City acknowledges missing ballots (Franken vs. Coleman)

[Hassin Bin Sober]

Source: Mndaily.com

BY Karlee Weinmann
PUBLISHED: 12/04/2008


Well into the Senate race recount and a day after Senate hopeful Al Franken’s camp alleged 133 ballots were missing from a Dinkytown precinct, the city of Minneapolis and the secretary of state’s office confirmed it.

At the Ward 3, Precinct 1 site — which covers most of Dinkytown — 2,029 people voted but only 1,896 ballots were found in the recount.

One of five sealed envelopes containing ballots is nowhere to be found, Minneapolis Elections Director Cindy Reichert said at a City Hall news conference Thursday. Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak stood by.

“We’re still hopeful we’re going to find it in some odd place,” Reichert said, adding that the missing envelope is thinner than a typical one, which holds about 500 instead of just 133.


Read more: http://www.mndaily.com/2008/12/03/city-acknowledges-missing-ballots

---

This stinks considering the precinct in question had some shady voter suppresion going on on election day regarding the attemped refusal of college student voters....see post #11 for details.

That, and the lame excuse that first accompanied the missing ballots ( "Oh we ran some odd number of votes through twice").

[bleever]

1. God how I hope

that if elected by the tiniest of margins, Al Franken's key votes come from Dinkytown.

It would be, for all of the Whos down in Whoville, a symbolic but greatly treasured moment in the history of the principle that the person (no matter how small) should be heard.

[LisaL]

2. How is that going to happen considering the ballots have been

lost? You can't do a recount with lost ballots, hello. Unless the ballots are found they will likely have to report whatever it is they recorded on election day, so Franken won't be able to get more votes out of Dinkytown.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

6. If they use the election day totals Al nets 46 votes - actually he doesn't lose 46 votes.

The precinct and these 133 votes broke for Franken.

There were only 2029 votes in the precinct and no challenges so they pretty much know the content of the missing envelope will match the election day count - minus a couple, IF ANY, challenges.

[bleever]

15. Lost ballots

is like lost money.

Someone has some explaining to do, because people want their votes like they want their money.

[tridim]

10. How did Funkytown vote?

[bleever]

14. At this point, I believe

that most everyone wants to keep on movin' and (beyond that) to keep on groovin' with some energy.


People everywhere have that feeling: "Gotta move on! Gotta move on! Gotta move on!"

[NBachers]

20. So do they hold Shetland Pony races at Dinky Downs?

AAAAaaand Theyrrrr Roffff!

[sandnsea]

3. Gasp, tampering with paper ballots!

You mean elections can be stolen with paper ballots too! It's shocking.

Well yes it is shocking, but the solution to all election systems is increased security and auditing, no matter what system is used.

[w4rma]

4. Yup. But, now there is accountability. (nt)

[machI]

26. An election stolen with paper ballots, or just stolen paper ballots

Could be a souvenir hunter snagged an envelope of ballots to sell on eBay. It is going to be tough to give them back.

It is hard to imagine an individual thinking they could influence an election by taking one envelope of ballots, but the minds of Republicans do not work like ours.

(on edit, maybe I shouldn't have assumed the minds of Republicans work at all)

[Lautremont]

5. Trouble in Dinkytown.

Perhaps the real problem is that the ballots as filled out by the tiny residents of Dinkytown were too microscopic to be read.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

7. LOL.

[StrictlyRockers]

9. Too funny!

Even the votes of the tiny residents of Dinkytown shall be counted!

[Hassin Bin Sober]

11. Maybe not! It gets worse:

http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/article/2008/11/28/screw-u-students-dinkytown-turned-away-polls-election-day.html

By Chris Steller , Minnesota Independent
November 30, 2008
As of Tuesday night, Hennepin County officials had yet to recount ballots from Minneapolis’ Precinct 1, Ward 3. But when they do, there likely won’t be as many ballots to count as there were voters who tried to cast them. Residents of a student cooperative high rise called The Chateau, which towers over the Dinkytown neighborhood at the edge of the University of Minnesota campus, weren’t able to register at their polling place this year like they did in past elections.

The problem: Election officials would not accept the same kind of proof of residency they had in the past — a letter from building management that explains Chateau residents pay for their heat and electricity as part of their rent and therefore don’t have individual utility bills. A revised letter prepared quickly after the Chateau’s office opened at 10 a.m. didn’t pass muster either. A call to the national Election Protection hotline got the Minnesota Secretary State’s office and the Minneapolis City Attorney’s office involved. Finally, at 4 p.m., after much back and forth, the Chateau office got word that within the hour election officials would accept a third version of the letter that mimicked an invoice.

But by then, some of the Chateau’s 290 residents were turned away from the polls with a letter in hand that had always worked in past years — and some weren’t able to return to vote in the final three hours the polling place was open.

How many voters might’ve been turned away is unclear. Kristina Bjornson, the Chateau staff member who revised the letters on the fly, said about a quarter of residents are international students who are ineligible to vote, and of the others — likewise, all students — some probably pre-registered, voted absentee or were already on the voter rolls from past elections. With the statewide recount underway in the U.S. Senate race continuing to show a gap of fewer than 200 votes between leading candidates Al Franken and incumbent Norm Coleman, every vote counts.

[librechik]

16. "envelope thinner than usual"

and dinkier

[Truth2Tell]

8. Dinkytown.

You can't make this shit up.

[Ellipsis]

19. "Grodnik"

Stories regarding the origin of the name include

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinkytown

* The streetcars, called Dinkys, that used to provide transit throughout the area.
* Similarly, the tenders at the nearby railyard were called Dinkys
* The theatre in Dinkytown had only four rows of seats, and for years was known as "The Dinky"
* It's a small town-like area, with everything within walking distance.
* The Loring Pasta Bar, previously Gray's Drug on 14th Ave. SE and 4th St. SE has the name of an early owner carved in Slavic in stone over the doorway: "Grodnik," meaning a small (or dinky) town.



It hugs the university of Minnesota... lots of students = more Franken votes.

[bean fidhleir]

28. Everyone at the Uni understands the name to have come from the area's

small-town feel. It's not just a shopping area, it's a complete mix including housing and is highly coherent politically and socially.

[moggie]

24. It's just another way of saying Smallville n/t

[MrsBrady]

12. don't they have some kind of "chain of command" system for ballots?!?!

we do in Texas.

The machine "might be" screwing up the votes, but at least the ballots, all the paperwork, the computers, and scanners -- all of them require bi-partisan signatures and poll workers, etc.
Paper ballots go in a box, and have a seal on them. Seals have numbers. Seals must only be broken in front of members of both parties. ETC.

I was an alternate election judge, if something was wrong, they would have come knocking on my door.

what is up with their system?

[Hassin Bin Sober]

13. It appears they are doing just that.

from the article:

City officials have begun interviewing the “chain of custody” — the succession of election workers who handled the ballots between the time they were cast and when they were taken to the Minneapolis warehouse, where they were supposed to show up in signed and sealed envelopes.

Two election judges apparently delivered all five envelopes from the Dinkytown polling place to the warehouse. Reichert said she’s spoken to one of them, and he “recalls all ballots were there.”

[elocs]

17. My guess is that this is probably quite common in elections across the country,

but is never discovered because one candidate won by thousands or maybe tens of thousands of votes. I highly doubt that there is any state that runs a perfect election because people are involved and just because there are problems or even screwups does not mean there was a vast conspiracy to steal the election, as hard as that is for many to believe. I am confident that MN has clean, albeit imperfect elections.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

18. I tend to agree with you .... but .....

...I wouldn't put it past some low level operative to shit-can an envelope full of votes, in an attempt to sway a very close election, not realizing the world of hurt that would come down on them.

We'll see.


Like I said in the OP, the fact that there was an attempt at disenfranchising students on election day AND the lame-assed initial excuse for the missing ballots leads me to believe there MIGHT be something stinky in Dinky.

[elocs]

31. Even Franken says that MN has honest elections. Honest, not perfect.

As far as disenfranchising students goes, that happens in every state.

[0rganism]

21. Dinkytown? The next senator from Minnesota will be decided in... DINKYTOWN????

:crazy: Once again, reality attempts to put The Onion out of business. :crazy:

[Odin2005]

29. I thought "dinkytown" was a common term for residential areas around universities?

:shrug:

[mikelgb]

33. Hey that is my DUzy nominated line!

[truthisfreedom]

34. Hey now, we're proud of Dinkytown. I spent a lot of time there in my youth and I return often.

It's a fine place with a couple of great live music venues... the Varsity Theater and the Kitty Cat Klub.

[JCMach1]

22. Campaign E-mail from Franken's team today is claiming a 10vote lead at the moment

for Franken.

This will be nail-biting close.

[Downtown Hound]

23. It's funny, But Franken never believed the 2004 election

was stolen. What do you think now Al? Do you understand the people you're dealing with now?

[Kolesar]

25. "Tormenting Democrats" ... eom

[tblue37]

27. It's like what happeend to Oprah. Until these high profile people

have it happen to them, they just can't beleive it could happen at all. Maybe now they will help us in our efforts to guarantee transparent elections.

[tclambert]

30. They are in the trunk of somebody's car, under a bag of salt, and some jumper cables.

[Kolesar]

32. Might have mistaken them for a snowmobile suit...eom