Update: The court came down on the side of Franson's petition. Read about it here Cunniff-Franson obvious error order: pull 35 random ballots from three precincts.[end update]
In Thou Shalt Be Disenfranchised – MN Election Scam Exposed, a classic Triple A rant crossposted at True North, CD6 Republican activist Andy Aplikowski wrote:
In the election of Rep. Franson (R) and challenger Cunniff (D) you have a slim margin of just 1 vote. Its in recount and litigation phase now and guess what. There was an error on election day and some voters were given the wrong ballots. So now 35 ballots will be drawn out at … (AHEM) “random”.
That means people who cast their votes will have their votes erased. They don’t get a redo and due to an error, their right to vote was thrown in the garbage.
Someone agrees with Triple A about the need for a redo: DFL House 8B candidate Bob Cunniff. The Alexandria Echo Press reports in Judge to issue decision on Franson-Cunniff election today:
Cunniff and his attorney are arguing that the error was not just a counting and recording error but involved procedural errors made by the election judges (giving ballots to people who should not have been voting in the Franson-Cunniff race). Cunniff wants another remedy that would be determined by a contested election board such as inspecting the ballots, conducting a new election in the affected wards, examining the absentee ballots, etc.
The judge is expected to issue a ruling today, since the Douglas County canvassing board is meeting tomorrow, according to the Echo.
As for the party calling for that scam? Bluestem gathers that Triple was getting his information from sources other than the Franson petition. Today's report in the Alex paper has more:
In a nutshell, Franson and her attorney are requesting the court to get involved because they believe the local canvassing board lacks the authority on correcting the errors that were made in the election. They want the total number of over-votes, 35, pulled at random from the three affected precincts, which they claim is the proper remedy under state law.
The case has Mr. Aplikowski calling for the end of the secret ballot, so we can figure out which voters were given the wrong ballots and future errors of this sort can be fixed on a one to one match.
Triple A's passionate proposal left Bluestem a bit puzzled, since there were no more fierce defenders of the secret ballot than corporations and conservatives during the fight over the Employee Free Choice Act, which would allow workers, rather than employers, to decide to use the majority sign-up election to organize unions in workplaces. Workers voting to join a local union must sign a card.
Bluestem will post an update when the judge's ruling comes in. Should a redo be ordered in those three precincts, voters there will be the most popular--and likely among the most unhappy--citizens in the state. While the rest of us dream of pardoned turkeys and sugarplum fairies, they'll be having to go through this whole thing all over again.
Presumably onl those who voted on November 6 get the mulligans, but Bluestem isn't sure about that aspect.
Photo: lucky turkey was pardoned by Governor Dayton today; voters in three precincts in Douglas County might not be so fortunate. Photo via the Governor's office.
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