Take a minute to peruse this article from the Minnesota Public Radio website, detailing some of the challenged ballots up for recount in the Minnesota Senate race between Norm Coleman and Al Franken. It is interesting to see the actual photographs of a sample of challenged ballots as well as the reasons for the challenge. At first I thought it might be fun to play along. It was not. This is not because there is any great difficulty in figuring out voter intent (or deciding when voter intent cannot be determined). There is not. My problem is with the discrepancy between how simple this should be and how complex it will be.
The actual recount is going to be long, expensive, and arduous. We know this because such characteristics are the hallmark of all things political in America. Our culture has reached the point where the slightest shadow of doubt serves as plausible deniability. We are so worried about technicality, and its litigious implications, that we fail to acknowledge that common sense can ever be the answer. A quick glance at some of the ballots in question is enough to deem their challenge frivolous. Common sense in this process is fast, cheap, and simple.
I understand that there is much at stake in the outcome of this election, and that the ballots on MPR are only a selected sample, but the process should really not be that difficult. Some of the ballots have clear intent, others do not. I submit that two judges, whose interest lies with the electoral process and not the outcome, should go through challenged ballots. If there is legitimate disagreement in intent, or if intent is agreeably impossible to determine, the vote is thrown out. If the judges concur, the vote is counted thusly.
The fact that the outcome is vital does not lead automatically to the conclusion that the recount has to be immensely complicated. Perhaps I am wrong, but I don’t think there is legitimate dispute to any of the ballots posted here. Some of them should be thrown out because of our limits to judging intent, but most are clear to any reasonable, unbiased eye. Simple right? Now watch how difficult politics can make things…
November 20, 2008...5:44 pm
Common Sense and the Minnesota Recount
Take a minute to peruse this article from the Minnesota Public Radio website, detailing some of the challenged ballots up for recount in the Minnesota Senate race between Norm Coleman and Al Franken. It is interesting to see the actual photographs of a sample of challenged ballots as well as the reasons for the challenge. At first I thought it might be fun to play along. It was not. This is not because there is any great difficulty in figuring out voter intent (or deciding when voter intent cannot be determined). There is not. My problem is with the discrepancy between how simple this should be and how complex it will be.
The actual recount is going to be long, expensive, and arduous. We know this because such characteristics are the hallmark of all things political in America. Our culture has reached the point where the slightest shadow of doubt serves as plausible deniability. We are so worried about technicality, and its litigious implications, that we fail to acknowledge that common sense can ever be the answer. A quick glance at some of the ballots in question is enough to deem their challenge frivolous. Common sense in this process is fast, cheap, and simple.
I understand that there is much at stake in the outcome of this election, and that the ballots on MPR are only a selected sample, but the process should really not be that difficult. Some of the ballots have clear intent, others do not. I submit that two judges, whose interest lies with the electoral process and not the outcome, should go through challenged ballots. If there is legitimate disagreement in intent, or if intent is agreeably impossible to determine, the vote is thrown out. If the judges concur, the vote is counted thusly.
The fact that the outcome is vital does not lead automatically to the conclusion that the recount has to be immensely complicated. Perhaps I am wrong, but I don’t think there is legitimate dispute to any of the ballots posted here. Some of them should be thrown out because of our limits to judging intent, but most are clear to any reasonable, unbiased eye. Simple right? Now watch how difficult politics can make things…
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Tags: Al Franken, ballot, challenge, common sense, election, minnesota, Norm Coleman, Politics, recount, voting