"Lizard People" invade MN Senate Recount
By scarce Friday Dec 19, 2008 3:30pmThe now famous "Lizard People" ballot was judged yesterday. Norm Coleman's challenge was duly rejected, and the Lizard People went to Al Franken. Thanks to the great work of the people at The Uptake we now have this moment recorded for posterity. Live --and strangely compelling-- streaming video is available at their site.
As of this writing, Al Franken has a lead of 128 votes. Caveat though: That doesn't include withdrawn challenges or the improperly rejected absentee ballots.
Review of challenged ballots in the recount for the MN seat for US Senate brings some welcome comic relief in the name of write-in candidates on challenged ballots: Lizard People and Flying Spaghetti Monster, with a little Frankenstin [sic] for good measure.
Edit: Actually, Lizard People ended up being recorded as an "overvote", while Flying Spaghetti Monster and Frankenstin were recorded for Franken.
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Well that ballot just looked completely unsuspicious.
Mr People is a solid democrat.
Disallows ballots which contain voter information.
Mr. People would have invalidated this ballot by identifying himself. :D
I might be wrong, but I don't think the vote was counted. It was treated as an overvote thus not counting.
it was an over vote...not counted
"Norm Coleman's challenge was duly rejected, and the Lizard People went to Al Franken."
Nope. It was rejected. Unanimously.
This is some funny stuff.
Watching all these paid suits debate about Lizard People.
Can't wait to see if Bill Maher picks up on this tonight!
always make me smile. And that vote should count. It's clearly marked for Franken
To the point made that "we don't know that there isn't a person named 'Lizard People,'" there is a person in Minneapolis named Wizard Marks.
for years in the Mpls. phonebook, there was a Yang, You Ying
What a nice little story to close out this session at C&L. I'm worn out from the Warren story. Cya L8r.
And dogonit..people really do like me - even lizard people.
While they wrote Lizard People in the write in slot, the circle was filled in next to Franken. Franken should have gotten that one, IMHO. All the other LP's he wrote in had the circles next to that write in "candidate" while this one was clearly marked for Franken.
It should have gone to Franken. Why do they have a circle next to the write-in candidate if it serves no purpose?
I agree. Apparently there were 2 lizard people votes? (at least it looked that way to me) one have the oval filled in and the other did not have the oval filled it...
It would seem to me that the oval would clearly indicate voter intent.
The Bill Maher Real Time season is over and will start again in February.
I was touched by his noodly appendage!
TOUCH ME! TOUCH ME! You have been blessed! Did you get to tease His meatballs? (swooooon)
it seems like a waste of time to vote for lizard people. If you insist on voting for lizard people you should at least do it correctly.
"Lizard People" was a protest vote. Minnesota Public Radio tracked down the man who cast that ballot and interviewed him. He said, in a nutshell, that he didn't really like any of the candidates, but felt that, as a citizen, he was obliged to vote in order to have the right to complain.
Funny as the ballot is, he actually made a principled decision and didn't express any regret over his vote not being counted. If anything, he felt that his vote would be inconsequential either way, so at least this way he and his friends got a laugh out of the whole thing.
Lizard People are definitely preferable to our troglodyte Montana Republicans. Spaghetti monster is always a strong contender in any race.
I hope a few of these Franken voters are now realizing that they should have left the comedy routines outside the voting booth. I can understand the urge to make a statement on your ballot, but it's a dumb thing to do if you want to make sure it's counted.
I wrote in ralph for county sherif and granny for soil conservation district manager. so if you go to oregon, don't drive too fast, ralph might pull you over.
When it was asked to "allocate" the Lizard People ballot to Franken, there was dead silence. Go listen starting at 5:01. When it was asked who was opposed to allocating the ballot to Franken, there was a chorus of voices. It was subsequently allocated as an overvote. LIZARD PEOPLE DID NOT GO TO FRANKEN.
From the MinnPost website:
“The state Canvassing Board just reviewed the famed 'Lizard People' ballot, ruling it an overvote. The Franken oval was also filled in. And overvote means neither Franken or Lizard People received the vote.”
Whoever you are reporting, "scarce," it's clear your name is apropo when it comes to accuracy.Liz
it's your tax dollars at work! Is the vote for Franken valid because they added some letter to his name? is the vote valid because someone wrote in Lizard People? and this asshole was arguing that there "could" be someone named Lizard People.
Amazing!
my kids would do something really stupid like write crap like that on their ballots. The thing is that most of my kids are profoundly austic or mentally challanged... and won't be doing much voting in their lives. WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE? Especially THIS YEAR, these votes were important... and now they are lost... and the margins for Franken are so narrow!
According to the rules, the write in counts as a vote even without the oval, and so does the filled in oval next to Franken's name. Perhaps he thought he was giving himself a choice which he then rejected, but going by the rules literally that has to be an overvote. The Lizard People ballot was properly disqualified, and it was encouraging that the board vote was unanimous. That tells me these guys are being fair about it.
Judging by the comments above, the guy who voted Lizard People is not at all peeved that his vote didn't count. In fact - it did count exactly the way he wanted it to. He made his statement and it got airing in a way he couldn't possibly have hoped for. Good for him!
The guy who fixed Franken's name into Frankenstin likewise made a statement. He voted for the guy even though he made it clear he doesn't care for him. Accepted, unanimously! Right - on.
Coming from California I can only say, thank God the Flying Spaghetti Monster made his way back to Minnesota. We have enough of those over here. They're generally responbile for working out the shape of our congressional districts.
I stand corrected.
By that logic (which I understand is the reasoning behind the statute, which the people in this video reasonably upheld), could we not argue that when someone writes a name in the blank and then marks the oval next to that name, they have voted twice? What purpose does the oval next to the write-in blank serve, if writing a name into that blank counts as a vote?
And why should anything BUT filling in the oval ever count as a vote? And more importantly, why should anything EVER trump or nullify a clearly marked oval?
Certainly, they upheld the rules. But the rules, in this case, are wrong. They are confusing an otherwise simple process: if the oval next to a candidate's name is marked, then that candidate gets the vote. If no oval is marked, no vote. If multiple ovals are marked, no vote.
Rules are rules. Both sides had the same rules going in and have to abide by them. If you want to ever get to the end of the process you have to follow them. Impromptu findings of bad rules will cause the process to go on forever. The fact that the board made a unanimous decision on this after having their comic relief of a discussion should tell you that all of them, even the Dems, had no problems following the rules.
The intent of the rule is that a person who writes in a name but forgets to fill in the circle is given the benefit of the doubt as to showing intent. I don't think you would have a problem with that. The idea that a person would fill in a line and then vote for someone else was not foreseen. OK - if that's a concern going forward we can fix the rule for the next election.
I have no doubt that morons have screwed up ballots in both directions and it more or less evens out.
it was back in 1971 on a subway in New York City. The dude was heading home to Minn. after an extended vacation in Luxembourg. Of course he's a real person!
but Fish Men are pretty cool.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFo4jbqe_2Y
I would love to see Franken win by one vote, cast by Bill O'Reilly!
I got the impression during the video that the Flying Spaghetti Monster vote was down ballot--for soil conservation district or something like that, not for the Senate race.
Will anyone clue into the bigger picture: American politicians are largely, universally assholes?
I don't find this the least bit funny.
While the "challenges" by RePubicHairs to remove only Franken ballots are idiotic, it's also idiotic to risk not having your vote counted by a pathetic attempt at a joke. Given the RePubicHairs' history of disenfranchising voters (e.g. voting while black/latino, etc.), why take the risk of having your vote rejected?
Or is this symptomatic of the "Look ma, I'm on TV!" syndrome. Did some morons think this was a way to get attention?
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