to when they favor the Democratic candidate. If that is not the case, then 'all-the-votes' (which is like saying 'it is for the children'), well, 'all-the-votes' in a manner most likely to help the Democratic candidate, should be counted. If all that fails, try to get the Senate to overrule the election board.

That, in a nutshell, is the Franken strategy.

And no, Minnesota is not Florida. They seem to be even worse.

Finally, this is all just an intellectual exercise, at least as far as determining the 'true' winner. As with Florida, there is no way to know for sure who won, as the final difference in votes between the candidates is well within the margin of error of ANY initial count and/or recount methodology.

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