Just the recount facts, please

The lawyers for Franken and Coleman are spending a lot of time pointing out how each candidate has switched positions on which ballots should be counted. While this should be important to voters, it should be irrelevant to the three-judge panel hearing the case. The panel should just be focused on what is legal, fair, and consistent. Here’s how I feel about it: The earlier ruling on the absentee ballots giving the campaigns veto power was stupid. If they won’t to overrule that, so be it. (Unless both campaigns agreed to it, which also would have been stupid.) Just make sure it’s consistent in all counties. On the missing ballots, stick with the machine count. It’s the best we’ve got. On the duplicate ballots, if the Coleman campaign can show a statistically compelling pattern, I would say use common sense and take your best guess. Otherwise stick with the certified numbers and make sure you fix it for next time.