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BrauBlog

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    NY Times: Minnesota recount doomed

    By David Brauer | Published Thu, Dec 4 2008 5:46 am

    In this morning's New York Times op-ed section, science writer Charles Seife writes that "the recount in Minnesota is futile."

    Seife — who has authored books such as "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" and "Sun in a Bottle: The Strange History of Fusion and the Science of Wishful Thinking" — bases his argument on a simple premise: the ballot counting error rate will certainly be higher than the Coleman-Franken margin.

    After running through the ongoing counting and finding snafus, he concludes, "the right way to end the senatorial race between Mr. Coleman and Mr. Franken will be to flip a coin."

    That would certainly be less painful than the current process, though less fun for journalists and other recount freaks. By the way, MPR's Bob Collins has already presented coin designs:

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    minnpost.com/braublog

    David Brauer authors Braublog and is MinnPost's local media reporter. He's covered media and politics as a writer and editor since 1983 for City Pages, the Southwest/Downtown Journal, KFAN and KSTP-AM, Mpls.St.Paul, Minnesota Monthly, Law & Politics, the Business Journal, KARE11 and national outlets. Follow him on Twitter. Email: dbrauer [at] minnpost [dot] com. 


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