Central Claim of GOP Conspiracy Theory for 'Stolen' U.S. Senate Race in Minnesota Falls Apart (Though They've Yet to Acknowledge It, Of Course)...
By Brad Friedman on 11/13/2008, 4:13pm PT  

For those following the nonsense being put forward by the GOP conspiracy theorists (such as Sean Hannity, Norm Coleman, RedState blog, PowerLine blog, and all their fact-free friends), David Brauer at MinnPost.com does a terrific job of debunking the whole "32 ballots driven around in an election director's car for days" nonsense.

They weren't driven around in her car, they weren't all votes for Franken, they weren't "lost" for days, and the claim, which is being used by the national GOP at their conspiracy theory "Minnesota Recount" site to prop up their unsubstantiated claims of a "stolen election," turns out (surprise surprise) to be entirely false...

Specifically, as to the claims that 32 ballots were driven around for days in the car of Minneapolis Elections Director Cindy Reichert:

1. The ballots were never in her car.
2. The ballots were never in anyones car for several days.
3. The ballots were never lost or forgotten, and spent Election Night until counting day in secure city facilities.

See Brauer for the complete real details on the story, about which Sean Hannity spent a full two segments misreporting and misrepresenting on Fox "News" last night.

Even the Governor of Minnesota, Tim Pawlenty, one time Republican VP short-lister was willing to forward the same, wholly inaccurate scam on Fox "News", in response to Hannity's persistent lies about it (See the video full video here, read the text transcript here.):

HANNITY: What about 32 absentee ballots all going to Franken, every one of them? Does that not concern you? Does that not sound like cheating?

PAWLENTY: The Secretary of State in Minnesota has the authority over these matters, Minnesota has a reputation for clean and fair and good elections, we've got 4,100 precinct run by volunteers, they do a good job and we thank them. However, these disportionate patterns are a problem, and finding 32 ballots in the trunk of a car supposedly forgetting that they were there is suspicious.

Even though Brauer's piece, debunking the entire affair, was posted yesterday at noon, it looks like the NRSC tin-foiler hatters haven't yet gotten around to adding it to their conspiracy theory site in order to correct the inaccurate information they'd presented previously. Nor has the WSJ retracted or corrected yesterday's bullshit, unbylined (hi John Fund!) editorial which charged, "Democrats [were] stealing a Senate seat for left-wing joker Al Franken" by charging that "Minneapolis's director of elections [had] forgotten to count 32 absentee ballots in her car."

Pathetic. Nonetheless, we again renew our offer to both Republicans and Democrats alike to help them try to ensure an accurate recount, if they actually want one, by first pointing them towards this helpful article we wrote over the weekend. All signs, however, show that Republicans have little interest in any such thing.

(Hat-tip VelvetRevolution.us' Steve Heller)
