Archive for recount

Minnesota election decided by one vote may have had 35 of its votes cast in error

8B filing:

There was a ridiculously close election in Minnesota between State Rep. Mary Franson (R) and Bob Cunniff (D). Franson won by one measly little vote.

However, as it turns out, election officials discovered that poll workers mistakenly handed dozens of ballots to residents of a neighboring district. In at least three polling places that shared precincts, there were errors.

Minneapolis Star Tribune:

The state canvassing board will meet at 1 p.m. to set the terms for the 8B recount, which is likely to begin Nov. 28 and continue for several days.

Franson’s petition is above.

Allen West demanded a recount, but Patrick Murphy is “farther ahead” than before the recount began

Dear Allen West: Please STFU and go away. Love, Laffy

That was as polite as I could be.

Via TC Palm:

Results of recounting more than 37,000 St. Lucie County ballots were announced shortly after 2 p.m. Sunday and preliminary figures given by Canvassing Board member Tod Mowery placed Jupiter Democrat Patrick Murphy farther ahead of Republican Allen West than before the two-day effort began.

Murphy’s lead was still outside the 0.5 percent difference that would require a recount. The unofficial final count was 65,841 votes for Murphy and 52,704 for West.

“We are still evaluating how to handle this,” West campaign manager Tim Edson said.

Ahem.

As Murphy campaign senior adviser Eric Johnson put it, “This election is over.”

Florida does it again: Votes to be retabulated in Allen West vs. Patrick Murphy congressional race

Allen West– yes the same Allen West who stood by and watched as my friend and radio host Nicole Sandler was arrested for committing democracy at one of his events– still refuses to concede:

(CNN)Republican Rep. Allen West’s push to have votes recounted in his Florida congressional race against Democrat Patrick Murphy was granted late Friday when the St. Lucie County Supervisor of Elections ordered a re-tabulation of all eight days of early voting to begin Saturday morning. [...]

West’s campaign filed a complaint Tuesday in St. Lucie County, calling for the court to order a recount of all early votes in the county in his race for re-election. Allen’s request was initially denied Friday afternoon, but later that evening a canvassing board ordered the retabulation, citing sufficient concern to grant the re-examination of the votes, according to CNN affiliate WPBF in West Palm Beach.

As of today, Murphy leads by just over 1,900 votes. Meanwhile, Democrats are accusing Florida Governor Rick Scott of improperly interfering to help him.  DNC chair, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, flat out accused him of intervening:

All votes in this election were counted fairly and accurately, and Allen West has lost beyond the mandatory recount range.  Having Governor Scott intervene is outrageous and inappropriate. After disenfranchising Florida voters by cutting down early voting days and creating extraordinarily long lines at the polls, Governor Scott is now trying to blatantly overturn an election result he disagreed with and undermine Gertrude Walker, a three-decade veteran of the St. Lucie County Supervisor of Elections office.  Governor Scott needs to remove himself from this process immediately.

And Democratic Rep. Alcee Hastings  added that “Governor Rick Scott’s attempt to undermine and pressure St. Lucie County Supervisor of Elections Gertrude Walker – just because he would prefer to keep Allen West in Congress – is yet another blatant display of his willingness to disregard the rule of law for political gain.”

Yet there Scott was, pretending like he had nothing to do with those terrible lines and all those disenfranchised voters! He had the jaw-droppingly, unmitigated, hypocritical gall to demand a fix to the voting problems that he, Mr. Voter Purge, helped create.

More from Hastings:

It was Governor Scott who cut early voting hours, created long lines during early voting, and imposed unprecedented burdens on county election offices.  Despite his repeated efforts to disenfranchise voters, the people of Florida’s 18th district chose Patrick Murphy to represent them in Washington, and by a margin that does not necessitate a recount.

The rest of his statement, along with more on this story, can be found at the Sun Sentinel.

Rep. Allen West cites irregularities, goes to court for recount

Honestly who could have ever predicted that West would be a sore loser?

FORT PIERCE — Republican U.S. Rep. Allen West, the fiery tea party celebrity whose apparent defeat Tuesday was a national trophy for Democrats and liberals, isn’t ready to concede.

With West’s campaign claiming “disturbing irregularities” in the way St. Lucie County tallied ballots in the congressional District 18 race, an attorney for West filed motions Wednesday to impound ballots and voting equipment for a potential recount in St. Lucie and Palm Beach counties.

West led Democrat Patrick Murphy by fewer than 400 votes in Palm Beach County, while Murphy outdistanced West by 13,271 votes in St. Lucie.

(snip)

Unofficial returns early Wednesday showed Murphy, a 29-year-old political newcomer, leading West by 2,456 votes or 0.78 percent.

A group of absentee and provisional ballots that were counted Wednesday afternoon in Palm Beach County reduced Murphy’s margin to 2,159 votes, or 0.66 percent, in the district’s three counties.

Wisconsin recall tally now stands at eight, more likely coming

I’ve been hearing from Wisconsinites in the know that there will be at least six GOP senators up for recall. Via WisPolitics:

Eight recall elections have now been filed against state senators, and more may be on the way.

Five GOP senators and three Democratic senators now face recall elections. However, as Rachel Maddow points out, districts are turning blue, so Dems are “not exactly panicked”:

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The Republicans, so far, are Alberta Darling, Dan Kapanke, Randy Hopper, Luther Olsen of Ripon and Sheila Harsdorf. The Democrats are Dave Hansen, Jim Holperin, and Bob Wirch.

A Democratic operative said he had “every expectation” that their will be a recall of GOP Sen. Rob Cowles, and that organizers are still working on gathering signatures targeting Glenn Grothman and Mary Lazich.

So far, only Dems have formally announced plans to challenge targeted lawmakers. Yesterday, Rep. Fred Clark of Baraboo said he would run against Olsen, while Oshkosh Deputy Mayor Jessica King has said she will challenge Hopper and Rep. Jen Shilling said she would run against Kapanke.

And the remarkable backfire on Walker and his cohorts continues…

In other news:

The campaigns of JoAnne Kloppenburg and David Prosser today agreed to a hand recount in parts of 31 counties to avoid having to erase data on the original Election Day returns now stored on voting machines.

VIDEO- Rachel Maddow Show irony: Did WI Gov. Scott Walker deliver “change we can believe in”?

Speaking of invalidating inconvenient laws, Scott Walker, who has been edging into Rick Snyder financial martial law territory, may have inadvertently helped the Democratic cause.

Rachel Maddow and her guest Dante Chinni point out that Walker’s anti-union antics may have created a political shift we can believe in:

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VIDEO: Wisconsin Ass’t. A.G. JoAnne Kloppenburg requests recount

As you know, JoAnne Kloppenburg “lost” a controversial election to the very conservative Scott Walker supporter, Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Prosser, by 7,316 votes. That’s by a mere 0.488%, which is within the 0.5% margin needed to request a recount.

Squeak!

And she is, indeed, requesting one. Via TPM, Kloppenburg said in a press conference:

“A recount may change the outcome of this election, or it may confirm it. But when it is done, recount will have shed necessary and appropriate light on an election that right now seems to so many people to be suspect If there is doubt, we must remove it. If there was misconduct, we must hold those who perpetrated it accountable.”

Prosser’s attorney said that they would legally challenge a request for a recount (which would be statewide), to which Kloppenburg responded:

“I have been a litigator for 22 years, and in my experience, litigators who make threats in public without any citation to the law or the facts don’t get very far. The statutes provide for a recount in a situation such as this, and their threats will not thwart our exercise of our rights under the statutes.”

The more I see of her, the more I like her.  And frankly, I wasn’t sure she was going to go for it, but I’m sure glad she did.

Watch: