Dec 8, 2008 8:38 pm US/Central
Minneapolis Stops Missing Ballot Search
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) ―
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The five-member Canvassing Board will meet Dec. 16 to begin reviewing the disputed ballots. (File)
CBS
The city of Minneapolis has stopped searching for about 130 ballots that couldn't be located for the U.S. Senate recount.
City officials believed ballots were missing after the number of votes recounted ended up 133 less than the number tallied on Election Day. They believed the ballots were in a single envelope.
City spokesman Matt Laible said workers looked all day Friday at the city's election warehouse without success, then regrouped over the weekend and decided to turn over two sets of numbers to the Secretary of State's office: the Election Day tally, and the recounted results.
It will be up to the state Canvassing Board to decide which count to use. Democrat Al Franken's campaign expressed hope they will use the Election Day count since the territory was heavily Democratic. A comparison of Election Day results to the recounted votes shows Franken could lose a net of 46 votes if the latter tally is used.
Coleman's campaign had questioned whether the discrepancy was actually the result of missing ballots.
The Canvassing Board meets on Friday and could discuss the issue then.
Separately Monday, Franken pulled back another 425 of the ballots he challenged in the recount. That brought the total he's withdrawn to more than 1,000.
Franken challenged almost 3,300 ballots during the recount of 2.9 million ballots cast in the election, but last week started canceling them by the hundreds. He's now withdrawn nearly one-third.
Campaign attorney Marc Elias says he doesn't know how many of those canceled challenges will turn into votes for Coleman and how many were unclear ballots where Franken was trying to win a vote.
Coleman's campaign has announced it would give up 650 challenges, leaving him with 2,750. A spokesman said Monday that number would grow larger on Tuesday.
Coleman holds a 192-vote lead in the recounted precincts, without factoring in challenges.
The five-member Canvassing Board will meet Dec. 16 to begin reviewing the disputed ballots.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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