Outtakes from a Ridiculous Recount

Why you all in my ear?
Talkin' a whole bunch a **** that I ain't tryin to hear.
--Luda

The Franken - Coleman Senate Race Recount takes a turn for the surreal:

One Bemidji voter blackened the oval for Franken, but also put an X through the oval and scribbled "Lizard People" on the write-in line.

" 'Lizard People' is not a genuine write-in" because there's no such person, Elias said.

"You don't know that there's not someone named 'Lizard People.' You don't," Magnuson said.

"You're right, you don't know," Trimble chimed in.

"Isn't 'People' plural? How can you have an individual named 'People?' " asked Ramsey County District Judge Edward Cleary, a board member.

Yes, that exchange actually happened.

How how much did it cost the people of Minnesota to have a small army of lawyers and judges argue over this last second moment of stupidity on the part of a voter?

It gets better:

Franken did better on a Sauk Rapids ballot that was marked for him but had "Flying Spaghetti Monster" and "FSM" written in other places. He also won a challenge on a Mankato ballot on which the voter had blackened his oval but extended his name to read "Al Frankenstin."

Trimble argued that the voter hadn't cast his vote for Franken, but for someone named Frankenstin. "The candidate is still identified as the candidate of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party," Elias countered. The board voted 3-2 to award the vote to Franken.

Flying Spaghetti Monsters and Frankenstin.

Yes, this is some sadistic circle of electoral college hell.