Minnesota Senate Race - How to steal an election:

Today Al Franken was declared the winner of the 2008 Minnesota Senate Race. This is a repost of an earlier COMMON CENTS post with some updates:

On November 4, 2008 Senator Norm Coleman won reelection by receiving some 725 more votes than challenger Al Franken. This was with 100% of the precincts reporting. Now normally this would be the end of the game but we don't live in ordinary times. By a series of "typos", counting votes twice, having 25 precincts with more votes cast than voters who voted on election day, and more shenanigans Franken has managed to take the lead by 225 votes. Newsmax has an excellent diary of how a United States Senate seat managed to be stolen:

Nov.4, Coleman Leads by 725 Votes – Unofficial tallies of election results statewide show Coleman the winner by 725 votes out of nearly 3 million votes cast. The narrow margin automatically triggers a recount.

Nov. 5, Coleman Leads by 475 Votes -- Ritchie’s office releases a news release stating, “In Minnesota’s U.S. Senate race, a slim margin of 475 votes favors Republican candidate and Republican senator Norn Coleman over Democratic challenger Al Franken.” The 250-vote difference? It stems from adjusted figures submitted by state and county officials around the state.

Nov.6, Coleman Leads by 438 Votes – Coleman’s margin continues to diminish as more adjusted figures come in. Why the adjustments consistently favor Franken goes largely unexplained. “What struck me as really outrageous was, in the beginning, how Coleman’s lead shrank,” comments Matthew Vadum, senior editor for Capital Research Center, a conservative watch dog of nonprofit groups. “The counties were allowed to correct their vote totals with barely a peep from Secretary of State Mark Ritchie. He just considered all this to be legitimate, and it was their prerogative to do that -- and it looks like he let them get away with murder.” Vadum tells Newsmax, “That basically laid the foundation for the slug fest now going on in the recount contest. He chopped off Coleman’s lead and got it within stealing distance.”

Nov.7, Coleman Leads by 239 Votes – Ritchie’s office announces the State Canvassing Board will convene to begin its supervision of the statewide recount on Nov. 18. “This week,” Ritchie adds, “county election officials have been busy proofing the unofficial results previously submitted to this office’s Web site. Corrections have resulted in a shifting margin which now stands at 239 votes with the advantage to incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman.” Coleman attorney Fritz Knaak says the campaign is “profoundly suspicious,” adding, “We’re mystified at this apparent pattern of every time there seems to be a change, it happens after hours and it happens in the Franken [campaign’s] favor.”

Nov.8, Coleman Leads by 221 Votes – The New York Times reports that 32 absentee ballots were found after an election worker drove around with them in the back seat of his car for five days. An initial protest from Coleman is withdrawn, and the votes are counted. A document posted on the secretary of state’s Web site says shifting vote counts are “routine,” citing a 2006 election where 2,100 ballot changes occurred after Election Day

UPDATE: June 3, 2009 - A review of Minnesota’s statewide database of registered voters revealed at least 2,812 deceased individuals voted in last November’s general election, according to a new report by the “traditional values” advocacy group Minnesota Majority.

COMMON CENTS issues our congratulations to Minnesota's newest Senator Al Franken.