Nov 7, 2008 6:09 pm US/Central
Coleman Campaign Questions Big Franken Gains
WASHINGTON (AP) ―
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A recount is due to start once results are made official Nov. 18.
Chip Somodevilla & Robin Beck / AFP/Getty Images
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Sen. Norm Coleman is using the state's open records law to ask the state and all 87 counties for access to voting data and other records, questioning gains that Democrat Al Franken has made since Election Day.
Coleman, R-Minn., led Franken by 238 votes Friday afternoon -- down from 590 the day before as officials double-checked reports.
Coleman campaign manager Cullen Sheehan complained of "statistically dubious and improbable shifts that are overwhelmingly accruing to the benefit of Al Franken. ... We're asking that local and state election officials provide us with the necessary data to reassure the public that the canvassing process has not been tainted."
The Coleman campaign sent a request to state and county officials seeking data from election night, and records related to ballot security and revisions made since then.
Secretary of State Mark Ritchie said it was "unfortunate" that the Coleman campaign was questioning the integrity of the election. He said adjustments are a normal part of the canvassing process before results are official as officials reconcile the ballots and numbers in the voting machines.
"The decision to use words designed to create a cloud over the election is a political strategy," said Ritchie, a Democrat, at a Capitol news conference. "It's a well-known political strategy. It's unfortunate, but it's their choice of language, not ours."
Ritchie said election officials in the state's 87 counties will face a Dec. 5 deadline to submit their recount results to his office. The five-member state canvassing board, including Ritchie and four others he appoints, will meet starting Dec. 16 to rule on disputed ballots.
Ritchie also said a meeting with the Coleman and Franken campaigns and the state attorney general's office focused on logistics of the recount.
"We feel like we're going to conduct this recount as required by Minnesota statute along the lines we're describing today within the next month and a week," he said.
The Coleman campaign cited a 100-vote gain that Franken picked up from Mountain Iron, in St. Louis County, on Thursday night.
Paul Tynjala, St. Louis County's director of elections, said that was because of an error on election night that had incorrectly given Franken 406 votes, instead of 506 votes, based on a call-in from Mountain Iron. Tynjala said that either someone from that precinct called in the wrong number, or county officials heard wrong.
When the county officials inspected the machine tape, they saw that Franken had received 506 votes.
Coleman's campaign also questioned the time stamp on the tape, which read Nov. 2, two days before the election. Tynjala said that was because the clock hadn't been set correctly inside the machine.
Franken's campaign, meanwhile, noted that in the 2006 Senate campaign, there were significant differences between the vote total on election night and the final total. Republican Mark Kennedy lost 3,520 votes, while the winning candidate, Democrat Amy Klobuchar lost 666 votes.
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Norm Coleman was born in New York City in 1949. Al Franken was born in New York City in 1951.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
Bachmann Leads Protest Inside Capitol
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