Franken, Coleman and recounts

last updated 8 January 2015

Nobody really won the Senate election in Minnesota, said Jason Richwine in National Review Online. "The election was a tie." So instead of depriving the state of a Senate seat while Democrat Al Franken and Republican Norm Coleman slug it out, we should abolish recounts and stick with the first result. Or at least save time and money, and just flip a coin.

Deja vu, anybody? asked Horace Cooper in The Washington Times. The recount irregularities that changed a narrow Coleman victory to a narrow Franken one are strikingly similar to Florida's mess in Bush v. Gore. Double counting, absentee ballots from ineligible voters, "mysterious ghost ballots—all varying from precinct to precinct"—obscure the real winner, along with being "just plain unconstitutional."

That's rich, said Eric Kleefeld in Talking Points Memo. Coleman, and the people carrying water for him, are twisting themselves into knots to score him votes. Their latest P.R. tactic is trying to find people whose absentee ballots were rejected, "including ballots they themselves earlier objected to counting." So, tell me again, who's the one with the flexible standards?