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Information Wants To Be Free! [Dan Collins]

Journamalists just sometimes don’t think it’s their business to help it break out:

Given his role as chairman of the State Canvassing Board, I believe Ritchie’s collaboration with Franken in the course of the recount to be inappropriate and improper. As a member of the State Canvassing Board, Ritchie serves in a quasi-judicial administrative capacity. During the recount, any communications between Ritchie and the Franken campaign that excluded the Coleman campaign would be in the nature of the kind of ex parte communications that are generally deemed improper in judicial proceedings.

On Monday last week we filed a freedom-of-information request with the Secretary of State’s office under Minnesota’s Government Data Practices Act regarding Ritchie’s communications with the Franken campaign. So far as I know, we are alone in raising concerns about Ritchie’s coordination with the Franken campaign during the recount.

Our request seeks documents relating to communications between Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie or his office and the Franken campaign. On Wednesday, the legal advisor to the Secretary of State’s office called to discuss our request. The legal advisor is Bert Black, who has worked in the Secretary of State’s office for some 30 years. (Bert and I were law school classmates along with Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Barry Anderson, who was one of the four judges filling out the State Canvassing Board with Ritchie.).

Talking about our request with Bert, I inferred that no reporter or news organization had submitted a freedom-of-information request since November 24, when Bert last responded to such requests. He sent me the information he had compiled in response to those requests. The lack of media interest in following this aspect of the recount story is striking to me.

Yesterday’s Star Tribune carried a story by Patricia Lopez about Ritchie’s decision to decentralize the manual recount at locations around the state. Lopez’s story concludes with a quote from Ritchie:

“We’ll meet [freedom-of-information] data practices requests,” Ritchie said, “but my role is done. This is really in the hands of three judges. We don’t have anything to do with it.”

Given the fact that as of last Wednesday ours was the only pending Data Practices Act request, I’m glad Ritchie intends to meet it. My guess, however, is that Ritchie’s coordination with Franken’s campaign occurred at in-person meetings that lack documentation in the records of the Secretary of State’s office. It would be nice if someone who does this work for a living got serious about some of the many stories underlying the recount.

12 Replies to “Information Wants To Be Free! [Dan Collins]”

  1. Merovign says:

    As far as I can tell, since nobody in a position of authority or who has money or even spare time is going to do jack shit about vote theft, my vote is pretty damned worthless.

    And any sack of crap who steals my vote had better not try to get me to comply with their policies, either.

    You want anarchy? Convince people their votes are meaningless. And a lot of people are pretty damned convinced.

  2. Bob Reed says:

    Done in conformance with mob approved practices to safeguard plausible deniability…

    Soros bought and paid for Stuart Smalley to go to Washington…

  3. Topsecretk9 says:

    The lack of media interest in following this aspect of the recount story is striking to me.

    Duh, dumpster in Alaska, cant be in 2 places at one time.

  4. Topsecretk9 says:

    Soros bought and paid for Stuart Smalley to go to Washington…

    bingo.

  5. B Moe says:

    Damn, man. That much money and Franken is the best you can come up with?

  6. geoffb says:

    “That much money and Franken is the best you can come up with?”

    Very shallow bench, among other things, also shallow.

  7. easyliving1 says:

    Franken stealing this election could be the best thing that’s ever happened to the GOP.

    Well, besides Lincoln I guess.

    Maybe.

  8. dicentra says:

    The lack of media interest in following this aspect of the recount story is striking to me.

    Really, Scott? It looked like you said that with a straight face. Please tell me you did not say that with a straight face.

  9. Mossberg500 says:

    Bob “B-1” Dornan must be laughing his ass off right now.

  10. Sdferr says:

    And La Cosa Nostra was silly enough that they thought they had to carry on their business behind closed doors. Little did they know it could be done in the full light of day and no one would pay any attention.

  11. Jim P says:

    I am ashamed to admit that I live in the Land of 10000 fakes. The silence here is deafening, and it is sickening. People here are so absolutely biased and brainwashed since the DFL is the state religion and they just don’t care. However, there are a ton of conservatives here and they are growing in number. My area went for McCain by almost 60%. Powerline is based here and there are several other pretty major blogs that come out of MN. that is why it is so frustrating that there is hardly anyone doing anything about this. It’s one thing to say that most conservatives have jobs and families and are busy, but at what point are people going to set that aside and rally to a cause? I can’t think of anything more important than this is. If Franken steals this election I am never voting here again. Obviously, what ever I do won’t matter. Even my liberal friends who were so vocal about supposed voter disenfranchisement and the whole “principle” behind it are predictably hypocritical on this matter, and are just happy that it is a guy with a D behind his name no matter how disgusting he is. Even some of those same liberals say that they can’t stand Franken, but they can’t be bothered to worry about this. I am sick and tired of it. I am tired of conservatives ceding every ground to liberals. I am tired of doing nothing. I am seriously thinking that if some Militant conservative group popped up I would join it.

  12. Marina says:

    Да это нечто. С этим трудно не согласится, но трудно поспорить. Сколько людей столько и мнений. Удивительная вещь эта жизнь.

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