For anyone that is currently following the Minnesota senate recount debacle, there can be no doubt that technology could have prevented this situation. In particular, electronic voting machines could have stopped the inane fights over pen marks on ballots. In fact, there has never been any proof, or even any credible allegations for that matter, of electronic voting machines resulting in voter fraud. The paper ballots in Minnesota though have resulted in a comedy of errors that reminds us that Florida isn’t the only state that has issues with elections.

At present incumbent Republican Sen. Norm Coleman holds a lead over Democratic challenger Al Franken officially by 303 votes. At issue now are the over 6,000 ballots that are being contested because one campaign or another believes the marks on the ballot are unclear. The state will not begin to settle the dispute over the challenged ballots until Dec. 16th. Thus far we have seen everything from voters not fully filling in the bubble next to the candidate’s name to others that have written in votes for candidates not in the race, or in one instance for the “Lizard People,” while still filling in a bubble for either Coleman or Franken. None of this could happen with an electronic voting machine. With the machine you either hit the button to vote for a candidate or you didn’t. There are no long drawn out legal disputes over hanging, pregnant, or dimpled chads. No fights about what a voter meant when they bubbled in one name and x’d in another. No head scratching when it appears that a trained baboon marked up the ballot.

The most ironic thing about this recount is that Minnesota has a reputation for having some of the cleanest and most fair elections of any state. The idea of “Minnesota nice” has been seen in shows like Little House on the Prairie and heard on Garrison Keillor’s Lake Wobegon radio programs. This last election was anything but nice though. Former comedian Al Franken ran a scorched earth race that slung mud and crud at Sen. Norm Coleman at a rapid-fire rate. Coleman, a former Democratic mayor of St. Paul, has a reputation as a moderate and his classy style and affability allowed him to remain competitive in the race even though Obama was carrying Minnesota easily. In fact, Minnesota has not voted for a Republican for president since Nixon in 1972, the longest such streak of any state. It seems likely that a generic Democrat could have beaten Coleman if they had stayed above the fray. Instead the Democratic Farm-Labor Party in Minnesota was saddled with Franken due to his fame and money allowing him to coast to the nomination. Many of his past “jokes” and “exploits” were beyond the pale for average voters that wanted a senator that would not be a vitriolic mouthpiece and embarrassment. Voters told pollsters that Jesse Ventura as governor had made Minnesota the butt of jokes and they had little desire to relive those days with a “Sen. Mean Clown.”

On election night Sen. Coleman held a lead of well over 700 votes. Then, some counties began to discover “errors.” Whether these were egregious or not may never be known, but the result was that Franken cut into Coleman’s lead by some 500 votes. It was now essentially a tie and the state went to work on a recount. Literally every single ballot in the state is being reviewed by hand in an extremely tedious process. At present over 90% of them have been recounted.

The day before Thanksgiving Franken was dealt a severe blow when the bi-partisan election board ruled unanimously that it would not count thousands of absentee ballots that were illegally cast. Franken’s lawyers argued unsuccessfully that things such as a voter’s signature or registration were not necessary. As the counting continued Coleman began to gain votes. This appears to have been a shock to the Franken campaign. Soon they began to profess that they had their own internal count that showed them within 50 votes of Coleman and not the 300 or so away that the state and the media were reporting. Then, just two days ago a strongly Democratic county “found” 171 ballots that were not counted on Election Day nor during the recount. It is claimed that these found ballots produced a net gain of 37 votes for Franken. It has not been fully explained how this occurred.

When all is finished it seems likely that Coleman will prevail. The Franken forces have tacitly acknowledge this fact and have begun making noise about having the US Senate review the election results. In theory the Senate can decide to seat whomever they wish. In practice however it would be stunning to see Franken seated as a senator despite the state of Minnesota saying he lost. History shows this could happen however. In 1974 Republican Louis Wyman was declared the victor over John Durkin for a New Hampshire senate seat by two votes. The Democratic senate decided it would not seat Wyman and a Republican filibuster for several months kept Durkin from taking the office either. Ultimately the two candidates agreed to a new election in 1975 and Durkin prevailed, though the anger at his election was great and he was easily defeated in the Reagan landslide of 1980. The U.S. House did much the same thing in 1984 when Republican Richard McIntyre was declared the winner of an Indiana congressional district by four votes. The Democratic house did not have to worry about a filibuster and seated the Democrat instead. Now that Sen. Saxby Chambliss’ landslide victory in Georgia ensures the Democrats cannot attain 60 seats this session, perhaps the Democrats will send Franken packing, avoid a public outcry, and let the state of Minnesota certify their own winner. Perhaps Minnesota will also switch to technology and send the paper ballots packing, too.