Franken-Coleman Update, 02/02/09: The Mansky Giveth, and the Mansky Taketh Away
When we left you last Friday, the Coleman camp seemed to have ended a week of screwups by finally scoring something of a coup with the testimony of Ramsey County elections chief Joseph Mansky, testimony that seemed to help Coleman’s "double counting" argument.
Well, folks, what the Mansky hath given, the Mansky hath taken away:
Doubt was cast over the Norm Coleman assertion that discrepancies in totals indicated that some ballots were double counted in Minnesota’s US Senate Race. Ramsey County Election Director Joe Mansky testified this morning there were other scenarios that could have led to those discrepancies including voters that signed in and left without voting and errors by election judges in inserting "absentee ballot header cards" into the scanning machine.
Mansky then testifies about several ballots the Coleman campaign had "vetoed" during the recount that in his judgment should have been accepted. These included several ballots that the Coleman campaign claimed the voter was not registered, when in fact the voter was registered. Other ballots the Coleman campagin vetoed included several where the voter was not on the voter rolls, when in fact they were.
The UpTake folks have taken to collecting the liveblog entries of key commenters and turning them into concise daily summaries of the action; in today’s instance, they give a blow-by-blow account of how brutally some key Coleman arguments were shredded:
10:36 theuptake: #mncontest trial resumes with cross exam of Ramsey Co. election head Joe Mansky on the stand. live at www.theuptake.org #mnrecount
10:45
11:01 Mike McIntee: Very few challenges from Coleman lawyers in cross-examination of Joe Manksy. Mansky’s testimony is creating considerable doubt that "double counting" is the only reason for discrepencies.
11:08 Mike McIntee: Mansky-marking on absentee ballot that says "accepted" means it was accepted by the absentee ballot board, but they still could be rejected by the election judge. Coleman campaign has argued rejected absentee ballots that say "accepted" on them is an indication they were wrongfully rejected.
11:09 Mike McIntee: Mansky: Judges forgetting to put in the "absentee ballot header card" does happen, and that will throw off the totals of absentee ballots.
11:15
11:29
11:33
Ouchie ouchie ouchie.
This wasn’t the only recent move Norm or his people made that wound up backfiring. Coleman, in an interview with WCCO-TV reporter Esmé Murphy, essentially implied that the StarTribune, the region’s largest and most respected newspaper (at least until it was bought by the right-wing Avista strip-and-flippers), was in cahoots with the local Democrats and Al Franken because they dared try to ask him questions about the DonorGate scandal. The StarTribune reporters in question are not happy about Coleman’s attempt to cow the Strib into moving further to the right and are doing a little pushback, with the help of MinnPost’s David Brauer, and bringing up Norm’s Bush-like history of ducking questions from all but those people most likely to serve him up fluffers:
Having covered the Coleman campaign a bit, I was willing to bet St. Cloud wasn’t the first time McEnroe and Kennedy tried to get their questions answered. During the campaign, the Colemanistas were infamous for refusing to acknowledge reporters they saw as unfriendly, even when the questions were far more pedestrian.
It was a strategy that, though obnoxious, frankly worked — right up until it didn’t. The Coleman campaign became so attached to stonewalling that it made bad story terrible, turning a complex lawsuit into a devastatingly simple video clip. If the St. Cloud set-to became Norm Coleman’s "Macaca" moment, it was of his own making.
The UpTake’s video archive of the whole Franken-Coleman contest trial can be found here. When you drop by, drop a few coins in their bucket — they deserve it. Speaking of coins, Minnesota Public Radio’s Bob Collins has a blog post on who is giving what to whom in the recount and trial.
Franken-Coleman Update, 02/02/09: The Mansky Giveth, and the Mansky Taketh Away
When we left you last Friday, the Coleman camp seemed to have ended a week of screwups by finally scoring something of a coup with the testimony of Ramsey County elections chief Joseph Mansky, testimony that seemed to help Coleman’s "double counting" argument.
Well, folks, what the Mansky hath given, the Mansky hath taken away:
Doubt was cast over the Norm Coleman assertion that discrepancies in totals indicated that some ballots were double counted in Minnesota’s US Senate Race. Ramsey County Election Director Joe Mansky testified this morning there were other scenarios that could have led to those discrepancies including voters that signed in and left without voting and errors by election judges in inserting "absentee ballot header cards" into the scanning machine.
Mansky then testifies about several ballots the Coleman campaign had "vetoed" during the recount that in his judgment should have been accepted. These included several ballots that the Coleman campaign claimed the voter was not registered, when in fact the voter was registered. Other ballots the Coleman campagin vetoed included several where the voter was not on the voter rolls, when in fact they were.
The UpTake folks have taken to collecting the liveblog entries of key commenters and turning them into concise daily summaries of the action; in today’s instance, they give a blow-by-blow account of how brutally some key Coleman arguments were shredded:
