Editor’s note: The following editorial appeared in Wednesday’s edition of the Wall Street Journal.
The Minnesota Supreme Court yesterday declared Democrat Al Franken the winner of last year’s disputed Senate race, and Republican incumbent Norm Coleman’s gracious concession at least spares the state any further legal combat. The unfortunate lesson is that you don’t need to win the vote on Election Day as long as your lawyers are creative enough to have enough new or disqualified ballots counted after the fact.
Mr. Franken trailed Mr. Coleman by 725 votes after the initial count on election night, and 215 after the first canvass. The Democrat’s strategy from the start was to manipulate the recount in a way that would discover votes that could add to his total. The Franken legal team swarmed the recount, aggressively demanding that votes that had been disqualified be added to his count, while others be denied for Mr. Coleman.
But the team’s real goldmine were absentee ballots, thousands of which the Franken team claimed had been mistakenly rejected. While Mr. Coleman’s lawyers demanded a uniform standard for how counties should re-evaluate these rejected ballots, the Franken team ginned up an additional 1,350 absentees from Franken-leaning counties. By the time this treasure hunt ended, Mr. Franken was 312 votes up, and Mr. Coleman was left to file legal briefs.
What Mr. Franken understood was that courts would later be loathe to overrule decisions made by the canvassing board, however arbitrary those decisions were. He was right. The three-judge panel overseeing the Coleman legal challenge, and the Supreme Court that reviewed the panel’s findings, in essence found that Mr. Coleman hadn’t demonstrated a willful or malicious attempt on behalf of officials to deny him the election. And so they refused to reopen what had become a forbidding tangle of irregularities. Mr. Coleman didn’t lose the election. He lost the fight to stop the state canvassing board from changing the vote-counting rules after the fact.
This is now the second time Republicans have been beaten in this kind of legal street fight. In 2004, Dino Rossi was ahead in the election-night count for Washington Governor against Democrat Christine Gregoire. Ms. Gregoire’s team demanded the right to rifle through a list of provisional votes that hadn’t been counted, setting off a hunt for “new” Gregoire votes. By the third recount, she’d discovered enough to win. This was the model for the Franken team.
Mr. Franken now goes to the Senate having effectively stolen an election. If the GOP hopes to avoid repeats, it should learn from Minnesota that modern elections don’t end when voters cast their ballots. They only end after the lawyers count them.
Comments
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Keith (anonymous) says…
I'm here to deliver another order of sour grapes for the local media mogul. Where do you want them?
TacoBob (anonymous) says…
Only took two comments for the simplistic comparisons to be trotted out.
Comparing these two elections is comparing apples and hamburgers.
Hats off to Franken's legal team. Had all votes cast been counted, there may not have been a different outcome, but the margin would have been less, most likely.
Dems are in the drivers seat now - so own your decisions and stand by them.
deskboy04 (anonymous) says…
Coleman didn't have any lawyers of his own?
Satirical (anonymous) says…
They probably fought for the oversees military votes to be discarded like the Dems did in 2000.
jaywalker (anonymous) says…
I agree with others here. Why couldn't Coleman do the same thing? Money shouldn't have anything to do with it, if that was actually the case. If it was, we need some reform to the process of recounts and start by investigating them with independent counsel.
texburgh (anonymous) says…
And I suppose that the NYT (and LJW) believe that what the Bush lawyers and the Republican vote suppression machine did in Florida was legitimate?
Of course they do! The NYT and LJW believe that whatever Republicans do - through the courts or by whatever means necessary - is good for us; whatever Democrats do - through legal means - is by definition bad.
Want to know more about the friends of the NYT and LJW? Read Franken's book "Lies and they Lying Liars Who Tell Them."
jaywalker (anonymous) says…
Yo, texburgh, what are you babbling about? First of all, by NYT I'm guessin' you're referring to the New York Times, which has no bearing on the above since this editorial comes from the Wall Street Journal.
Second, if you actually 'think' the Times is a staunch backer of Republicans, conservatives, the 'right',........I don't know what to say. Seek help?
Graczyk (anonymous) says…
Mr. Nancy,
It doesn't matter how many Americans dislike Franken. What matters is how many Minnesotans like him. Apparently, he was liked enough to get elected - but just barely.
toe (anonymous) says…
Franken is a clown masquerading as a politician.
beatrice (anonymous) says…
Tom, among your many failed predictions, you also stated that America would never elect a black man as president. I recommend you leave the Nostrodamus stuff alone, because you obviously aren't very good at it.
Further, who cares if a minority of the American populace dislike Franken? I mean, you do know that 44% isn't a majority, don't you?
I'm just surprised you aren't using this as another opportunity to rail against the left-bias American-hating media. Oh, that's right, it doesn't exist.
kugrad (anonymous) says…
Coleman lost. His concession was far from gracious. He cost taxpayers millions.
Gore vs. Bush anyone?
jaywalker (anonymous) says…
Someone please contact defender's mommy and advise her he needs a diaper change and a nap, That's embarrassing.
"Coleman lost. His concession was far from gracious. He cost taxpayers millions"
Not a word after 'lost' is true. Congratulations to kugrad for the most unintelligent, uninformed post thus far today.
Keith (anonymous) says…
"will be proven wrong before my 50th birthday with"
Wow, as grumpy as you are, I figured you to be 80 already.
JimmyJoeBob (anonymous) says…
KUgrad
You got it wrong Franken was the one who cost the taxpayer millions he was the one with all the attorneys. You don't really believe those attorneys work for free do you. They are all on Franken's 6 million dollar expense account now.
mancityfooty (Corey Williams) says…
Defender (Anonymous) says…
"Oh, I get it now Tom. You call it Dependance Day for two reasons:"
Actually, he calls it dependance day because he's dependent on someone else's paycheck. And it's every day.
jaywalker (anonymous) says…
"You're just making yourself sound stupid, and I thank you for that."
That line is amusingly ironic and not a little bit sad. My sympathy runs deep for defender's parents. Immaturity on this level has to be devastating for a mother and father.
jaywalker (anonymous) says…
Defenseless,
I don't care who you 'lambaste', not that you've done anything of the sort here. It's the unbelievably immature and pathetic way you've chosen to respond, not debate, that I've commented on. Nothing else. All you've done here is act like a petulant child. If you 'think' you've "defeated" me in some way that only adds the word 'delusional' to your exploits today, but I can't say I'm surprised.
And I'd strongly advise you not to delve into a grammar war with me, kiddo. It looks like I had a typo in that quote, using a comma instead of the period I intended. That's a slip of a key. I'm so terribly sorry. But at least I know the difference between the homophone's 'hear' and 'here', that 'Lord' should be capitalized in that usage context, that coupling something like 'dishonest liar' is redundant, that I can spell 'hypocrite' and 'Dependence' correctly, and I know how and where to place commas and apostrophes appropriately. Your ignorance runs a close second to your immaturity, though I'm certain they're part and parcel.
At any rate, rant away. Conversing with the likes of you is a waste of time. I won't be doing it anymore on this string.
jonas_opines (anonymous) says…
Lordie lordie
Kam_Fong_as_Chin_Ho (anonymous) says…
Good for Franken. It's about time the Dems finally learned how to steal an election the same way the Republicans have done.
BigPrune (anonymous) says…
The canvassing boards were predominately democrats. That's why Coleman couldn't win, at all. That's why he couldn't do what Franken did because Coleman's side couldn't change the rules after the fact like Al Franken's side did.
Dirty politics, plain and simple. Democrats are corrupt far more than Republicans.
mancityfooty (Corey Williams) says…
Mr_Nancy_Boy_To_You (Tom Shewmon) says…
"I think Todd Palin is pretty hot"
mancityfooty (Corey Williams) says…
Mr_Nancy_Boy_To_You (Tom Shewmon) says…
"Defender, this is an opinion and commentary forum. Is an opinion or perception a lie?"
You are right, Tom. And you are correct in that sense. In fact (ha!), people can pretty much say whatever they want as long as they precede their statement with "In my opinion..." That does make for a good line. Let me try it out:
In my opinion, Tom Shewmon is an absolute moron. His claims of not being a dittohead fail miserably when, after supposedly just listening to the radio one afternoon, he parrots the new Limbaugh line every chance he gets. In my opinion, Tom is an imbecile who deserves to be treated as such.
Wow! That was good. Thanks Tom.
beatrice (anonymous) says…
jay: "Immaturity on this level has to be devastating for a mother and father."
And bringing someone's parents into an argument is meant to be a sign of maturity?
kugrad (anonymous) says…
Jaywalker, back at you. Everything I wrote was true. A concession would have been gracious if given 5 months ago, but dragging this thing out in court at a huge cost to taxpayers with tons of money wasted in many ways was just wrong. The outcome was certain a long time ago (as every major washington pundit agrees), yet it was dragged out just to avoid seating Franken for the first term of congress. It wasn't dragged out on the hope of victory; that Coleman lost was clear long ago and he knew it along with everyone else.
All of the media coverage of the last 5 months, newspaper coverage, bandwidth wasted, court time, security, everything was just a huge waste of resources. When he finally concedes after taking it to the F'in supreme court of MN, it isn't 'gracious,' it's just overdue.
kugrad (anonymous) says…
To date, there has not been even ONE vote ever found to be fraudelenty cast in the last national election (or any other that I've heard of) that has been connected to ACORN in any way. The entire allegation, and it is simply an allegation, was that fradulent registrations were collected and, in accordance with state laws, submitted by ACORN (yes, you are required to submit registrations you collect even if they say Elvis Presley on them and to do so within a short, specified time period). When people go off about ACORN as though they were behind a whole host of frauds involving everything from the financial markets to elections, you can be certain, virtually 100% certain, that they have never actually read anything about the topic that wasn't on a blog (not subject to fact checking) or FOX news (now slightly renamed as their own producers call it "infotainment" and defend their right to include non-factual info based on that description), rather than thinking for themselves.
The ACORN "debacle" is that functionally illiterate people who can't distinguish fact from opinion and propoganda from reporting have been persuaded that some fraud was perpetutated where there has been none. All fire but no heat.
All allegation but no proof. This is a typical republican strategy of recent years; repeat a claim often enough and the gullible will believe it. I can't recall which of the famous Nazi leaders succinctly described that strategy in a welll-known quote, but it has certainly been followed, with obvious success, against ACORN.
jumpin_catfish (anonymous) says…
In other banana republics one party rule is called a dictatorship. All we need now is the Obama jack booted secret police.
BigPrune (anonymous) says…
Look it up your own damn self defender.
jonas_opines (anonymous) says…
In other words, "I neither know nor care as long as it's convenient."
jaywalker (anonymous) says…
"Everything I wrote was true. A concession would have been gracious if given 5 months ago, but dragging this thing out in court at a huge cost to taxpayers with tons of money wasted in many ways was just wrong."
None of what you wrote was remotely true, kugrad. The 'concession' in question was the speech Coleman just gave, which was very gracious. You believing he should have conceded 5 months ago is beside the point for that argument. Not to mention irretrievably stupid since Coleman was in the lead after the initial tally. You think he should have conceded when he won? Brilliant!
Also, the difference between the two was in the low hundreds. Nobody is ever going to concede when the margin is that slim, case in point: Franken!!!
And I don't know what this huge burden on the taxpayers you're whining about is. It's my understanding that the lawyers that were waging this recount battle were paid for by each campaign.
jaywalker (anonymous) says…
"And bringing someone's parents into an argument is meant to be a sign of maturity?"
I didn't bring anyone's parents into an argument, bea. Nor was there any semblance of an argument going on anyways. Perhaps my line was on the border, but it certainly is no match for the sheer volume of childish nonsense that clown was throwing out there, gimme a break.
beatrice (anonymous) says…
Jay, you did write: "My sympathy runs deep for defender's parents. Immaturity on this level has to be devastating for a mother and father." That is bringing someone's parents into the fray.
Not trying to start a fight, just pointing out that if you want to make a real point about someone's level of maturity then you should rise above using petty insults yourself. (Before you respond, please note that I have never made any claims regarding my own level of maturity. In fact, I find myself to be very immature for my age ... much to the devastation of my parents and siblings.)
livingstone (anonymous) says…
"Mr_Nancy_Boy_To_You (Tom Shewmon) says…
Franken, like Obama, was able to outspend 10 to 1. On Rasmussen, just right now, 44% of Americans dislike Franken."
And you didn't say a thing about George Bush outspent Al Gore and Kerry?
TacoBob (anonymous) says…
Once again, both sides would have fought this out. To blame Coleman for 'dragging this out' is silly. Franken (Dems) would have done the same thing, just flip the argument. It all boils down to trailer park logic - simplistic and weak. Dems should stop trying to put themselves above the fray when they would have ran this through the state Supreme Court just as Coleman did. Please, get over yourselves.
Bottom line is Franken won. Dems need to get over it.
What everyone should be worried about is how this went down. Votes were not counted consistently between counties. If we were all smart, we would figure out how wrong this is for all of us. Happened to go the Dems way this time. Next time it might be the Reps. Either way the inconsistency should be rooted and and all (legit) votes counted.
OK, back to the playground, recess can resume.
jaywalker (anonymous) says…
Fair enough, bea. I still refute I 'brought parents into it', I didn't make them the subject, activate them with an action verb, ridicule or belitttle them in any way.
But I did stoop to his level somewhat. I'll grant ya that.
Have a good and safe Fourth!