Felons Voting Illegally May Have Put Franken Over the Top in Minnesota, Study Finds

Felons Voting Illegally May Have Put Franken Over the Top in Minnesota, Study Finds

Ed Barnes
FoxNews.com
July 12, 2010

The six-month election recount that turned former Saturday Night Live comedian Al Franken into a U.S. senator may have been decided by convicted felons who voted illegally in Minnesota's Twin Cities, according to an 18-month study conducted by a conservative watchdog group.

The six-month election recount that turned former "Saturday Night Live" comedian Al Franken into a U.S. senator may have been decided by convicted felons who voted illegally in Minnesota's Twin Cities.

That's the finding of an 18-month study conducted by Minnesota Majority, a conservative watchdog group, which found that at least 341 convicted felons in largely Democratic Minneapolis-St. Paul voted illegally in the 2008 Senate race between Franken, a Democrat, and his Republican opponent, then-incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman.

The final recount vote in the race, determined six months after Election Day, showed Franken beat Coleman by 312 votes -- fewer votes than the number of felons whose illegal ballots were counted, according to Minnesota Majority's newly released study, which matched publicly available conviction lists with voting records.

Furthermore, the report charges that efforts to get state and federal authorities to act on its findings have been "stonewalled."

"We aren't trying to change the result of the last election. That legally can't be done," said Dan McGrath, Minnesota Majority's executive director. "We are just trying to make sure the integrity of the next election isn't compromised."

He said his group was largely ignored when it turned over a list of hundreds of names to prosecutors in two of the state's largest counties, Ramsey and Hennepin, where fraud seemed to be the greatest.

A spokesman for both county attorneys' offices belittled the information, saying it was "just plain wrong" and full of errors, which prompted the group to go back and start an in-depth look at the records.

"What we did this time is irrefutable," McGrath said. "We took the voting lists and matched them with conviction lists and then went back to the records and found the roster lists, where voters sign in before walking to the voting booth, and matched them by hand.

"The only way we can be wrong is if someone with the same first, middle and last names, same year of birth as the felon, and living in the same community, has voted. And that isn't very likely."

The report said that in Hennepin County, which in includes Minneapolis, 899 suspected felons had been matched on the county's voting records, and the review showed 289 voters were conclusively matched to felon records. The report says only three people in the county have been charged with voter fraud so far.

A representative of the Hennepin County attorney's office, who declined to give her name, said "there was no one in the office today to talk about the charges."

But the report got a far different review in Ramsey County, which contains St. Paul. Phil Carruthers of the Ramsey County attorney's office said his agency had taken the charges "very seriously" and found that the Minnesota Majority "had done a good job in their review."

The report says that in Ramsey, 460 names on voting records were matched with felon lists, and a further review found 52 were conclusive matches.

Carruthers attributed differences in the numbers to Minnesota Majority's lack of access to nonpublic information, such as exact birth dates and other court records. For example, he said, "public records might show a felon was given 10 years probation, but internal records the county attorney has might show that the probation period was cut to five and the felon was eligible to vote."

Carruthers said Ramsey County is still investigating all the names and has asked that 15 investigators be hired to complete the process. "So far we have charged 28 people with felonies, have 17 more under review and have 182 cases still open," he said. "And there is a good chance we may match or even exceed their numbers."

McGrath says the report shows that more still has to be done.

"Prosecutors have to act more swiftly in prosecuting cases from the 2008 election to deter fraud in the future," he said, "and the state has to make sure that existing system, that flags convicted felons so voting officials can challenge them at the ballot, is effective. In 90 percent of the cases we looked at, the felons weren't flagged."

"If the state had done that," he said, "things might be very different today."

Well I guess the whole CHADS thing came back to bite them on the arse

That the best you can come up with?

This story is even ignored by the Minneapolis and St. Paul's papers as of my typing. Unreal. Typical of left wing newspapers.

http://www.startribune.com/politics/local/98276584.html?elr=KArksUUUoDEy3LGDiO7aiU

http://www.twincities.com/ci_15499341?nclick_check=1

Maybe next time, you should actually check before making accusations.

BubbleBliss wrote:
http://www.startribune.com/politics/local/98276584.html?elr=KArksUUUoDEy3LGDiO7aiU

http://www.twincities.com/ci_15499341?nclick_check=1

Maybe next time, you should actually check before making accusations.

Maybe you should read what i said.

as of my typing.

FYI, i looked at both of them right before i made my accusation via a search using the word Franken. So..............

But back to the article;

Damning info, if you ask me. But i expected nothing less than this since the Secretary of State here is a Dem that was backed by ACORN and funded by George Soros when he was elected.

Well, the one article was written/last updated:

Twin Cities prosecutors look into allegations of illegal voting

By KEVIN DIAZ, Star Tribune
Last update: July 12, 2010 - 9:30 PM

Minn. counties probe allegations of felons voting
The Associated Press
Updated: 07/12/2010 05:27:54 PM CDT

A simple search of "Felons voting" brought both those articles up immediately.


Anyways...

This isn't as embarrassing as the people in jail who applied and got the "First Time Home Buyer" tax credit on their tax returns. Once again, you can make claims for those kind of tax breaks without having to show any kind of proof or anything. My Mom and H&R Block gave tons of people that tax credit without having to see any kind of buying/building contract or other proof.

This sentence....

"That's the finding of an 18-month study conducted by Minnesota Majority, a conservative watchdog group, which found that at least 341 convicted felons in largely Democratic Minneapolis-St. Paul voted illegally in the 2008 Senate race between Franken, a Democrat, and his Republican opponent, then-incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman. "

...has a flaw in it, however. I assume that the writer is trying to hint at the fact that those felons voted Democrat because they're mostly from Minn. & St. Paul which is a Democratic region. But if that were true, it wouldn't have been such a close race after all because if that region was really so Democratic most people would have voted for Franken anyways.

A simple search of "Felons voting" brought both those articles up immediately.

Well excuse me for being a simpleton and using Franken... since that's the cusp of the article.

Anyways...

This isn't as embarrassing as the people in jail who applied and got the "First Time Home Buyer" tax credit on their tax returns. Once again, you can make claims for those kind of tax breaks without having to show any kind of proof or anything. My Mom and H&R Block gave tons of people that tax credit without having to see any kind of buying/building contract or other proof.

It is more embarrassing because voting is illegal for felons. Voting is a more precious privilege in this country than what those felons did with the home buyer tax. Maybe not you since you're not a citizen here. I'm pissed off at this. Big time. His swearing in changed quite a bit of things... mainly a filibuster-proof majority.

This sentence....

"That's the finding of an 18-month study conducted by Minnesota Majority, a conservative watchdog group, which found that at least 341 convicted felons in largely Democratic Minneapolis-St. Paul voted illegally in the 2008 Senate race between Franken, a Democrat, and his Republican opponent, then-incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman. "

...has a flaw in it, however. I assume that the writer is trying to hint at the fact that those felons voted Democrat because they're mostly from Minn. & St. Paul which is a Democratic region. But if that were true, it wouldn't have been such a close race after all because if that region was really so Democratic most people would have voted for Franken anyways.

Why the flick would a Republican vote for skank like Franken? In this state, people are sharply divided over this kook even being a Senator. The Twin Cities are very liberal. The DFL (Minnesota's Dem Party) controls much of the Twin Cities legislature seats. My district is the most rural (farmers) in the state and is overwhelmingly conservative.

Felons are a natural Democratic voter and they're protected on voter rolls across the country. In Florida at least 445 ex-convicts - including rapists and murderers -- voted illegally on November 7th. Nearly all of them were registered Democrats. (Miami-Herald 12/01/00)

Academic work by Jeff Manza and Marcus Britton of Northwestern University and Christopher Uggen of the University of Minnesota estimated that Bill Clinton pulled 86 percent of the felon vote in 1992 and a whopping 93 percent in 1996.

You may not like these stats because you seem to favor Democrats. Felons voting in this state is illegal.

TexasBlue wrote:

A simple search of "Felons voting" brought both those articles up immediately.

Well excuse me for being a simpleton and using Franken... since that's the cusp of the article.

I would say that the cusp of the article is that felons got to vote... but either way you'd think one does a little more research before passing judgement like that.

TexasBlue wrote:

Anyways...

This isn't as embarrassing as the people in jail who applied and got the "First Time Home Buyer" tax credit on their tax returns. Once again, you can make claims for those kind of tax breaks without having to show any kind of proof or anything. My Mom and H&R Block gave tons of people that tax credit without having to see any kind of buying/building contract or other proof.

It is more embarrassing because voting is illegal for felons. Voting is a more precious privilege in this country than what those felons did with the home buyer tax. Maybe not you since you're not a citizen here. I'm pissed off at this. Big time. His swearing in changed quite a bit of things... mainly a filibuster-proof majority.

I'm aware of the fact that felons can't vote, and I'm amazed that there aren't any background checks before casting a vote to see if you're even eligible or not.

Well, it happened and there's no way of knowing if the Felons changed the outcome or not. Only thing you can do now is make sure it doesn't happen again....

TexasBlue wrote:

This sentence....

"That's the finding of an 18-month study conducted by Minnesota Majority, a conservative watchdog group, which found that at least 341 convicted felons in largely Democratic Minneapolis-St. Paul voted illegally in the 2008 Senate race between Franken, a Democrat, and his Republican opponent, then-incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman. "

...has a flaw in it, however. I assume that the writer is trying to hint at the fact that those felons voted Democrat because they're mostly from Minn. & St. Paul which is a Democratic region. But if that were true, it wouldn't have been such a close race after all because if that region was really so Democratic most people would have voted for Franken anyways.

Why the flick would a Republican vote for skank like Franken? In this state, people are sharply divided over this kook even being a Senator. The Twin Cities are very liberal. The DFL (Minnesota's Dem Party) controls much of the Twin Cities legislature seats. My district is the most rural (farmers) in the state and is overwhelmingly conservative.

I didn't say anything about Republicans voting for Franken...

TexasBlue wrote:

Felons are a natural Democratic voter and they're protected on voter rolls across the country. In Florida at least 445 ex-convicts - including rapists and murderers -- voted illegally on November 7th. Nearly all of them were registered Democrats. (Miami-Herald 12/01/00)

Academic work by Jeff Manza and Marcus Britton of Northwestern University and Christopher Uggen of the University of Minnesota estimated that Bill Clinton pulled 86 percent of the felon vote in 1992 and a whopping 93 percent in 1996.

You may not like these stats because you seem to favor Democrats. Felons voting in this state is illegal.

Not the point whatsoever....

I would say that the cusp of the article is that felons got to vote... but either way you'd think one does a little more research before passing judgement like that.

Well first off, i happen to live in this state. Second off, i happen to read the Star-Tribune daily... once in the morning and again in the evening. At no point did that article even show itself on the main page of that web site (or even the print edition). Knowing how left wing the Strib is, if it was the other way around it would've been on the main page. I didn't hear about this till 10am this morning! Popular or divisive articles (such as this) remain on the front for at least 2 days there. Of course, what do i know? Just because i read the paper twice a day doesn't mean shit.

I'm aware of the fact that felons can't vote, and I'm amazed that there aren't any background checks before casting a vote to see if you're even eligible or not.

Well, it happened and there's no way of knowing if the Felons changed the outcome or not. Only thing you can do now is make sure it doesn't happen again....

Felons did change the outcome. If they hadn't have voted, Coleman would've won! Barely, but still would've won based on the count we officially have.

I didn't say anything about Republicans voting for Franken...

Reeeeeeeeally?

I assume that the writer is trying to hint at the fact that those felons voted Democrat because they're mostly from Minn. & St. Paul which is a Democratic region. But if that were true, it wouldn't have been such a close race after all because if that region was really so Democratic most people would have voted for Franken anyways.

You said that the newspaper ignored it and I showed you it didn't.... whether it's on the front page or not is irrelevant in that case.

Yeah? Where exactly did I say that Republicans were voting for Franken?

BubbleBliss wrote:You said that the newspaper ignored it and I showed you it didn't.... whether it's on the front page or not is irrelevant in that case.

I TOLD YOU yesterday that i did a search using the word Franken! Nothing came up except stories from the Kagan hearings! Can't you read????????????

BubbleBliss wrote:Yeah? Where exactly did I say that Republicans were voting for Franken?

I assume that the writer is trying to hint at the fact that those felons voted Democrat because they're mostly from Minn. & St. Paul which is a Democratic region. But if that were true, it wouldn't have been such a close race after all because if that region was really so Democratic most people would have voted for Franken anyways.

TexasBlue wrote:That the best you can come up with?

This story is even ignored by the Minneapolis and St. Paul's papers as of my typing. Unreal. Typical of left wing newspapers.

Judging by the accusations of vote-rigging coming out of your country with every election, it seems that both right and left wing media over there think that it is worse than Iran.

The_Amber_Spyglass wrote:Judging by the accusations of vote-rigging coming out of your country with every election, it seems that both right and left wing media over there think that it is worse than Iran.

Not so much on vote rigging as it is on the issue of eligible voters. Felons can't vote here in most states. In this case, it's been proven that they did. It doesn't change the outcome of this particular election but it exposes many things.

I personally can't stand Franken for all he is worth. My Democrat uncle couldn't even vote for this guy. He's a hero of the very liberal. Coleman was more down the middle than this guy ever will be.