Challenged ballots: judge well, but consider this

State statute may affect some of your choices.  From the statute:

You may not be able to count ballot #4 or #7 by this rule:

• Subd. 3.Votes for too many candidates.
  
  
  
  If a voter places a mark (X) beside the names of more candidates for an office than are to be elected or nominated, the ballot is defective with respect only to that office. No vote shall be counted for any candidate for that office, but the rest of the ballot shall be counted if possible. At a primary, if a voter has not indicated a party preference and places a mark (X) beside the names of candidates of more than one party on the partisan ballot, the ballot is totally defective and no votes on it shall be counted. If a voter has indicated a party preference at a primary, only votes cast for candidates of that party shall be counted. [emphasis mine]

According to this section, ballot #5 may be technically an overvote, and subject to the above rule.

• Subd. 4.Name written in proper place.
  If a voter has written the name of an individual in the proper place on a general or special election ballot a vote shall be counted for that individual whether or not the voter makes a mark (X) in the square opposite the blank.

Other rules for thought:

• Subd. 6.Mark out of place.
  If a mark (X) is made out of its proper place, but so near a name or space as to indicate clearly the voter's intent, the vote shall be counted.
  
  

Challenged ballots: you be the judge

Minnesota Public Radio is giving the average citizen a chance to see what the canvassing board will be deciding - what was the voter's intent.  Click on to see challenged ballots in the Minnesota Senate race and to see if you can determine the voter's intention.

Hat tip to GM for the link (via email).




Update (after the quiz): 

• I can't believe people would give ballot #1 to Franken.  I voted Coleman, but I'd rather discard it that accept it.  It's an arrow, away from Franken!
• On #7, it's a hard one.  I'd argue that the voter started the wrong bubble and then went for their true choice - Coleman.
• #11 is not an underline, it's a strikethrough.  I gave it to Coleman.

Why tax incentives for jobs fail

Minnesota has a program to create tax-free "Job Zones (JOBZ)" to give an incentive to companies to create more jobs in distressed areas. It seems to work as well as most corporate welfare. Here's a story on the report from the Legislative Auditor and here's a brief summary of the boondoggle:

• There is no formal mechanism within JOBZ for evaluating whether a subsidy is needed, and, if so, whether a more limited subsidy could achieve the same business expansion.
• Within the business subsidy agreement itself, there is no deadline for creating the promised jobs, and no requirement to maintain the jobs through the life of the tax forgiveness.
• Using state unemployment tax data submitted by the firms benefiting from the program, the auditor's office found that the increase in employment at JOBZ businesses was 20 to 30 percent lower than what DEED was reporting.
• Although JOBZ was supposed to target economically distressed areas for business tax relief, need has not been a factor in designating JOBZ zones

Plug-in hybrids can reduce pollution, too

The tireless folks at Energista have struck energy information gold again, reviewing two new reports at the Minnesota Department of Commerce. The more interesting (to me) is the report analyzing the air pollution impact of converting Minnesota's vehicle fleet to plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs).

PHEVs are an existing-technology route to gaining oil independence by shifting fuel use to electricity. When combined with a flexible fuel engine capable of using E85 or biodiesel, a car could get over 100 miles per gallon of fuel and more than 500 miles per gallon of gasoline.

I examined this technology in a past post and concluded that for $170 billion, the United States could achieve oil independence in two years, assuming a price premium of $5000 for a hybrid engine and $100 to make it flex-fuel compatible.

The Minnesota report shows that for almost all criteria air pollutants, a fleet of PHEVs would reduce pollution compared to regular cars (the exception being sulfur dioxide, due to most Minnesota electricity coming from coal). However, with Minnesota already committed to 25% renewable electricity by 2025, these figures can only improve.

If Tax Cuts Don't Boost the Economy, What Do They Do?

The left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has a very thorough analysis of state tax cuts during the latter half of the 1990s and the economic performance of those states since. While some of the tables and figures in the report are probably obscuring some contradictory data (note the comment about Michigan in the box on page 3), the overall analysis is startling. Tax cuts lead to slower economic growth, higher unemployment and bigger budget deficits.

A traditionally high-tax state like Minnesota should take note. A recent Minnesota Public Radio news story (I was unable to find a link) noted that Minnesota's advantage in the unemployment rate - versus the national average - is the smallest it's been in over 10 years. Is Minnesota becoming average by becoming average?

Senator Franken from Minnesota?

Comedian Al Franken announced his intention to challenge Norm Coleman (R) for his U.S. Senate seat in 2008. I've been a skeptic ever since rumors emerged that he was considering it, but his announcement statement was pretty darn good. I'll be interested to hear how he proposes to pursue many of these "bread and butter" Democratic issues as a senator.

Update: MSP Airport cabs will take passengers or queue up

In an interesting twist, the Metropolitan Airports Commission in Minnesota found a way out of its dilemma involving Muslim cab drivers refusing rides to people carrying alcohol. Any cab driver who refuses a passenger has to return to the start of the cab queue, a wait of as much as 3 hours for another passenger. I don't think Muslims should be punished for wanting to follow their faith, but neither should people seeking cab drivers be discriminated against for not following Muslim law.

Update 10/26/06: as one might expect, a few other bloggers are weighing in. This guy says we should let Muslims discriminate, but post signs to let people vote with their dollars. Another says that any preferential treatment for Muslims based on their religion clearly violates the establishment of religion and is unconstitutional. Interesting stuff.

A nifty new way to see candidates debate

Minnesota will be allowing all the gubernatorial candidates in this year's election to participate in 10-day online debate that started this Monday. Check out the announcement from E-Democracy for more details:

E-Democracy.Org and the Blandin Foundation are pleased to announce an online candidate debate with Minnesota’s gubernatorial candidates. The e-debate starts on Monday, October 9th and goes through Thursday, October 19th.

The officially confirmed and participating candidates - everyone on the ballot - include:

* Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Republican
* Atty Gen. Mike Hatch, DFL
* Peter Hutchinson, Independence
* Ken Pentel, Green
* Leslie Davis, American
* Walt Brown, Quit Raising Taxes

With new responses each weekday, this “on-demand” debate let’s you choose which candidates and questions to follow. With Voter Voices (below) you can have your say in text or multimedia. This is what any time, anywhere democracy is all about.

See the debate here or sign up to receive the e-debate e-mail by sending an email to MN Politics