On Election Day, the Minnesota Independent reported that a handful of voters of Somali origin at the Brian Coyle Center in Minneapolis said that “a translator working there was instructing people to vote for Sen. Norm Coleman.” This translator, Mahamoud Wardere, was also a staffer to the Coleman campaign, as the senator himself has acknowledged. As WCCO-TV reported yesterday, this news raises questions about whether Wardere violated state or federal election laws by instructing Somalis to vote for Coleman. Watch it:
Got Kot (khat)
November 6th, 2008 at 8:19 pmIf this is accurate you can be sure it is not the only example of voter intimidation out of Coleman’s camp ! This in light of the fact that there is presently a recount occurring should be of real interest to the state of Minnesota
November 6th, 2008 at 8:25 pmI guess they just can’t help themselves. Cheating is in their blood.
November 6th, 2008 at 8:46 pmThe senator whom Norm Coleman replaced , undoubtably the most outspoken critic in the lead up to the war in Iraq was never voted out of office . He had an accident .
November 6th, 2008 at 8:47 pmThere was an automatic recount triggered in Minnesota by state law and it now stands that there is 1 /100th of 1 percentage point between the 2 candidates .
November 6th, 2008 at 8:54 pmAs a sometimes proud Minnesotan (I don’t live in the 6th district and am too disgusted to talk about psycho-Shelly Bachmann.) I would be very happy if Norm has an opportunity to spend some quality time with Ted Stevens in a federal penitentiary. The last I heard, on local radio, the difference in the Coleman Franken race is 370 votes.
And, though I’m not a believer myself, I would not be insulted by prayers for Coleman’s removal from the Senate. One way or another.
November 6th, 2008 at 10:11 pmOopsie. Pay no attention to the actual voter fraud going on here. Oh look, an acorn.
November 6th, 2008 at 10:29 pmI was lucky enough to have a Somalian translator with me when I went to chucky cheese’s, and I got a free pizza.
November 7th, 2008 at 12:37 amOne way or another, we’re gonna gonna gonaa
Get’cha one way or another.
Future inmate Coleman has got to go!
November 7th, 2008 at 1:10 amThis story is totally believable. As a Minnesotan, I have seen Coleman’s lust for power. To me, and to others I have spoken to, see this man’s disingenous personality and glibness. An example of this is in a recent Senate debate, Coleman tried to make an issue out of statements that Al Franken made about women several years ago. Franken’s comments were totally wrong, but I do know that it was part of a comedy bit. Coleman failed to mention that years ago, he himself in a protest, shouted through a blow horn, “F_ _ K the United States!!” He will do and say anything to try to hold on to power.
November 7th, 2008 at 4:22 amGot intimidation?
November 7th, 2008 at 7:56 amLet me get this straight. (1) Coleman had not heard the allegations but his campaign manager is sure that nothing inappropriate happened. (2) The Republican attorney who accompanied the translator most likely can’t speak the Somali language and would be unable to know what was being said.
Rather increasing doubt by trying to blow smoke, the Coleman campaign would have been better off saying any allegations should be investigated and leaving it at that.
How many Somali voters does MN have in that one precinct anyway? Enough to throw the election to Coleman? That’d be hard to believe. If the translator was foolish enough to misbehave, what a backlash that his actions have the potential to take the election away from Coleman (if Coleman had won).
November 7th, 2008 at 8:56 am