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.