One Day At The Crow Wing County Courthouse, Part II
By Mitch Berg
When we left Monty Jensen, it was Friday, October 29. He’d just seen a scene that disturbed him; supervisors from a Brainerd-area group home voting for their charges who, while they had the legal right to vote, didn’t seem to have much idea where they were or what they were doing (which, if I were much less sober and reflective than I am these days, I would say “makes them a perfect DFL constituency”. But I am more sober and reflective these days).
Jensen chewed on what he’d seen overnight – and then took a shot in the dark.
“I called George Burton”, he says, referring to the Constitution Party candidate for Jim Oberstar’s seat. Burton got Jensen in touch with the Minnesota Freedom Council, one of a small network of grassroots groups that is scrutinizing Minnesota’s election system.
Acting on their advice, Jensen started to work. “About 10:30 Saturday morning (October 30), I looked up Don Ryan, the Crow Wing County attorney, in the phone book. I tried him a couple of times, with no answer. ”
“Then I tried Ron Kaus, at the Minnesota Freedom Council. I’d never heard of him in my life. I spoke with him – and he got right on it. They wanted all the information – and he asked me to meet at the courthouse and tell him how everything went down. When we got there, he asked me if he could record the conversation. We didn’t talk for five minutes before the recording started; I told my story”.
Here’s the story, for those who missed it the first time:
Here’s part I of the video…:
…along with Part II…:
…and Part III.
Jensen recalls “We went through and did the video. I was kinda on the hot seat. And from there, we started trying to do the investigation”. He got some advice from Kaus; “If you want this investigated, you need to do it as an affadavit; the complaint form will just get filed away”.
So Jensen spent the weekend writing the complaint. On Monday morning, he was ready to turn it in.
“On Monday morning, I brought four copies in. The auditor notarized them, and kept one”. Then, Jensen went to the County Attorney’s office. “Being that it was Monday before election day…I handed it to him personally. He said he didn’t know what he could do with the election the next day, so all the votes would count. But he said they’d follow up with the investigation.”
Later on, Jensen said the County Attorney’s office called to say the Crow Wing County Sheriff’s office had assigned an investigator. On Thursday, November 4 – two days after the election – Jensen met with that investigator for about 90 minutes. “He stated that they’d been speaking with certain group homes, had a list of ballots turned in during the time frame, and had everything to back up the story”.
And that, for the most part, was the last Monty Jensen has heard from Crow Wing County.
———-
Toward the end of our conversation, Jensen reflected. “The other day, I was talking with my girlfriend. I asked “Am I crazy, or is something going on here?”
We’ll get the girlfriend’s answer straight from her, later this week.
November 17th, 2010 at 1:10 pm
No doubt the affadavit found its way to a metaphorical – if not actual – memory hole.
Continuing in this vein, let us hope Mr. Jensen and his girlfriend do not become unpersons.
November 17th, 2010 at 1:24 pm
But Mitch, these people who work in nursing homes and assisted living places… they do noble work. Work that evil conservatives and racists Tea Party supporters refuse! to do.
How can you question their sincere motives?
In fact, how dare you?!?!?!
😉
November 17th, 2010 at 1:37 pm
The problem Mitch comes here “When we left Monty Jensen, it was Friday, October 29. He’d just seen a scene that disturbed him; supervisors from a Brainerd-area group home voting for their charges who, while they had the legal right to vote, didn’t seem to have much idea where they were or what they were doing ”
So far, it doesn’t appear that the county staff is backing up Monty Jensen’s story about the numbers of people being assisted or that any improper assistance was provided, they also dispute that this was the ‘4th group in’.
From the local television coverage of the story:
“Peterson also said no one spoke to him personally about any wrongdoing including staff from the auditor’s office. “The auditor spoke to me (Monday) and said if they felt there was anything going wrong, and that we weren’t handling it professionally, they would have spoken to us.”
That would be Lynn Peterson, the Clark County Group Home administrator – I looked them up and called them.
I also emphatically dispute that Monty Jensen is capable of telling by casual observation what the physical or mental capacity is of any of these people. However much Monty Jensen would like to claim it, it doesn’t work that way. Which is what makes this such a bogus story – there is a legal process for determining who cannot vote because of incompetence to do so – and the Crow Wing County auditor cross-checks those court records. These people do not appear to be in that category; they appear to be legitimate voters who have voted before.
Just curious – have you spoken with anyone who can actually speak for these people or with any of these people? Would you like the phone number? – I can save you looking it up.
You could have someone as incapacitated as Stephen bloody Hawking, who needs assistance, and who has extreme difficulty in communicating, and someone like Monty Jensen couldn’t tell you if he was the genius he is known to be, or this side of a mental vegetable, from casual observation.
IF you don’t take Jensen’s word for it – this claim falls apart. Jensen himself admits he has no background in this area to inform his conclusion.
I’ve got a call in today to Don Ryan, the DA to whom the investigation is reporting. Have YOU called his office at all — or are you just ginning up the party line some more?
November 17th, 2010 at 2:20 pm
Just another little detail that contradicts some of the headlines about the union dfl staff ——these facilities are not unionized.
And the staff who were at the Court House from Clark Lake – who appear to be the group that Jensen observed, and who confirm they were present after 4 pm on that Friday — they have been cleared, according to them, of any wrong doing by investigators.
But of course…….if you only listen to Jensen, you wouldn’t know that. You wouldn’t know about the presence of other polling observers, per those staff members, either.
There appear to be some other to use the polite term for it — discrepancies — between Jensen’s version and the accounts of other people. You DO understand that Jensen making a video is not proof of anything….other than Jensen making a video, right?
But heck, if you really want to believe that someone who supports a different political party than you do will engage in any kind of criminal conspiracy, you just go with that.
This conspiracy is as stupid as the birthers.
This conspiracy has been very painful to those disabled individuals who legally voted on that Friday; they’ve seen the videos, and are pretty emphatic in their response.
November 17th, 2010 at 2:36 pm
For crying out loud DG; a citizen (Monty Jensen) saw what he believed to be suspicious activity, he filed an affidavit (complaint) seeking an investigation, the county sheriff was to look into the matter, question is: What is the OFFICIAL outcome of that investigation? Please inform us of your inquiry with the DA.
November 17th, 2010 at 2:45 pm
My son had two registrations in our precinct. One with the wrong address, one with the wrong birth date. It took six years, three election cycles, of me pointing this out before the judges finally made him re-register properly.
Go ahead and tell me how great our system is, Dog. I have some land in Florida you might want to buy.
November 17th, 2010 at 2:47 pm
Another interesting aspect of this is the claim that apparently Mr. Jensen was in the vicinity of the polling area of the Court House on more than one day.
I’m trying to confirm if it is correct that the area of the courthouse involved is video surveiled. But I’m also curious what other business Mr. Jensen might have had if any – or if he was there to do this as some sort of stunt to get the attention he has received.
Ah, the interesting things you find when you multi-source check…… instead of trying to force the facts to fit your desired narrative.
November 17th, 2010 at 3:09 pm
Dog Gone Says:Ah, the interesting things you find when you multi-source check…… instead of trying to force the facts to fit your desired narrative.
Cute DG, Showing off your sanctimonious side?
November 17th, 2010 at 3:24 pm
I’m a FACTCHECKER; I FACTCHECK…it’s what I do.
I FACTCHECKED the perp’s (Lynn Peterson, Clark County Group Home administrator) statement “We didn’t do anything wrong”, and found that ONLY A FRICKIN’ MORON wouldn’t expect that answer.
I FACTCHECKED the county staff not backing up Monty Jensen’s story and found that only a BLOODY DIM-WIT would expect them to toss themselves under the bus.
In FACT, I just FACTCHECKED dog’s entire post. After exhaustive RESEARCH I come to the solid, FACT based conclusion that DG is a BLOODY DIM-WIT and a FRICKIN’ MORON.
My work here is done, for now.
November 17th, 2010 at 3:28 pm
Another interesting aspect of this is the claim that apparently Mr. Jensen was in the vicinity of the polling area of the Court House on more than one day.
I’m trying to confirm if it is correct that the area of the courthouse involved is video surveiled. But I’m also curious what other business Mr. Jensen might have had if any – or if he was there to do this as some sort of stunt to get the attention he has received.
It’s a public building, Dog. He doesn’t need to justify his presence there to you or anyone else. And what does he gain from this, Dog, besides your anonymous calumny? He saw something that bothered him and called it to people’s attention. And for his troubles, you’re giving him the Joe the Plumber treatment. Seriously, WTF is wrong with you?
November 17th, 2010 at 3:35 pm
Swiftee, could you provide a link for that? I don’t believe you are, in fact, a FACTCHECKER. Please provide your credentials.
November 17th, 2010 at 3:36 pm
DG forces the facts to fit her desired narrative:
Another interesting aspect of this is the claim that apparently Mr. Jensen was in the vicinity of the polling area of the Court House on more than one day.
IT IS THE COUNTY COURTHOUSE. Citizens of county are allowed to transact their business there. As you saw in the video, he was asked to leave the actual room where the voting was taking place – and he complied – but he had every right to be there.
Shame on you, DG, for trying to impugn basic citizenship.
November 17th, 2010 at 3:37 pm
DG
I’m trying to confirm if it is correct that the area of the courthouse involved is video surveiled.
Aside from living out Chloe O’Brien fantasies, I’m at a loss to see what purpose that’d serve. You’re fishing to find some kind of wrongdoing against Mr. Jensen? I’d suspect the County staff might have done that themselves.
But I’m also curious what other business Mr. Jensen might have had if any
Why? You want to stand at the gates at the courthouse and yell YOUR PAPERS PLEASE at citizens?
Courthouses are our property. We the people have every right to be there.
Why do you hate the First Amendment?
November 17th, 2010 at 3:37 pm
Kermit – when have you ever gone in to vote, and not been asked your correct address?
I’ve been asked EVERY time. And birth date.
How did your son manage to screw this up — and why didn’t HE correct it?
I don’t know the time frame, or if from what you relate if the state had contacted him or attempted to contact him — which is an important part of this problem you present as evidence of a problem. Clearly – your son didn’t vote twice. Presumably, as there are other cross-checks of voter records, something did turn up — but maybe you are not aware of it?
Scott – believe me, I’ll share when I hear. All I can tell you of so far are the people who confirm they were there, and that they were exonerated of any wrong doing. I believe that Jensen is claiming more than he is entitled to claim.
For example – one of MY questions in fact checking has been, do these individuals have any kind of limited guardianship, HAVE they had any kind of judicial review of their voting rights — some of these residents do have limited guardians, AND their right to vote was specifically NOT restricted or cancelled. It seems, that these individuals have had a judicial review in most cases, and retained their voting rights as competent to vote – contrary to Monty Jensen’s notions. These people are NOT confirming what Jensen claims, including not being told whom to vote for.
These are people who struggle with obstacles, who are often shy because of their differences. All I’m asking is that there be a bit of slowdown in the rush to judgement here, that critical questions are asked. These people have been humiliated, and demeaned by Jensen claiming over and over and over how mentally incapacitated they are — when they have already established their right to vote and take pride in voting.
I would have had no problem with Jensen seeing something, and reporting it. Making a three ring circus out of his unconfirmed reports and causing so much pain to people who have a difficult time already – that bothers me. The assumption made far too often that anyone with different politics is a criminal – that offends me too.
I only know one person who has run a group home caring for residents like the ones Jensen describes – the mother of mutual friend of Mitch’s and mine (Gerald). Nancy did an extraordinary job caring for her residents, and put more love and care into it than could be paid for with a paycheck. We did pet therapy work with our therapy dogs with her residents. This kind of care represents real people to me, real faces; the notion that it is even possible to pull off this kind of conspiracy is ludicrous.
Yes, people are sometimes horribly exploitive – but a lot of people are not. It is wrong to assume that Jensen is right, it is wrong not to give people the benefit of the doubt until an investigation or court proceeding shows otherwise. Assuming the very worst, and that it is endemic on top of that, is wrong.
One of the things in interviewing the staff that struck me is how much easier it would have been for them – the staff – to have the residents fill out ballots at the group home, instead of taking them to the poll. They spoke with me about what voting meant to their people, and how awful this experience has been for them watching these videos — and they HAVE watched it, staff and residents together.
No one else is presenting both sides here. One side is sooooo much louder than the other, so dominant a voice. I’m not sure the truth has been heard, so far.
Lets start with this correcting this error of fact that has been part of the fox headlines — there are NO unions involved.
November 17th, 2010 at 3:38 pm
or if he was there to do this as some sort of stunt to get the attention he has received.
So let’s recap; you’ve jammed the “facts” – the ones I’ve presented, as well as the ones you’ve conjured from whole cloth based on no evidence but a seemingly fairly authoritarian view of the role of citizens in our society – into a narrative that reinforces your prejudices against anyone that questions your desired end result.
November 17th, 2010 at 3:39 pm
Ah, the interesting things you find when you multi-source check……
…which you have not done. You have asked a couple of “what-ifs”, and you’ve defamed the motivations of a person you know nothing about, based on your own prejudices.
Your level of “source-checking” would get you fired at the Weekly World News.
instead of trying to force the facts to fit your desired narrative.
Heh.
Heh heh heh.
November 17th, 2010 at 3:47 pm
It is wrong to assume that Jensen is right, it is wrong not to give people the benefit of the doubt until an investigation or court proceeding shows otherwise. Assuming the very worst, and that it is endemic on top of that, is wrong.
Good lord, DG. I’m not sure where you got your idea of what “Reporting” is. What you’re doing is not it.
I’m not “assuming” anything. I’m presenting evidence from eyewitnesses to what allegedly happened. There are three so far; I’ve written about one of them. I’m not “assuming Jensen is right” – I am presenting his story, and will shortly present stories that tend to corroborate or reinforce it.
Against that, you have assumptions (“we have the best voting system there is”), irrelevant generalities (the issue is not that the handicapped are allowed to vote, as Jensen and I both copiously noted in the first installment, but which you seem to feel the need to continually reiterate – it’s that staffers from a group home with close DFL affiliations violated that law at a DFL-dominated courthouse.
And, of course, slander of Mr. Jensen.
I repeat – shame on you.
November 17th, 2010 at 3:55 pm
This wasn’t a “polling place” on the 29th. It was the courthouse. It was where people go to fill out absentee ballots. There were no election judges or observers present outside of the normal clerical staff, as far as I can tell.
Notice two things: First, Dog Gone and Jared Peterson (The Clark Lake staff member) both refer to assisting people to vote are physically, but not mentally incapacitated. Yet the KSAX article says “The [Clark Lake Home Group] provides residential and community based services for people that are developmentally disabled or suffered traumatic brain injuries.” Both Dog Gone and Peterson refer to hypothetical cases, not anything that occurred on the 29th. They haven’t even asserted that the voters from the Clark Lake Home on the 29th were mentally competent to vote.
Second: Both Dog Gone and Clark Lake Home administrator Lynn Peterson engage in question begging when they assert that the individuals in question were registered to vote and had voted before; Jensen made no claim that this was untrue. Indeed the conservative complaints about voter fraud are centered on improper, not absent, registration, and improper actions by registered voters — vote selling, double-voting, etc.
November 17th, 2010 at 4:15 pm
Dog Gone wrote:
“One of the things in interviewing the staff that struck me is how much easier it would have been for them – the staff – to have the residents fill out ballots at the group home, instead of taking them to the poll. ”
The accusation is that the residents were unable to fill out the ballots. That’s why they needed help, remember?
I addressed this issue in a comment on another post. If the courthouse received dozens of requests for absentee ballots from the same address written in the same hand it would have raised a red flag. Also it appears that in MN the voter or a member of the voter’s family must request an absentee ballot. Caretakers can’t do it unless they are a family member.
I would be interested in learning the process in MN by which a person with a cognitive disorder legally loses their right to vote. I bet it doesn’t legally happen all that often. A very quick review of MN power-of-attorney law indicates that the term “incompetence” is not rigorously defined in Minnesota courts.
November 17th, 2010 at 4:16 pm
How did your son manage to screw this up — and why didn’t HE correct it?
He DIDN’T screw it up. It was the system you are so hell-bent on defending. It took THREE separate tries to get them to correct it. What part of that don’t you understand, Doggie?
You’re blaming my son? I agree with Mitch. Shame on you.
November 17th, 2010 at 4:16 pm
For example – one of MY questions in fact checking has been, do these individuals have any kind of limited guardianship, HAVE they had any kind of judicial review of their voting rights — some of these residents do have limited guardians, AND their right to vote was specifically NOT restricted or cancelled.
If I were to do any fact-checking I think I’d start with asking why anyone in authority at a group home is answering these types of questions about their residents without a court-order. Or can anyone call up and say, “Hello, I’m Mrs. Teasdale and I’m on an important fact-checking mission. Even though you don’t know me, or my relationship with anyone in your group home, can you tell me the guardianship status of any of your residents who might have voted absentee?”
November 17th, 2010 at 4:20 pm
“How did your son manage to screw this up — and why didn’t HE correct it?”
Dog,
You’re not asking Kermit the proper questions. You’re forcing your agenda into the narrative.
But just in case you are correct and Kermit’s son did “screw this up” (in your own ill-chosen words)… I’ll tell you how this can get screwed up.
When I vote, the people have always told me what my address is. They have not asked me. I have confirmed it. This year I asked them if they were going to bother checking my ID, since I could be anyone pretending to be me.
In spite of that, one of the election officials there specifically said they do not need to check our identification… at all.
Leaves you with a feeling of confidence, doesn’t it?
Then again, these people (just like everyone who works at nursing homes) are virtuous and sincere and would never even think of committing fraud, much less actually carry out fraud.
November 17th, 2010 at 4:24 pm
Kermit, I’ve just FACTCHECKED your scurrilous impugning of my FACTCHECKING cred and found it completely without merit; and no, I won’t provide a link for that.
Shame on you, Kermit.
While I was debunking Kermit, I just re-FACTCHECKED my previous FACTCHECKS and come to a different conclusion.
Dog is NOT in FACT a BLOODY DIM-WIT and a FRICKIN’ MORON; the FACTS now say that she is in FACT a BLOODY MORON and a FRICKIN’ DIM-WIT.
Please correct your notebooks.
November 17th, 2010 at 4:26 pm
Correction – there are no unions in the private facilities – like the one from which the residents were voting on the Friday in question.
What has emerged though from multi-sourcing this story is that Jensen had been present on multiple occasions as a self-styled poll watcher along with Burton, actively looking for any incident he could make into a story along with other members of this ‘tea party’ styled group. He did not just happen to show up at the court house to vote on Friday.
And it looks like he may be muddling details from those other days into his account from Friday.
This story is NOT what it has been presented to be. It is contrived. It is calculated. It is staged. It is fake. It is wrong.
November 17th, 2010 at 4:27 pm
So, Mitch – when are you going to speak with someone else – you know, anyone else – who doesn’t have a tea party or GOP axe to grind with distorting this story?
November 17th, 2010 at 4:29 pm
Allow me to elaborate. In our half-assed system, we have no way of knowing whether or not my son “voted” twice. We don’t require picture ID, GET IT? I know he voted once, because he is an honest man. Did someone else vote on his second registration? We’ll never know, will we?
This is just one more anecdotal piece of evidence that our system is BROKEN.
Fact check that.
November 17th, 2010 at 4:32 pm
Good point, Night Writer.
Personally I think that this case will go nowhere. The investigators will talk to people and, as long as the residents are legally registered, they will write it off to he-said-she said. Not enough evidence to charge anyone with anything.
I wonder if there are cameras in the court office? That could make a difference.
November 17th, 2010 at 4:36 pm
One more thing. When I think of all the brave men and women who gave their arms, legs, eyes, lives to preserve this fundamental right for us I get pissed off beyond words.
That we have failed them so miserably makes me feel ashamed.
November 17th, 2010 at 4:36 pm
So, Mitch – when are you going to speak with someone else – you know, anyone else – who doesn’t have a tea party or GOP axe to grind with distorting this story?
1. Why do you assume Jensen “has a GOP axe to grind?” He’s not an especially political person. You need to quit assuming.
2. Other than Ron Kaus, none of the principals in this story have any connection to the “Tea Party” whatsoever. That’s another faulty assumption.
3. Why do you assume, on the basis of no evidence whatsoever but your own rather fanciful assumptions, that there’s any “distortion” involved? Other than in that “RetTHUGlicrats are always teh lier” sense that you and Penigma seem to be getting ever more into?
You have presented no facts, no original research, and no “reporting” in any sense of the term. You really have no basis for conclusions based on anything other that pure faith.
November 17th, 2010 at 4:37 pm
This story is NOT what it has been presented to be. It is contrived. It is calculated. It is staged. It is fake. It is wrong.
A twofer! Ad hominem and a smear!
Imagine how fast Dog Gone’s head would start spinning if the same story came out — but with the “home” run by religious fundamentalist Republicans who loaded their cognitively challenged charges into a van, took them to the courthouse and “helped” them vote!
November 17th, 2010 at 4:47 pm
This story is NOT what it has been presented to be. It is contrived. It is calculated. It is staged. It is fake. It is wrong.
Perhaps, DG.
But you have presented no reason whatsoever to rationally believe that.
November 17th, 2010 at 5:26 pm
Saddam Hussien was elected president with 100% of the vote.
Fact check that.
November 17th, 2010 at 5:39 pm
I think she believes that if she blathers on long enough about her imagined facts from the back of her unicorn, people will become *yawn* bored and …
*snore*
… wha-what? *shakes head*
Oh, curse you and your evil plans, Dog Gone!
November 17th, 2010 at 5:53 pm
Everything Jensen alleges that he observed could be 100% factual and it could still be true that, as Dog Gone and the Clark Lake Home administer allege, all of the residents were registered voters who had voted in previous elections.
That’s what you call bending a narrative to suit your ideological goal.
November 17th, 2010 at 5:54 pm
Care to respond to my comment, Dog? Or is this yet another question/statement/comment (in a considerably long line) that you choose to ignore?
November 18th, 2010 at 8:10 am
Doggy breath;
Based on your posts, I have to declare that outside of Brian Melendez, you are probably the most elitist, hypocritical idiot that I have ever seen! Maybe you check into that Crow Wing County home, since you are brain addled!
Since you are criticizing Mr. Jensen for reporting something that he observed that concerned him, God forbid that one day, if you ever come out of your little hovel, you are a crime victim and a witness chooses not to get involved! That would be karma biting you in your backside!
Of course, had Emmer won in a landslide (which he probably did, we just don’t know it yet with criminals like Mark Bitchie and Lori Swansong in office) you and your commie friends would be screaming bloody murder. But, when the GOP insists that state law regarding elections be followed, you buttwipers cry foul! Pathetic losers, all!
November 18th, 2010 at 8:52 am
Mitch wrote:
3. Why do you assume, on the basis of no evidence whatsoever but your own rather fanciful assumptions, that there’s any “distortion” involved? Other than in that “RetTHUGlicrats are always teh lier” sense that you and Penigma seem to be getting ever more into?
You have presented no facts, no original research, and no “reporting” in any sense of the term. You really have no basis for conclusions based on anything other that pure faith.”
I don’t assume, and I am basing my conclusion on evidence.
I’m waiting for you to do even a modicum of the fact checking I did for Penigma. You see – that’s what I do, that is the relationship I formed with Pen – I do the majority of the fact checking. I’m not going to do yours as well.
I’m waiting for you to post the video here that I found after a whole 5 seconds of fact checking – it would have been quicker, but I have slower internet access out here in the country than you probably have in the metro.
I’m waiting for YOU to find the footage of the KSAX interview. The one with the disabled people who voted on Friday afternoon at the Crow Wing County Courthouse. The people Jensen describes as mental incompetents.
The KSAX interview that shows these disabled people are NOT anything remotely as Jensen describes; they are not drooling shuffling idiots.
Some of them even insist quite emphatically that they voted Republican, and have done so regularly, and that their votes were very much NOT cast for Democratic candidates by the staff assisting them.
And they are mad as hell at Jensen for characterizing them so demeaningly.
Jensen wasn’t ‘just at the courthouse’ for other legitimate business. He was there actively representing that he was an unofficial poll watcher looking for wrongdoing.
IF you had done your homework before running this story, you’d know what the holes were in Jensen’s story, and why you should be a helluva lot more skeptical.
You’d know for example, that the Clark Lake group were not in voting when Jensen claims at 4:30-4:45; they were in at 3:30, gone by 4:00. You would know that they appear to be the ONLY group in that afternoon that remotely fits the description of disabled voters receiving assistance.
You’d know that the Clark Lake group home does have a female blond employee fitting the description he makes …….and that he has seen her, and knows she is an employee…….but that she was not working that day or anywhere near the Court House and these disabled voters. You’d know these and all the other many reasons it appears that Jensen made the story up, guessing at information, using details from other poll watching. You’d know that contrary to his statement in the video, Jensen knew damn well who the disabled voters and employees were from Clark Lake – and they knew him – and that his claim that he didn’t know them was false.
Now it is remotely possible that there was another group of voters in the Crow Wing County courthouse late that Friday afternoon…..but it doesn’t appear so. All the evidence I can find from existing interviews says not; the conversations the Clark Lake staff and residents had in the course of the investigation suggests strongly not.
The real harm from this, apart from no one on the right doing even the most fundamental quickie google search that got me the information that this was bullshit? It is that so far as I can tell, this apparently false complaint from Jensen has cost the county a boatload of money to investigate. Because it looks like they are checking with all of the 170 or so disabled people in care facilities in the county, just to be extra sure. And so far as I can tell, the investigation hasn’t turned up anything remotely resembling what he claims.
Rather it looks like he wanted publicity, so he made up his story and videoed it — and you all went for it without checking.
The evidence to the contrary, the video of those voters – the LEGAL disabled voters – has been easily available for weeks. Why didn’t any of you find it? Why didn’t YOU do that kind of basic homework Mitch? Why the hell did you not fact check this before promoting it?
This is exactly like the Ice-Cream-Bribe-High-School voters crap. There the obvious discrepancy in the details was the busloads of eligible seniors when it was unlikely that any high school had three busloads of kids that old.
Here it was the video showing these people are not as Jensen described, and that not one other credible person of the many present at the court house when these disabled people ACTUALLY voted supports Jensen.
And that Bosshoss is why Mitch may disagree with me, but he does think I’m a smart cookie – not brain addled. Because I DO fact check, I DO my homework, and I DO think critically.
November 18th, 2010 at 8:58 am
Badda – I wasn’t ignoring you – I missed your comment.
I believe the correct process is for the voting officials to ask you, not read you your address. They also have always asked me to look at the information in the record before I sign in to vote.
So, yes, if you are voting somewhere they do it incorrectly, that is a concern.
But I’m still asking – how do we know that Kermit’s son was not notified or questioned? Data banks like drivers license records and others used in crosschecking should catch that kind of error – there should be no incorrect address for a fictitious person, and no person with that name and incorrect birthdate.
I’m not persuaded that the results of that cross check have been presented here, or that Kermit would be party to them. And I would hope that Kermit, being the conscientious person he appears to be, would not only bring it to the attention of election judges, but also the Sec State office.
November 18th, 2010 at 9:01 am
DG- not speaking for Kermit, but my own experience in voting 20 years in the same precinct here in Minnesota, I am never asked to give birthdate or address. I usually announce my name, watch as the elderly person, whom I probably never have seen before, flips laboriously to the proper page, and I point out to them that my name is 3rd or 4th from the bottom (or top) of the page. They turn the book around, and I sign on the correct line. Of course there is no example signature printed, so I could sign it Not Me and know one would be able to object.
Although my son moved to Hennepin county and registered there, his name was still in the book. Anyone could have come in and signed on his name.
I wonder if the neighbor who died last year was still in the book? I wonder if he voted?
November 18th, 2010 at 9:05 am
Terry Says:
November 17th, 2010 at 4:37 pm
This story is NOT what it has been presented to be. It is contrived. It is calculated. It is staged. It is fake. It is wrong.
A twofer! Ad hominem and a smear!
Imagine how fast Dog Gone’s head would start spinning if the same story came out — but with the “home” run by religious fundamentalist Republicans who loaded their cognitively challenged charges into a van, took them to the courthouse and “helped” them vote!
___________—-
No Terry – I would still check the facts, watch the video interview of the disabled people clearly being mentally competent, and speak up for the fact.
Facts are just not on your side this time – and none of you, especially not Mitch, appears to have lifted a finger to see if Jensen was telling the truth. Shame on you.
November 18th, 2010 at 9:12 am
DG,
Can you not wrap your mind around the idea that there are a couple problems presented here?
And the primary one is not whether these folks are registered voters.
The primary problem is that it appears that the assistance that they received was more than “help me fill in the oval.” That perhaps the assistant completed the assistant’s preferences rather than the voters.
My sister was mentally retarded. Her IQ was about 60. While she was highly socially functional, many of her friends, whom she worked and occasionally lived with, really did not demonstrate the cognitive ability to make an informed electoral choice. And at the same time, were very trusting of their “helpers/teachers.”
And not all helper/teachers of the mentally disabled are saints.
November 18th, 2010 at 9:14 am
But I’m still asking – how do we know that Kermit’s son was not notified or questioned?
Because I vote before he does. (And did so three times before the error was corrected.) Usually in the morning, as he is a late sleeper. Also, since his name appears on the roles directly below that of mine and my wife I could clearly see that it had not been signed.
Your defense of this horrid, broken system is alarming, since you claim “I DO fact check, I DO my homework, and I DO think critically.
I think you need to rethink the word critically.
November 18th, 2010 at 9:14 am
Loren wrote:
I wonder if the neighbor who died last year was still in the book? I wonder if he voted?
Go check. It’s public record. Show me voter fraud. Just show me, don’t speculate.
Nuther bit of fun – it looks like I’m going to be one of the people participating in the local recount. Whoo hoo – that should make for some fun blogging topics….
November 18th, 2010 at 9:34 am
Loren wrote:
“The primary problem is that it appears that the assistance that they received was more than “help me fill in the oval.” That perhaps the assistant completed the assistant’s preferences rather than the voters.”
Gee, Loren, when the people who were assisted are as articulate as these people were about their feelings regarding voting and how they selected who to vote for themselves, and how the staff did NOT act as Jensen described, when interviewed, ON TELEVISION, I would respectfully suggest this is not an apt parallel.
Now, I will admit that I was granted acces to these people, separate from the KSAX interview, in part because of what I wrote on Pengima first – about Able-the-Cane, and Brennan, and Lyr – and my interest in the training of service dogs for disabled people, including brain injured people like the Clark Lake home clients. But I take Lynn Peterson, the top administrator at Clark Lake at HIS word – Lynn is a he, not a she – when he tells me that he agreed to an interview because what I had already written demonstrated an open mind, and that I was checking facts, and that I would be fair to his residents.
If Mitch had shown the slightest interest in the details or in doing his own fact checking, I would have been happy to put in a word for him with Lynn.
November 18th, 2010 at 9:35 am
Dog gone, you are a terrible fact checker. You let your ideology control your conclusions.
On one of your early appearances on SITD you touted a Hubert Humphrey Institute study that purported to show that minorities were charged higher interest on mortgages than non-minorities solely because they were minorities.
It took me less than an hour of research to discover that the news stories were mostly reprints of the researchers’ press release and that the study hadn’t been accepted for publication. Then I found the study online and discovered (much to my surprise) that it was horseshit. The methodology was terrible. The researchers used census data from one era to determine the racial makeup of an neighborhood and bank data from another era to show the neighborhood experienced more sub-prime loan recipients. They arbitrarily picked a minority home ownership rate in a neighborhood and used the loaded word “segregated” to describe it.
And the study was paid for by a law firm that specialized in suing banks for racial discrimination.
It was a meta study. The conclusions of a meta study must always be taken with a grain of salt.
I can not emphasize this strongly enough, Dog Gone. You are not a good “fact checker”.
November 18th, 2010 at 9:36 am
Or a lawsuit against you for revealing things that you are not supposed to, which, would be your m.o. to support your FACT CHECKING!
If this is true, the people on this blog that know your real name, should express their concerns over your obvious bias. Based on what I have seen from your posts, I wouldn’t trust you to recount the pennies in my penny jar and certainly not votes!
November 18th, 2010 at 9:47 am
Gee, Loren, when the people who were assisted are as articulate as these people were about their feelings regarding voting and how they selected who to vote for themselves, and how the staff did NOT act as Jensen described, when interviewed, ON TELEVISION, I would respectfully suggest this is not an apt parallel.
I’m not sure why you have such a hard time getting this, DG.
You’d expect anyone – public employee or not – to admit to abetting a felony “ON TELEVISION”?
November 18th, 2010 at 9:47 am
Now ———anyone else here care to contend this was a legitimate, honest accuasation of voter fraud?
Because otherwise, Mitch, and a whole lot of other people owe those nice disabled very legal voters in Clark Lake an apology for promoting the idea they are mental incompetents who should not have voted.
And incidentally, you probably owe me one for some of the comments made here as well. But I’m not holding my breath.
November 18th, 2010 at 9:50 am
Mitch wrote:
I’m not sure why you have such a hard time getting this, DG.
You’d expect anyone – public employee or not – to admit to abetting a felony “ON TELEVISION”?
First Mitch – what part of this don’t you get? The people interviewed on television are mostly the disabled voters, not the staff. They clearly show they are not as represented by Jensen, and state for themselves how they voted and what miniimal assistance they received. You don’t have to rely on anyone else to tell you the functional level of these voters. You can plainl SEE it. It utterly disproves what Jensen said.
Second, they are a private facility, not public employees and not members of any union.
November 18th, 2010 at 9:54 am
If Mitch had shown the slightest interest in the details or in doing his own fact checking, I would have been happy to put in a word for him with Lynn.
a) You have “checked” NO facts. You have tut-tutted at Monty Jensen and I based entirely on ideology-based assumptions, and gotten some public officials to confirm their story that they didn’t abet a felony.
b) You have no idea who I’ve talked with, or what about.
c) If you had the slightest interest in fact checking, you’d seek an interview with Monty Jensen, to challenge your own assumpmtions which, let me reiterate, are all you have.
d) I don’t need “a word” from anyone to get an interview with a public official. I get them myself just fine. I’ve been doing it a long, long time.
e) While you’re all busy “reporting” and all, why don’t you take some time to back up some of your defamatory claims about David Strom? Y’know – put some facts out there for the rest of us to check?