The Minnesota recount

Is there anything more pointless than endlessly checking the updated results of the Minnesota recount? Not likely, and yet I continue to do it. For one thing, there’s no real way to tell if what appear to be trends (“Franken is gaining,” “small countries seem to be going for Coleman,” etc.) are actually trends or if they’re just statistical noise. Even more, the massively ramped up challenges from both sides mean that the numbers we’re getting aren’t really all that close to accurate anyways. In fact, I find this explanation most convincing: “These challenges are merely designed to give the press and the voters the feeling that candidate X is ahead, so if the canvassing board ultimately rejects the bogus challenges, X’s supporter’s will feel robbed and will gladly donate money for subsequent court battles.”

All of which means that even when the “recount” is done, it won’t be over because they’ll have to go through each of these challenged ballots one by one. And then when that’s done, it’ll probably be super close, meaning whoever loses will almost certainly file some new complaints. So really, it’s an impossibly tangled mess and there’s no point in speculating. We’ll just have to wait to find out.

That said, it’s still interesting to watch. And I have to admit that Minnesota’s got a pretty impressive system (it certainly puts Flordia circa 2000 to shame). It’s pretty awesome to think that, for all the flaws and stupid elements of our electoral system, something like this can happen with nothing more than a few lawsuits and some harsh words. It’s also fascinating to think about an election this size that really could come down to a margin of 20 or 30 votes. It’s a reminder that while all the good reasons to vote are more about civic duties than they are about actually expecting to personally affect the outcome, it is always possible.

Finally, it’s very interesting to look at some of these challenged ballots. You can even vote on whether you would allow them. If it does come down to one vote, I wonder how the guy (I’m going to assume it was a guy) who voted for Lizard People will feel about it.

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