In the Land of 10,000 Lakes

Minnesota has a history of less traditional politicians. Five years before California voted for Arnold Schwarzenegger to be the “governator”, Minnesota elected Jesse “The Body” Ventura, a former professional wrestler, as its top executive. Now, more than a decade later, the Minnesota State Canvassing Board has declared that Democrat Al Franken, former comedian and Saturday Night Live writer, has defeated Republican Norm Coleman after a lengthy recount. We commend Minnesota for being prepared for close elections and for dutifully carrying out the recount in the face of a press frenzy. Hopefully other states will look to this process as an example of how to avoid the Florida debacle of the 2000 presidential elections.

One crucial factor is that Minnesota already had an election law in place to handle close elections, which mandated a hand recount in contests with a margin of victory smaller than 0.5 percent. Coleman’s razor-thin 0.0075 percent margin of victory over Franken in November failed to meet the cutoff, automatically triggering the recount. Unlike the Florida presidential election in 2000, during which Gore had to fight in court to get a recount, in this case there was no question of whether a recount was in order.

Equally important is the fact that Minnesota’s voting machines leave a clean paper trail, which allowed the recount to take place. If, for instance, Georgia’s recent senatorial runoff election resulted in a similarly small margin, there would have been no possible hand recount. Georgia’s electronic voting machines are paperless—electronic machines typically don’t allow for a hand recount to double check the electronic tally. In contrast, every Minnesota voter marked a paper ballot. This allowed officials to go back and at least try to discern for whom each person voted.

Although Coleman’s lawsuit challenging the recount results may be legitimately founded, it exposes the emptiness of his earlier calls for Franken to concede the election. On Nov. 5, Coleman triumphantly declared “Yesterday the voters spoke, We prevailed.” He then cast doubt on whether a recount would be worth the time and tax dollars, going so far as to say he would “step back” if he were in Franken’s position. Coleman’s current lawsuit contesting the election results now reveals the hollowness of his previous rhetoric. Even supposing that Coleman’s contentions are legitimate, he should have watched his mouth before or stuck to his guns and accepted the results of the recount without a challenge—now he looks like a liar, a sore loser, or perhaps both.