How can counties choose to not sort? Did the directions from the state canvassing board become optional all of a sudden? If they can choose not to sort, they could choose not to recount at all in some future election.

I visit Minnesota Independent daily (that's not meant as a knock, Minn Post!). As a lefty, I want a source that covers what interests me, but is factual for good or ill. I'm not looking for an "echo chamber". That's perhaps why conservatives are reality challenged, even while it worked to move the mainstream media the way conservatives wanted. It ultimately blew up. They don't have anything like Minnesota Independent, or Mother Jones, Salon, etc., by which I mean sites that have a right-wing...

A runoff could result in a recount too. I still like the idea, but just so no one labors under the illusion a runoff would mean never again a recount.

The process however isn't a mess. Compare it to Florida. That whole mess was about whether to recount, which ballots, and by what standard. We had all that settled in law before the election. There are really just two messes: there was clearly a hole in the handling of rejected absentee ballots and that needs to get looked at, and the...

A merger seems inevitable now that both papers have nearly cost-cut themselves into oblivion. Thinking about the decline of print, one thought that strikes me is that paper works much better for mass-transit riders, which sometimes includes me, yet I'm usually one of just a couple people reading some paper's print edition. It's like the managements get so focused on the readers they're losing and the markets they don't have, they miss what they do have and what should be obvious. They should...