Here's a fascinating Friday-afternoon toy from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune: A website that lets you view challenged ballots from the neck-and-neck Al Franken/Norm Coleman showdown, and -- if you create a free login -- vote on the ballots. The program is intelligent: As you accept or reject ballots, it uses your tendencies (are you throwing out lots of challenged ballots? Or accepting that the word "satan" written over Coleman's name is a vote for Franken?) to predict whether, after all the challenged ballots are considered (with you hypothetically in charge), Franken or Coleman wins.
Checking out what kind of ballots Franken and Coleman are challenging and why is fascinating (there are some howlers in there), but I mainly feel lucky I voted in Virginia. Those Michigan Minnesota* ballots are kind of bewildering.
*Oops -- too much time watching the bailout hearings.
--Eve Fairbanks