With the recount in the razor-thin Minnesota U.S. Senate race continuing into its second week, Democratic candidate Al Franken's campaign says it has uncovered 6,400 rejected/uncounted absentee ballots and will ask a state board to count at least some of those votes.
It's looking more and more like Minnesota of 2008 has become the Florida of 2000. Will the real winning candidate please win, Senator Franken!
Campaign attorney Marc Elias said Tuesday that the campaign received the rejected ballots from 66 of the state's 87 counties. In some instances, clerical errors or oversight may have caused the ballot to be improperly rejected. Time will tell and so will all the lawyers....
http://wcco.com/...
Democrat Al Franken's lead recount attorney says the campaign has lists of more than 6,400 rejected absentee ballots in the Minnesota Senate race.
Attorney Marc Elias says he will press the state canvassing board to consider the rejected absentee ballots when the board meets Wednesday.
Republican Norm Coleman's campaign planned a press conference later Tuesday.
Elias says 66 of Minnesota's 87 counties have turned over lists of rejected absentee ballots. He says there are several cases where absentee votes were not counted due to clerical errors or oversights by election judges.
The canvassing board has said it will take up the issue of rejected absentee ballots at Wednesday's meeting.
Also, the Franken campaign is worried about missing ballots that they have uncovered...
http://www.politico.com/...
Things are getting even dicier in the Minnesota Senate recount.
Al Franken's campaign is contending that Minnesota election officials may have lost several dozen ballots across the state. Their basis for the charge is that the number of recounted ballots in certain counties does not match the total numbers of votes tallied on Election Day.
The campaign sent a letter to Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie detailing their concerns yesterday.
"It appears that there were numerous ballots that were counted on election day, but that are no longer available for consideration during the recount," Franken recount attorney David Lillehaug wrote.
"This is a matter of profound concern and apparently a violation of the Franken campaign's right [and the Coleman campaign's right] to review every ballot cast on election night."
And now they have photographic evidence of one of those missing ballots, stuck under a voting machine in Hennepin County. The picture was snapped by one of Franken's recount observers.
Additionally, the Franken campaign states that it is presently down by 84 votes....
http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpoi...
"The differential between the two candidates is 84 votes," lead Franken recount lawyer Marc Elias just told a press briefing. "That obviously is down from the starting point of 215."
The public numbers from the Star Tribune currently show Coleman ahead by 210 votes, with 77% of the total ballots recounted. But the Franken campaign points to an obvious flaw in those numbers: All challenged ballots, regardless of the merits of the challenges, are taken out of the count for now until the state canvassing board can make a final ruling.
The Franken camp, however, says its observers have taken down what the opinions were of the on-site election judges, and get their number by assuming that the local officials' calls will ultimately be upheld.
The final result will boil down to this: 1) The decision on rejected absentee ballots tommorow, and 2) Whether Minnesota's Laws which lay out how the canvasing board is supposed to impartially and transparently discern voter intent on the challenged ballots are as well defined and unambiguous as the Secretary of State keeps saying they are.