Overreaching Already?

There are some disturbing reports about the Coleman-Franken Senate election re-count coming out of Minnesota, a state which prides itself in vote-count accuracy. It seems that with 100% of the vote counted, Senator Norm Coleman defeated challenger, Al Franken, by a slim margin of 726 votes, which prompted a re-count by Franken. Since the recount started nearly all the gains in votes have been for Franken, a Democrat, cutting the lead down to 221 thus far. Coincidentally, Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, who is in charge of the re-count is not only a Democrat, but also an ally of ACORN, and a close friend of liberal troublemaker, George Soros. Why am I not surprised? Incumbent Senator Norm Coleman issued this press release:

[As improbable and statistically dubious chunks of votes appear and disappear, overwhelmingly benefiting Al Franken, the Coleman for Senate campaign today filed a data practices request with county auditors and the Secretary of State requesting data related to Election Night results, records related to ballot security and information relating to all revisions made to the results since being reported on Election Night.

"Minnesota has a history of fair and clean elections, and we are committed to ensuring that this election is no different. That is why it is so troubling to us that instead of the normal slight changes in vote totals one would expect during this process, we are now seeing huge chunks of votes appearing and disappearing - statistically dubious and improbable shifts that are overwhelmingly accruing to the benefit of Al Franken. And, as many of these unexplained and improbably vote swings are taking place on the Iron Range, we're asking that local and state election officials provide us with the necessary data to reassure the public that the canvassing process has not been tainted," said Cullen Sheehan, campaign manager.

It has been reported that during the night, 100 new ballots were reported to the Secretary of State's office from the Mountain Iron area. These previously unreported ballots contained 100 votes for President-elect Barack Obama and DFL candidate Al Franken.]

The Democrats have their majority. They are so comfortable with that majority that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is risking the loss of Senator Joe Lieberman to the Republican Party by removing Lieberman from his chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee, simply for backing his long time friend, Senator John McCain, in his presidential bid. So with all this comfort, why cheat? Why steal yet another election? Is it hubris? It has been expected that the Dems would engage in overreaching sometime before the next election. Has it already started before this one ended? We will keep an eye on Mark Ritchie and Al Franken, and hope you do, too.

(h/t: Power Line)