Secretary of State: Burns can’t ask for recount; margin of victory too large

[maddezmom]

By JENNIFER McKEE IR State Bureau
HELENA - Montana's top electioneer said Wednesday morning that barring a ''dramatic change'' Democrat Jon Tester is the winner of the hotly contested U.S. Senate race and Republican Sen. Conrad Burns does not have the footing to ask for a re-count.

Brad Johnson, Montana's secretary of state, which oversees elections in Montana, said Wednesday morning that election results reported by the Associated Press and this newspaper are generally tracking with his official results.

Those figures show Tester with a slim 2,848 vote lead over Burns, with all 867 voter precincts reporting.

Montana law allows for voter re-counts in certain situations. In this case, the state itself would have launched n and paid for n a re-count if the margin between Tester and Burns fell below about 1,000 votes. Burns could have petitioned for a recount n and potentially paid the cost of it n if the margin between the two fell below about 2,000 votes, Johnson said.

link: http://www.helenair.com/articles/2006/11/08/helena/000aamargine.txt


Democrat Jon Tester, left, embraces his mother Helen as his son Shon, right, applauds as he declares victory in his election battle for the U.S. Senate seat held by incumbent Republican Conrad Burns in Great Falls, Mont., Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2006. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

:woohoo:

[ShortnFiery]

1. Yes, I think Tester will do well!

:applause:

[leftofcool]

2. Yippeeeeeeeeeee!

Suck it up, Burns. You lost!

Left of Cool

[tanyev]

3. Too bad, Burnsie. Guess you need to just get over it.

*chortle*

[Cheney Killed Bambi]

4. Yes!

:bounce: :woohoo:

[Bushh8er]

5. SWEET!!

Ha Ha Ha Ha Burn baby Burn

[Love Bug]

6. This shadenfreude moment has been brought to you by ...

The Montana Secretary of State. Woot!

[AllexxisF1]

7. This is hillarious,

Burns won't conceed ILMAOL! Good God let's hope they have to forcibly remove him.

[Cobalt-60]

36. We could have Firemen drag him out

[LostinVA]

39. Hahaha! I said that last night!

He pissed off some Virginia firefighters, let me tell you...

[Megahurtz]

8. Burns is Burning up now!

:rofl:

[frylock]

9. axl rose campaigned for tester?!

cool!

[bkcc]

11. Hilarious. I was thinking the same thing. n/t

[Bushies gotta go]

10. Didn't I just hear...

the chimp say "it's behind us, lets get on with business"? Apparently the two whiners missed that.

[BR_Parkway]

12. OMG - Candidate children on stage that don't look like they're on

the way to Bible school - Woo Hoo!!!

[torrentprime]

20. Exactly

They look like, well, normal people.

Did you see Tester's ad about the Senate looking more like Montana? GREAT ad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d72sEcfBC3c

[tainted_chimp]

27. ha!

my thoughts exactly!

sooo refreshing!
and... um...real?

:hi:

[robinlynne]

13. wait a second. in the name of election integrity, anyone should be able to

ask for a recount if they pay for it. I don't agree with a sec of state saying no recount to any candidate, ever. Even if it is in our favor.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

14. I'm with you.

And where's Shon's skateboard?

[Tiggeroshii]

17. I agree, Burns should be able to get his recount...

if he pays for it(I even think the state should pay for it in this instance, electronic voting machines, etc).

[truthseeker1]

19. Did you read what Montana's law stipulates for a recount?

Montana law allows for voter re-counts in certain situations. In this case, the state itself would have launched and paid for a re-count if the margin between Tester and Burns fell below about 1,000 votes. Burns could have petitioned for a recount n and potentially paid the cost of it n if the margin between the two fell below about 2,000 votes, Johnson said.

The vote margin would need to be below 2,000.

[drm604]

37. I have to say that I strongly disagree with that law.

A candidate should ALWAYS be able to get a recount if they're willing to pay for it. This works in our favor this time but that may not always be the case. 2,000 may seem like a wide enough margin, but it's not when we're using these machines.

[truthseeker1]

41. Not very many machines in MT

I don't think many of the voting machines were used in MT. In fact, where we voted, it was the old fill in the bubble ballot.

[drm604]

42. Even so

it seems like, if a candidate is willing to pay they should be able to get a recount.

[rpannier]

33. If he wants to pay for it

He should get one shot at it.
This is not something that should be allowed to drag on forever.

[Gormy Cuss]

40. The secretary is following the law in Montana.

States set parameters limiting recounts for good reasons. First off, even if the candidate is paying for the recount, the public employees would be focused on assisting inn and monitoring that process rather than other duties. Second, if any candidate was empowered to ask for a recount for any reason then it would be used as a strategic tool to delay the official results. Without official results, either the incumbent would continue to represent the district or state, or no one would, or a person would be appointed to fill the seat temporarily. It depends on how the law is written in that state. In the case of retaining an incumbent or a temporary appointment, you can see how this would be an opportunity for one party to retain power a bit longer even though it's clear that its candidate lost by a whisker.

[sebastianj333]

15. YESSSSSSSSSSSSS!

:woohoo:

[Tiggeroshii]

16. Why can't he ask for a recount if it's above 2,000 votes

... it seems like it's saying he can't even have a recount even if he pays for it. That doesn't really sound right...


:shrug:

[kestrel91316]

25. It's probably a law passed by the Montana GOP. Heh heh.

[tabasco]

18. Way to go Montana !

A really beautiful state just got even nicer !

[DainBramaged]

21. Does this mean there is a God?

[maddezmom]

22. yup, this one :D

[struggle4progress]

23. "... The Burns campaign wasn't returning reporters' calls ..."

Wednesday, November 8, 2006
Tester wins Montana Senate seat
By CHARLES S. JOHNSON and MIKE DENNISON
Missoulian State Bureau
http://www.bismarcktribune.com/articles/2006/11/08/news/update/doc45523c8f6b984806124640.txt

[maddezmom]

24. CNN has this on it's blog

Burns not conceeding
Washington (CNN) -- Montana GOP Sen. Conrad Burns is not ready to concede his senate seat to Democratic Challenger John Tester, his campaign tells CNN.

CNN has projected Tester the winner of the Montana Senate race.

Montana Senate results
Posted 11/08/2006 04:33:00 PM | Permalink
http://www.cnn.com/POLITICS/blogs/politicalticker/index.html

[Hand]

26. ...

[confludemocrat]

28. WTF? ALL precincts have reported. Concede, you old biggoted fool

at least in the largest county in the state, Yellowstone, the absentee ballots are counted FIRST, so it's all over except your sulking, you rotten corrupt, blithering embarassment to the state

[undergroundrailroad]

30. LOL! Perfectly stated!!

:hi:

[AIJ Alom]

29. Maybe now you can go work with that nice Guatemalan man

or perhaps you can apologize to all the firefighters. a$$ clown.

[mcscajun]

31. Schadenfreude!!!

Playing to packed audiences all over America.

:woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:

[rpannier]

32. Two things...

1. It's the Republikkan Secretary of State. So the republikkans can't claim bias.

2. If c. burns wants to pay for a recount I think he should be entitled.

[Anakin Skywalker]

34. Ah Hah Hah! Connie Burns Having Hissy Fit Now!

[NOLADEM]

35. HA HA

You lose.


Head directly to jail.

[TheBaldyMan]

38. Awwwwwwwwww Hawwww Ha ha ha ha hah

:rofl:

[Oreegone]

43. There is a reason why we don't just have recounts for the asking

Recounts are an incredibly expensive event. They take lots of time & manpower which usually works around the clock till its done. It can cost a state a big chunk of change. So they can't bend to every sore loser.

You may not think 2,000 is a very big number of votes, but remember Montana has a very low population. It would be like saying they would recount the votes in New York if you were within 100,000 votes of the winner.

Population, 2005 estimate Montana 935,670 Us Total 296,410,404
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/30000.html