O'Reilly falsely claimed Coleman "was certified the winner" in MN Senate race
SUMMARY: Echoing Sen. Norm Coleman's campaign, Bill O'Reilly falsely claimed that Coleman "was certified the winner" in the Minnesota Senate race against Al Franken, adding, "Coleman won by a mere 215 votes." In fact, the Minnesota State Canvassing Board did not certify a winner in the Senate race, having authorized an automatic recount of ballots for that race.
Echoing a false claim made by Sen. Norm Coleman's (R-MN) campaign, host Bill O'Reilly falsely claimed on the November 18 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor that Coleman "was certified the winner" in the Minnesota Senate race against Democratic challenger Al Franken. O'Reilly added: "Coleman won by a mere 215 votes." In fact, during the November 18 meeting of the Minnesota State Canvassing Board, Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie stated that the board was signing a certificate declaring that "[e]xcept for the offices of U.S. senator, state senator District 16, state representative Districts 12b and 16a, the candidates who received the highest number of votes cast for each office voted on in more than one county is hereby declared 'elected.' " Ritchie then explained: "This is the certificate that we are signing one at a time, and it declares the winner in all but four races. And in those four races, they will receive the same process at the end of the recount."
Ritchie's office released a statement that day asserting that "Minnesota law triggers automatic recounts when the vote margin between the top two candidates in federal, state, or judicial races is less than one-half of one percent in a general election." It further stated: "The board reviewed and adopted election results with the exception of those requiring automatic recounts." The statement also quoted Ritchie asserting: "Only when this recount is complete in its entirety will we know who is elected."
Several news outlets also reported that the board did not certify vote totals or a winner in the Minnesota Senate race. The Star Tribune reported on November 19 that the board "did not certify vote totals in the Senate race." The Pioneer Press reported in a November 19 article that the board "declare[d] winners ... in all but four" Minnesota election contests, including "the U.S. Senate race." The Press quoted Ritchie as saying, "We do not know the winner of four races until the completion of the process." Additionally, the West Central Tribune reported on November 19 that the "Senate race is among the four without a certified winner pending the recount."
Additionally, Ritchie reportedly "dismissed" the Coleman campaign's statement that Coleman "was confirmed as the winner" in the race. In the statement, Coleman for Senate Campaign Manager Cullen Sheehan asserted that "Coleman has, for the third time, been named the winner of the 2008 election." Ritchie reportedly said in response, "We certified that on all but four races the winner is known."
From the November 18 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor:
O'REILLY: "Factor Follow-up" segment tonight: Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman was certified the winner in his race against Al Franken today. Coleman won by a mere 215 votes. But about 400,000 voters in Minnesota rejected Franken, while voting for Obama. They crossed the ticket to support Coleman, a stunning statistic.
From the November 18 meeting of the Minnesota State Canvassing Board:
RITCHIE: We will move now to the signing of the certificate, and with -- for the benefit of the audience, I would like to read this.
"We, the undersigned, legally constituted state canvassing board, as required by law" -- and I think -- is there a good pen and all of that? Where's that original? Do you want to start it? [inaudible] "As required by law, canvassed on November 18th, 2008, the certified copies of the statements made by the county canvassing boards of the votes cast at the November 4th, 2008, state general election for presidential electors, U.S. Senate, U.S. representatives, state representatives, state constitutional amendment, and state judicial offices. We have also received the report of the 2008 postelection review, held pursuant to law, containing the changes and the number of votes counted by candidates for the offices of presidential electors, U.S. Senate, U.S. representatives in the precincts reviewed in each county of the state pursuant to Minnesota statute section 206.89, we have incorporated the indicated changes into the following report of the votes cast at the 2008 state general election.
"We specify in the following report the names of the persons who received votes and the number received by each in the several counties in which they were cast as reported by the county canvassing boards and adjusted by the report of the postelection review. Except for the offices of U.S. senator, state senator District 16, state representative Districts 12b and 16a, the candidates who received the highest number of votes cast for each office voted on in more than one county is hereby declared 'elected.' "
This is the certificate that we are signing one at a time, and it declares the winner in all but four races. And in those four races, they will receive the same process at the end of the recount. And the report triggers the counting by hand of the four races, which will begin tomorrow morning. And we have the task today of considering the procedures for the recount plans, which will now be presented by [Minnesota state elections director] Mr. Gary Poser.
Again, O'Liely pulling facts from his nether regions.
Except for the offices of U.S. senator, state senator District 16, state representative Districts 12b and 16a, the candidates who received the highest number of votes cast for each office voted on in more than one county is hereby declared 'elected.' "
This is apparently too many words for BOR to process at any one time.
These people-- they really are incorrigible. I mean, criminally dishonest. Like calling the moon green cheese, and then getting defiant about it. They can't be dealt with.
And Bull OhReally? has been certified as a "Bloviator" (again)
HAHAHA! Sadly, some O'Reilly watchers probably believe Coleman was certified the winner.
inshannity said the same thing as billybob o'really did. It is to discredit Franken as senator when he wins.
The only way Fraken wins this election is by "finding" votes in a car, stealing votes, or finding creative ways to determine voter intent. You dont find it at least curious that in the days right after the election, over 200 new votes were "found" for Fraken, and none for Coleman. All of the mistakes in all the counites....every one of them favored Fraken. Give me a break. Fraken is doing everything he can to steal this.
pointofview, i think i see the source of your confusion: the candidates in the MN senate campaign were norm coleman and al franken. i have no idea who this fraken guy is, but that probably explains why you think he wasn't the winner, he wasn't a candidate.
I believe Fraken was running against Friken in Michigan. Other than that, Pointy's post is wall to wall solid evidence and well-supported fact. Just kidding, it's a load of whiny imagined BS.
"i have no idea who this fraken guy is, but that probably explains why you think he wasn't the winner, he wasn't a candidate."
Fraken? Wasn't he Will Riker on Star Trek:TNG? No surprise that POV is confused with a sci-fi character and a political candidate. ;)
Get that off of coleman's disinformation website? It's pretty much word for word, so I'm pretty sure you didn't come up with that all by yourself...
Get that off of coleman's disinformation website? It's pretty much word for word, so I'm pretty sure you didn't come up with that all by yourself...
POV is incapable of coming up with anything by himself - the right-wing liars spew all that garbage, and POV just gobbles it up and then mindlessly repeats it, thinking it's his own thoughts.....
And yet, Pawlenty says everything is above board. What a partisan liberal he must be, huh?
You dont find it at least curious that in the days right after the election, over 200 new votes were "found" for Fraken, and none for Coleman.
That's completely not so. In fact, just the last few days, they "found" Coleman another 9 votes or so.
Why do you guys just make this stuff up? Is it the only way you can deal with the world?
"Point of View" is a very good name for you. Facts need not be considered...
POV: It's not surprising at all that surpressed, hidden, or attempts at buried votes turn out to be Democratic. Republicans are now famous for attempting to disinfranchise the "wrong sort" of voter (read: Democrats), any way they can. When caught, surprise, surprise, the valid legal votes which have been discovered are Democratic votes.
Hell, many Rightwingers are very up front about their feeling that only those "in the know" and with good "common sense" (i.e., Republicans) should be allowed to vote. Such elitism and arrogance is part of the reason the GOP finds itself far in the wilderness once again. And thank God for that.
One polling station posted 273 votes for Franken as "27". It corrected the error later.
It's called human error.
Give me a break.
It's called human error.
POV's parents made a human error when POV was born......
The votes found in a car story is a myth, pure and simple.
Franken has no way of influencing the determination of voter intent. Every ballot is examined by election workers with members of both campaigns looking over their shoulders. Disputed ballots will be evaluated by a 5-member panel which has only one Democrat on it.
Vote totals for Franken, Coleman and Barkley all increased in the days after the election. This happens in virtually every contest all over the country in every election.
The biggest gains this time for Franken were the result of misreporting or misrecording. Two small communities had the totals for Franken adjusted upward by 100 each. It's unknown whether the people reporting on election night or the people in the Secretary of State's office doing the recording made the errors. They were caught when local election officials checked the official numbers published by the SOS office and saw the discrepancies. These are small towns in strongly Democratic regions. The lower totals were statistically unlikely. Also, in both communities the total number of votes recorded for Senate on the vote tabulating machines differed by the published SOS totals by exactly 100 votes. It would be nearly impossible to add those votes after the fact. They were corrections of human error, pure and simple.
I Two Harbors, another strongly Democratic community, Franken's vote total was 273. The SOS office recorded it as 27, a ridiculously low number. It was very obviously human error, leaving off the "3" at the end of 273. That was corrected.
There are no new votes being "found." The largest errors happened to have hurt Franken more than Coleman, resulting in the largest swing when they were corrected.
Any more falsehoods you'd like corrected?
No, POV, I don't find that "curious" because, not being an ignoramus or a fool, I have paid attention to the reports on the demographics, which predicted that changes in the tallies would likely favor Franken.
"doing everything he can to steal this"
I hope you're prepared for that libel suit.
Oh Bill, Coleman's lead has dropped to 174 votes with only 7% of the votes recounted. Scared yet?
http://ww2.startribune.com/news/metro/elections/returns/2008/recount/msenco.html
Only 7%? Coleman is doomed. We use this same method of voting in my state with optical readers. Hand inspection of the votes always results in an increase because a human person can better interpet the intent of the voter with regards to circles, X's and filled in boxes. The optical readers only recognize the filled in boxes.
If you believe that Franken might get more of the poor, uneducated, first-time, and minority vote, because he is a democrat (a reasonable assumption), you can't help but suspect that Franken will gain more due to the higher error rate of his voters.
Most of the corrections at this point have been typo or clerical errors. Now we wait for the other 93% of the actual recount. Welcome senator Al.
Minnesota has a long history of close US Senate races.
The 2006 race, which Amy Klobuchar (D) won in a landslide, is an exception.
Whoever loses the extremely close 2008 Senate race, it won't be "stunning."
Wow, this is an out-and-out, level-one direct lie from "independent journalist" O'Reilly. Usually he spins, misleads, and obfuscates unpleasant facts.
There is nothing to parse, consider, or hide behind. Every O'Reilly fan can be presented with about four sentences of material and be forced to conclude immediately that their hero lied right in their faces.
You lied again, Bill.
There was actually a place where Coleman was certified the winner; and that was in O'Lieleys Head.
Bill O the Clown hates Franken, he will leave no lie unturned to deonize Franken, remember Franken was one of the 1st to take on Bill O and the rest of the nutty Right Wing. Bill O's ratings have taken a nose dive to boot!
"Minnesota law triggers automatic recounts when the vote margin between the top two candidates in federal, state, or judicial races is less than one-half of one percent in a general election."
Why does BOR hate MN law so much?
"Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them"