Out of Cheese

The New York Times mentions that absentee ballots in Minnesota that are returned with votes for Paul Wellstone won’t count as votes for whomever is named to replace him…but those same ballots will count if they contain votes for Norm Coleman.

Something seems very wrong about that. You’ll have potentially thousands of ballots which will be filled out by voters believing their vote will be counted, when in fact it won’t be…but it only won’t be counted if they voted for a specific person. I can’t imagine how that’s legal. At the same time, you can’t legitimately assume that every vote for Wellstone is a vote for his replacement. And there’s simply not enough time to reprint absentee ballots and mail the new copies out to every voter. So I’m not sure what a good solution is, but failing to count certain ballots unless they’re votes for Norm Coleman can’t be the best option.