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Coakley Campaign To Sound Alarm On Reported Ballots Pre-Marked For Scott Brown

Eric Kleefeld | January 19, 2010, 5:34PM

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State AG Martha Coakley (D-MA)

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The Martha Coakley campaign just sent out a media advisory, announcing a press conference at 5:30 p.m. ET, alleging irregularities in the special Senate election.

The press conference will involve reports of voters who received ballots that were already marked for Republican candidate Scott Brown.

It should be noted that the Coakley campaign will have on hand as an attorney one Marc Elias, who was previously the head recount lawyer for Al Franken in Minnesota, a legal drama that lasted for eight months after election day 2008. Elias also worked on another high-profile recount before that, the Washington state gubernatorial race in 2004. So clearly, the Coakley campaign was fully prepared for a super-close election by having Elias already on hand in Boston.

MEDIA ADVISORY: COAKLEY CAMPAIGN TO DISCUSS INTEGRITY OF ELECTION
Multiple Reports Of Ballots Pre-Marked For Scott Brown

BOSTON - Following multiple independent reports of ballots being given to voters pre-marked for Republican Scott Brown, Coakley Campaign Manager Kevin Conroy and Attorney Marc Elias will hold a press conference in the Sheraton Grand Ballroom at 5:30 pm.

Comments (52) | Join the Conversation!

Recommend Recommend (1)

matt in so dak

January 19, 2010 5:38 PM

I'll build the brick wall. Someone bring the tea baggers....

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January 19, 2010 6:11 PM in reply to matt in so dak

another eight month recount would be so much more fun.

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matt in so dak

January 19, 2010 5:40 PM

Someone else bring some smokes.

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January 19, 2010 5:44 PM

Acornz attack!

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matt in so dak

January 19, 2010 5:47 PM

Has everyone heard the new joke about Republicans going round the net?

What's the best thing about Republicans?...

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matt in so dak

January 19, 2010 5:49 PM in reply to matt in so dak

They die.

----

-smiles-
YES WE CAN!

Please note I am opposed to violence and my smile and comment in no way should be mistaken for an endorsement of violence against inbreds.

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January 19, 2010 6:31 PM in reply to matt in so dak

But I bet more than a few of them are still voting in Mass!

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January 19, 2010 6:32 PM in reply to JEP07

I mean dead Republicans, of course.

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January 19, 2010 5:48 PM

Well if she can't win at least she will be a good soldier and delay the enemy as much as possible. Too bad, I was hoping for Plan B. This is not going to look good with the non partisan folks though....and we already knew what the tea bag response to anything but an uncontested Brown landslide was going to be...Guess he should cancel the tickets to DC tonight tho ;)

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January 19, 2010 5:48 PM

They don't have freaky far-left progressives who sabotage their president?

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January 19, 2010 5:49 PM

We wuz robbed!

Preparing for later defeat?

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January 19, 2010 5:50 PM

Dems should set a goal of resolving the election fraud issues in less time than the Franken/Coleman election.

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January 19, 2010 6:06 PM in reply to bfree

Wow. You really didn't think that through. Until the election is resolved, the current Senator holds the seat. If Brown appears to lead, there is no incentive for a quick resolution.

Minnesota taught us that the GOP will pursue bogus legal action to keep a seat open. They have lost any right to whine if the same tactic gets used on them. They have asked for it.

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January 19, 2010 6:33 PM in reply to Dogger

"They have lost any right to whine..."
That happened decades ago, but it hasn't stopped them yet.

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slb

January 19, 2010 6:34 PM in reply to Dogger

There you go. Turnabout is fair play.

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January 19, 2010 8:17 PM in reply to Dogger

Hell, they taught us all how to do it. And if it's legal for them to do it, then it's legal for us.

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Barry Champlain

January 19, 2010 5:52 PM

Chris Matthews alert, and I quote:

"... we're gonna know, within a couple of hours, whether health care is dead..."

Really?

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January 19, 2010 6:05 PM in reply to Barry Champlain

No not really, but the media will love the story.

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January 19, 2010 6:10 PM in reply to Barry Champlain

Unbelievable. To think that to most Chris Matthews would be part of the "liberal media". With friends like Chris who needs enemies?

I don't buy the liberal media. The MSM on both sides steers the debate and creates the story. There is little news anymore, just commentary. These "journalist" have lead the country by the nose and we are too ignorant to stop following. We should have gotten a clue when the MSM was part of the drumbeat that took us to Iraq.

The MSM and Tea Partiers have framed the debate on most everything, and we let them. Now Chris says health care is dead and Coakley is defeated. STFU and become a journalist instead of spouting your idiotic beliefs as if God as spoken.

I believe that when we look back at history we will see that the worst thing that ever happened to this country is the 24 hour news cycle. It ended journalism and created news as entertainment.

It's difficult to find a network or a site where we can actually get some real answers. I find myself looking to the comments of many here at TPM to get an educated assessment of what is happening on any given issue. Sadly, there are very few on TV that can provide that anymore.

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January 19, 2010 6:11 PM in reply to Barry Champlain

Russ seems to agree with Mathews. When will dems learn? You don't try to appease people who are hell bent to kill you at sight.

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January 19, 2010 6:47 PM in reply to kash79

I think it is just part of the DNA of dems. I honestly believe that people are rational, and won't listen to the bs of the far right, yet they do. I believe that people have memories, yet it seems that their memories of the Bush years have been wiped clean after just a year.

The Blue Dog Dems drive me crazy, but I complain daily about the lockstep obstructionism of the GOP. Do, I really feel that any party should have all of its member vote in lockstep? Actually, I don't. I beleive that the Congressmen should represent their constituents instead of their party. So I am less offended by the Blue Dogs and Republicans from Red States than I am by those who blow off their constituents and vote with their party, which the GOP has done much of the entire year.

With that said, it is clear there will be more of the same. I can spout my ideology about what is right all I want, and it won't change the obstruction that will come from the GOP. So, from this point on the Dems need to get some courage, forget about the elections they are facing, and start getting something meaningful done. The dems in Congress need to quit sniping at one another and realize this may be their last chance, a chance that doesn't come around but every few decades. They have a 20 vote majority in the Senate, which in the worst case will become an 18 vote majority. Start having the guts to use it. Like Jon Stewart said, Bush never had that type of majority and it didn't stop him from doing whatever the F&ck he wanted. Get busy Dems and stop acting like everyone is this country (or in Congress for that matter) can be reasoned with. You will still have part of the country against you not matter what you do. But, at least you won't lose those who support you.

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wyt

January 19, 2010 5:56 PM

It's okay. They don't need these pre-marked ballots. They've reportedly got control of the voting machines:

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7655

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January 19, 2010 6:04 PM

Always accuse the opponent of wrongdoings being perpetrated by your side. Diversion.

It isn't going to fly. The people are on to you.

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January 19, 2010 6:33 PM in reply to Silence

And Coleman's challenge was what...chopped liver?

Think things through before barfing onto the 'net.

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January 19, 2010 8:28 PM in reply to Silence

You mean like the Bushit criminal enterprise accusations against Al Gore "stealing" the election?

Let me introduce you to a document you haven't read: the US Constitution.

The US constitution expressly stipulates the branch of gov't which has sole authority to resolve election disputes like that in 2000. It isn't the UNelected Supreme Court; it is the CONGRESS.

Remember where the Bushit criminal enterprise ran in 2000 INSTEAD of to the Congress (which happened to be controlled by Republicans at the time)? Right: to the UNelected Supreme Court -- of which five Republican-appointed members dutifully and unconstitutionally usurped that sole authority from Congress in order to unconstitutionally appoint their choice of candidate.

That also means that those five voted TWICE in the same election -- which is ILLEGAL.

So don't give us your horseshit about rule of law: you couldn't care less about Constitution, country, or the rule of law. Election theft is fine with you so long as committed by Republican America-haters. Treason is fine with you so long as committed by Republicans: perverts such as you consider treason -- by Republicans -- to be love of country. You of course put political party before the hesaelth and best interests of your country; and that, thug, is TREASON.

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mans_best_friend

January 19, 2010 6:07 PM

If this is more than an isolated incident, it will be pretty easy to spot. If an unusually high number of overvotes show up in a few precincts, coupled with firsthand reports, you'd have a pretty good case for hanky panky.

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January 19, 2010 6:11 PM

You can be sure that if its reasonably close for either side, there will be recounts.

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January 19, 2010 6:32 PM

Prepare operation foot dragging.

It would be fun to repay the favor after Norm lost in Minnesota. I'd love to see a good 9 months go by with a recount.

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slb

January 19, 2010 6:38 PM in reply to AnswerFrog

That would depend on the Massachusetts election law being as meticulously patient as Minnesota's. I have no idea whether it is close to that or not, but I suspect there are few states whose citizens would be willing to wait 9 months for an election result.

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January 19, 2010 8:36 PM in reply to slb

"Justice and the rule of law are to be ABOVE politics." -- John Adams.

If there is legitmate question about the outcome of an election, then that is the reality -- regardless the views of the citizenry. That's why we have elections law.

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slb

January 19, 2010 8:41 PM in reply to JNagarya

And it worked so well in the Florida recount...

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January 19, 2010 9:25 PM in reply to slb

And on the UNelected Supreme Court, when instead the Constitution expressly stipulates that the SOLE authority for resolving such election disputes resides with CONGRESS.

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January 19, 2010 6:35 PM

By the way, still time, GOTV: Call five voters.

http://my.barackobama.com/Call5MA?source=feature

They may be five that keep this in court or force a recount.

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January 19, 2010 6:50 PM

I called some folks this weekend. Not very many people were happy about getting phone calls.

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January 19, 2010 7:01 PM in reply to lousgirl84

They were actually not bad. Very polite considering that nobody likes getting unsolicited calls of any kind.

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January 19, 2010 7:08 PM in reply to AnswerFrog

True. I wasn't complaining - I just felt a bit deflated by the experience.

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January 19, 2010 7:28 PM in reply to lousgirl84

Oh I see. I called back in 2008 quite a bit, so am used to it by now.

Btw, the phone banking tool was running out of numbers to give me. At least that's a good sign of people volunteering.

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January 19, 2010 8:47 PM in reply to lousgirl84

The robocalls -- which are illegal in Massachusetts -- have been overwhelming beyond all reason.

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January 19, 2010 6:51 PM

Brown has already won in Mass! Even if the dems steal yet another acornish/crooked union election. Hold an election next Tues and Nobama would not win! The times they are a changin...fast!

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mans_best_friend

January 19, 2010 6:56 PM in reply to TommyD

Wow. Did you see how he added an "N" to Obama's name to get "Nobama"? Isn't that clever? And original, too. We're dealing with a first-class mind here, folks.

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January 19, 2010 7:02 PM in reply to mans_best_friend

He also doesn't know how replies work. Clever.

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January 19, 2010 9:29 PM in reply to AnswerFrog

I call fake teapartier - perfect spelling and proper grammar ...

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January 19, 2010 7:11 PM in reply to TommyD

Wouldn't you feel more at home back at Free Republic?

Maroon.

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January 19, 2010 7:01 PM

of course brother..I didnt vote for Obama, and dont care for most of his ideas...so I must be a racist. woo hooo

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January 19, 2010 7:07 PM

If the shoe fits.......

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January 19, 2010 7:13 PM

When is the moderator going to get all these f*cking trolls off this site?

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January 19, 2010 7:26 PM in reply to Johnny2Bad

TPM is light on moderation. I've only seen spammers and people posting really disruptive stuff, like large blocks of text, get removed.

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Joe the Philosopher

January 19, 2010 7:23 PM

This whole elections B.S. is just a dog and pony show, folks. They don't need 60 votes. All they need is 51. This is a con job on steroids. Who do they think they're kidding? Daffy Duck?

Our current elected officials are not going to do anything the people want. They're all owned by some group or some company that couldn't care less about us.

The few who don't go along to get along don't get invited to the right parties. The private parties, that is.

If they control the ballot boxes like they appear to do, the only answer to this mess is a revolution. I'll kick my guys out if you'll kick your guys out. Let's get some people who are totally different from the clowns running things now. Maybe we should ban political parties so no one can control them,

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January 19, 2010 7:23 PM

TommyDjr, Remember in kindergarten when the rage was saying "No, I'm not, you are". All the cool kids were doing it.

It's not so cool when adults do it.

There was legitimate concern that Bush had stolen his elections, but that's OK with you because it's the win that matters. There was no such concern when Obama won, but that's OK with you because you're entitled to use the "I am rubber, you are glue. What you say bounces off me and sticks to you" gambit.

Adults learned that it's not all about winning, but how you played the game. We also learned to be a little more witty in our comebacks or people would see shallow our thoughts are.

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January 19, 2010 10:00 PM

SEN. SCOTT BROWN LADIES & GENTS!!!! THE TEA PARTY ROLLS.....

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HillbillySkeleton

January 19, 2010 10:14 PM

'Sen. Scott Brown'
You mean that handsome, telegenic flim flam guy that just won the election in Mass.?

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January 20, 2010 12:01 AM in reply to HillbillySkeleton

Yes...hmmm. Let me see. An inexperienced state sen who has charisma and good looks wins a national election...never heard of it before ;)

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