Franken claims four votes. I claim a million votes. We're both wrong.

How many votes are there?

Can't they just settle this with a round of Rock-Paper-Scissors?

I SEEEEEE FOURRR VOTES!!!!

/will later admit to seeing five

King Something: Can't they just settle this with a round of Rock-Paper-Scissors?

If, after the recount, there is a tie, I believe they resort to coin toss.

I_Hate_Iowa
coin toss

Could we instead have a death match?

/pay-per-view
//gotta find new revenue streams in these times of economic distress

I_Hate_Iowa: If, after the recount, there is a tie, I believe they resort to coin toss.

There's something about a politician shouting out their preference for a little head or a little tail that I find entertaining.

/FrankenStein

If there is a god, he will let Franken win by one vote.

King Something: Can't they just settle this with a round of Rock-Paper-Scissors?

better yet, Irish stand-down

It's all down to the challenges at this point. Everything else is just theater.

I think the next tie-breaker here is BCS ranking.

VTSquire: /FrankenStein

Is that 'shopped? If it is, good job. Its really hard to tell.

aevert: VTSquire: /FrankenStein

Is that 'shopped? If it is, good job. Its really hard to tell.

I laughed entirely too hard at that.

Having lived through the Washington State governor's recount (and subsequent court cases) in 2004, I would just like to say that Minnesota, I feel your pain.

However, I'm mostly here for the Star Trek references.

hotter than the ads: However, I'm mostly here for the Star Trek references.

Temba, his arms wide!

This is EXACTLY why we need to repeal the 17th Amendment to the Constitution. You, and everybody else, would pay a lot more attention to local and state elections because there would be a lot more power at the local and state level. Not to mention your local and state reps would pay a lot more attention to you.

hotter than the ads: Having lived through the Washington State governor's recount (and subsequent court cases) in 2004, I would just like to say that Minnesota, I feel your pain.

However, I'm mostly here for the Star Trek references.

*cough*NERD!*cough*

AndyMan1: hotter than the ads: However, I'm mostly here for the Star Trek references.

Temba, his arms wide!

When the walls fell.

"We are confident that when the Canvassing Board begins meeting on December 16th and ultimately completes its work, that Norm Coleman will continue to be ahead, and will be reelected to the United States Senate," said Coleman campaign manager Cullen Sheehan.

Douchebaggy statements like these are the reason why I really want to see this clown get his ass kicked. They're so arrogant that they really could stand to be taken down a few pegs by a guy who was on "Saturday Night Live."

Bucky Katt: better yet, Irish stand-down

I'm familiar with the Irish fall-down, is it anything like that?

If I understand the article, Franken says he will win by four votes if every challenged ballot is decided in his favor.

And I think direct election of Senators is largely responsible for the explosion of the federal government over the past century.

The funny thing is that this important election depends on judgements made on the MISTAKES made by voters -- creating allegedly invalid ballots.

A well organized election would make if much harder to create an invalid ballot. On idea would be on-screen WYSIWYG voting that produces a paper ballot.

VwlssWndr: "We are confident that when the Canvassing Board begins meeting on December 16th and ultimately completes its work, that Norm Coleman will continue to be ahead, and will be reelected to the United States Senate," said Coleman campaign manager Cullen Sheehan.

Douchebaggy statements like these are the reason why I really want to see this clown get his ass kicked. They're so arrogant that they really could stand to be taken down a few pegs by a guy who was on "Saturday Night Live."

Almost as douchebaggery as counting things that haven't been decided upon to declare you have a lead, eh?

without ever seeing the star trek episode, I was going to say that the context of some of the posts sounded similarly to 1984's interrogation of Winston Smith, as O'Brien tortures him into saying that 2 + 2 = 5

interesting.

thalidomide new and improved: without ever seeing the star trek episode, I was going to say that the context of some of the posts sounded similarly to 1984's interrogation of Winston Smith, as O'Brien tortures him into saying that 2 + 2 = 5

interesting.

Ya know...I'd forgotten about that. It's been years since I've read it...maybe I oughtta.

thalidomide new and improved: without ever seeing the star trek episode, I was going to say that the context of some of the posts sounded similarly to 1984's interrogation of Winston Smith, as O'Brien tortures him into saying that 2 + 2 = 5

For sufficiently large values of 2.

I think it's safe to say Senator Franken will have a strong mandate.

Franco: I think it's safe to say Senator Franken will have a strong mandate.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

My wife has man dates all the time. With me, of course.

Wait...

Is that not what you meant?

Paul says there are Seven Levels.

"Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make I WIN I WIN I WIN LALALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU..."

Ok, time for a geek war:

Chain of Command (TNG) or Intersections in Real Time (Babylon 5).

Discuss.

Stile4aly: Ok, time for a geek war:

Chain of Command (TNG) or Intersections in Real Time (Babylon 5).

Discuss.

Intersections. And it's entirely because of the last two minutes.

thalidomide new and improved: without ever seeing the star trek episode, I was going to say that the context of some of the posts sounded similarly to 1984's interrogation of Winston Smith, as O'Brien tortures him into saying that 2 + 2 = 5

interesting.

yes, this.

Franco: I think it's safe to say Senator Franken will have a strong mandate.

LOL.

Franco: I think it's safe to say Senator Franken will have a strongman date.

FTFY

thalidomide new and improved: without ever seeing the star trek episode, I was going to say that the context of some of the posts sounded similarly to 1984's interrogation of Winston Smith, as O'Brien tortures him into saying that 2 + 2 = 5

interesting.

THERE... ARE... FOUR... UNITS!

IndyGemini: Franco: I think it's safe to say Senator Franken will have a strongman date.

FTFY

I knew a woman who had a date with a homeless man. She called it an unfunded man date.

/yeah, no one else found it funny, either.

I hate Chevy
AndyMan1: hotter than the ads: However, I'm mostly here for the Star Trek references.

Temba, his arms wide!

When the walls fell.

Old school WHARRRGARBLL.

King Something: Can't they just settle this with a round of Rock-Paper-Scissors?

Rock-paper-scissors-lizard-Spock, you mean?

If anyone's wondering where they get four votes, my mom works for the campaign. She says for every challenged ballot, they recorded the opinion of the election judge before it was taken out of the count. Even though Coleman is ahead in the count at the moment, Franken has four outs to win at this point:

1) The canvassing board matches the election judges' opinions exactly and he wins by 4 votes.
2) They don't find the 133 ballots and they add the votes as they were counted on election day. Franken gets 42 more net votes.
3) They do find the 133 ballots and recount them. Franken gets ~42 more net votes.
4) They count additional absentee ballots that were wrongly rejected. This doesn't mean ballots with missing signatures. It's cases like the little old lady who was moved one room down at the same address, but had her ballot rejected. The Franken campaign has been collected affidavits from people like her through this whole recount. Nate Silver thinks Franken has the advantage on absentee's.

There's also the wild card of the 10 absentee ballots that were found yesterday but never counted. So despite the Coleman campaign's bloviating over the past month, Franken still has a decent chance of winning.

Everyone who thought this was a Supreme Court thread, raise your hands now.

hotter than the ads: Having lived through the Washington State governor's recount (and subsequent court cases) in 2004, I would just like to say that Minnesota, I feel your pain.

However, I'm mostly here for the Star Trek references.

Shaka, when the walls fell!!

Stile4aly: Ok, time for a geek war:

Chain of Command (TNG) or Intersections in Real Time (Babylon 5).

Discuss.

Intersections all the way. I love TNG, but B5 gets major props for all the 1984 references throughout the series, from obvious ones like "Intersections" and having a Ministry of Peace, to throwaway lines like, "Next thing you know, they'll be re-writing the dictionary."

Lumpmoose: So despite the Coleman campaign's bloviating over the past month, Franken still has a decent chance of winning.

This. I find it so obnoxious how every time a Democrat calls for a recount, the Republican response is "Shut up and get over it. You lost." The reason we need a recount is because we don't know who won. I certainly hope Nate Silver was right in his projection of a few weeks ago, when he predicted that Franken would win by 27 votes, not only to give Democrats another vote in the Senate, but also to prove to Republicans that there is a reason that we have these procedures in our democracy.

VTSquire: /FrankenStein

I feel like a huge nerd for laughing at that as long as I did.

noneyourbase Everyone who thought this was a Supreme Court thread, raise your hands now.

Must admit it. I know not these references to some celestial journey. I thought the SCOTUS was involved not Scotty related jive.

noneyourbase: Everyone who thought this was a Supreme Court thread, raise your hands now.

Just wait a little longer, and it probably will end up that way.

Al Gore, when the lawyers failed.

When the margin of victory is smaller than the inherent error in the vote-counting system, it's a tie. You'll never have a 6th-grader's definition of a tie (i.e. each side has the exact same number of votes). Every time the ballots are counted they'll get a different result, exactly because of the too-small difference.