Congressional Elections Results Thread

[HuskyCaucasian]

Here's about 10 more examples of challenged ballots from Minnesota Public Radio.

 

I think this one is my favorite:

some voters really are stupid

[EvilMonkey]

it's actually a fun game to play.

 

Ballot #1= Franken

Ballot #2= McCain

Ballot #3= Invalid

Ballot #4= Franken

Ballot #5= Franken (no other circle filled in for that race)

Ballot #6= Invalid

Ballot #7= Invalid

Ballot #8= Franken

Ballot #9= Barkley

Ballot #10= Barklet

Ballot #11= Invalid

The problem is intent vs following the f***ing instructions. You fill in 2 ovals, no vote. If you want to let the ones with a dot slide, I can see that, but in case like #4, where the whole dot is filled in, I don't care if he wrote a damn thesis as to why no Coleman, he filled in two ovals, it should be invalid. I notice you didn't apply the same logic on #4 to #11, where they clearly crossed out Frankins name. If #4 is good, then so should be #11. In reality, they should both be tossed.

Ballot #1= Franken

Ballot #2= McCain

Ballot #3= Invalid

Ballot #4= Invalid

Ballot #5= Franken

Ballot #6= Invalid

Ballot #7= Invalid (i am torn on this one, how much is just a slip of the pen, how much is being a dumbass who can't follow directions?)

Ballot #8= Franken

Ballot #9= Barkley

Ballot #10= Barkley

Ballot #11= Invalid

 

[ChiSox_Sonix]

it's actually a fun game to play.

 

Ballot #1= Franken

Ballot #2= McCain

Ballot #3= Invalid

Ballot #4= Franken

Ballot #5= Franken (no other circle filled in for that race)

Ballot #6= Invalid

Ballot #7= Invalid

Ballot #8= Franken

Ballot #9= Barkley

Ballot #10= Barklet

Ballot #11= Invalid

 

Ballot #1= Invalid (that does appear to be an arrow...intent not clear)

Ballot #2= McCain

Ballot #3= Invalid

Ballot #4= Franken

Ballot #5= Franken (but i really wanted a vote for the lizard people)

Ballot #6= Invalid

Ballot #7= Invalid (intent was probably Coleman, but invalid due to ambiguity like in #1)

Ballot #8= Franken

Ballot #9= Barkley

Ballot #10= Barkley

Ballot #11= Coleman (if you're allowing a 'No', you have to allow the cross out...underline my ass)

 

[bmags]

the thing is on 11 it was being challenged by Franken I think claiming he was underlining Frankens name.

[Rex Kickass]

http://blogs2.startribune.com/blogs/whistl...ar-in-plymouth/

 

One of the ballots that Frankin is contesting.

 

Given that the photo doesn't show any of the rest of the ballot, I can't say that there is clear intent or not. If the rest of the ballot has properly filled in holes or has simple X's marked, its rightly challengeable as the intent is unclear. Did he mean to emphatically vote for Coleman? Did he accidentally vote for Coleman and try to cross it out? We don't have enough information available to us to decide if it is indeed a legitimate challenge.

[ChiSox_Sonix]

the thing is on 11 it was being challenged by Franken I think claiming he was underlining Frankens name.

 

 

When a person underlines something, it is not uncommon to begin under the word(s) and at some point deviate upwards or downwards, sometimes crossing out part of a word upwards. Same when crossing something out. However, the start point is what is the intent. No one would mean to underline something by crossing the first half of it out

[BigSqwert]

#6 just made me LOL. Wtf?!?! And I'm referring to the circled box all the way on the left margin.

[BigSqwert]

#6 just made me LOL. Wtf?!?! And I'm referring to the circled box all the way on the left margin.

 

What would they have done if they wanted to vote for Aldrich? Circle both boxes?

[ChiSox_Sonix]

Given that the photo doesn't show any of the rest of the ballot, I can't say that there is clear intent or not. If the rest of the ballot has properly filled in holes or has simple X's marked, its rightly challengeable as the intent is unclear. Did he mean to emphatically vote for Coleman? Did he accidentally vote for Coleman and try to cross it out? We don't have enough information available to us to decide if it is indeed a legitimate challenge.

 

 

GMAB. You dont need any more of the ballot to know what the intent was. Theres no indication of a cross out anywhere. If they meant to cross it out, they would have gotten a new ballot. Thats a quick scribble fill in of a bubble.

[HuskyCaucasian]

I tend to be of the thought that if more than one circle is filled, throw out the vote. If it's a matter of a small mark and a full circle... full circle counts. Corssouts / underlines... throwout. That arrow thing... hard to tell it's an arrow. I'd go with the circle.

[Rex Kickass]

GMAB. You dont need any more of the ballot to know what the intent was. Theres no indication of a cross out anywhere. If they meant to cross it out, they would have gotten a new ballot. Thats a quick scribble fill in of a bubble.

 

Unless the rest of the ballot was simply Xs.

[HuskyCaucasian]

Ballot #1= Franken

Ballot #2= McCain

Ballot #3= Invalid

Ballot #4= Invalid

Ballot #5= Franken

Ballot #6= Franken / borderline invalid

Ballot #7= Coleman

Ballot #8= Franken

Ballot #9= Barkley

Ballot #10= Barkley

Ballot #11= Invalid

[Balta1701]

I think the thing we should all take from these games is that as of now, it's pretty much useless to pay attention to how the votes shift in this recount, because as long as there are more challenges than there is margin of victory for either candidate, the exact rules for every ballot are going to be key in deciding which of the challenged ones go where, and there's going to be serious litigation on that matter for the next couple weeks.

[kapkomet]

As long as Franken wins, who cares what these people intended?

 

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm.........

 

 

[Chet Lemon]

1: Al

2: Accept

3: Reject

4: Al

5: Al

6: Accept

7: NC

8: Al

9: DB

10: DB

11: NC

[StrangeSox]

How can people not figure out these ridiculously simple ballots?

[mr_genius]

Ballot #1= Coleman

Ballot #2= Coleman

Ballot #3= Coleman

Ballot #4= Coleman

Ballot #5= Coleman

Ballot #6= Coleman

Ballot #7= Coleman

Ballot #8= Coleman

Ballot #9= Coleman

Ballot #10= Coleman

Ballot #11= Coleman

[knightni]

http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/mag...e/15-11/st_best

 

Lizard-People Run the World

If a science fiction-based religion isn't exotic enough, followers of onetime BBC reporter David Icke believe that certain powerful people — like George W. Bush and the British royals — actually belong to an alien race of shape-shifting lizard-people. Icke claims Princess Diana confirmed this to one of her close friends; other lizard theories (there are several) point to reptilian themes in ancient mythology. And let's not forget the '80s TV show V.

[jasonxctf]

http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/mag...e/15-11/st_best

 

so does this mean that Obama is a lizard person? I just thought he was a socialist muslim terrorist?

[Rex Kickass]

Coleman has challenged a number of ballots where people have voted for McCain and then Franken because of "voter intent"

 

They have also challenged a number of ballots where people just voted for McCain but for no other state or local race.

 

They are challenging that these voters intended to vote for Norm Coleman in each of these incidents.

[mr_genius]

so does this mean that Obama is a lizard person? I just thought he was a socialist muslim terrorist?

 

i heard McCain was actually an evil, George Wallace clone, lizard man alien. true story. i'm glad he lost, we just can't take a risk like that.

Edited November 21, 2008 by mr_genius

[Balta1701]

Here's some more video of ballots that are being challenged by the Coleman campaign in at least 1 particular county. Basically, the logic behind the challenges seems to be that if the voter filled out the bubble for McCain/Palin, they couldn't have possibly meant it when they also filled out the Franken ballot.

 

 

This doesn't mean that the Franken campaign isn't doing the same exact thing. But it does mean that at least a good number of votes for Al aren't counted yet, and if this is a multi-county trend it could be a lot more than a few.

[Balta1701]

Silver

Consider the following. In precincts where no challenges have been issued (these are the only precincts in which, in some sense, the results of the recount can be considered to be final and "official") Franken has gained a total of 34 votes, and Coleman a total of 6 votes, for a net gain by Franken of 28 votes. Moreover, in precincts where just 1 challenge has been issued, Franken has gained a net of 31 votes on Coleman, and in precincts where exactly 2 challenges have been issued, Franken has gained a net of 32 votes on Coleman.

 

By contrast, in precincts where 5 or more ballots have been challenged between the two campaigns, Coleman has gained a net of 57 votes on Franken.

 

In other words, the fewer the number of challenged ballots, the better Franken is doing, and the higher the number of challenged ballots, the worse he is doing; the relationship is in fact quite strong.

...

 

....

Now, we can attempt to solve this equation at the statewide level. When we plug in a t of .499956 -- Franken was picked on just slightly very less than half of the ballots during the initial count -- we get a value for franken_net of .837. That is, Franken will gain a net of .837 votes for every 10,000 cast. With a total of 2,885,555 ballots having been recorded in the initial count, this works out to a projected gain of 242 votes for Franken statewide. Since Norm Coleman led by 215 votes in the initial count, this suggests that Franken will win by 27 votes once the recount process is complete (including specifically the adjudication of all challenged ballots).

 

The error bars on this regression analysis are fairly high, and so even if you buy my analysis, you should not regard Franken as more than a very slight favorite. Nevertheless, there is good reason to believe that the high rate of ballot challenges is in fact hurting Franken disproportionately, and that once such challenges are resolved, Franken stands to gain ground, perhaps enough to let him overtake Coleman.

[southsider2k5]

Silver

 

Now how does that factor in the counties where Frankin gained 100 votes while Coleman gained none?

[NorthSideSox72]

Now how does that factor in the counties where Frankin gained 100 votes while Coleman gained none?

If we are using a purely stats argument as Silver would, then those sorts of chance occurances - accidental mistaken number transposition and the line - in theory, that should help neither candidate (or both equally). In theory.