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Dec 10, 2008 5:56 pm US/Central
Fight Over Senate Ballots Precedes Board Hearing
ST. PAUL (AP) ―
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The state Canvassing Board is due Friday to discuss the fate of hundreds of absentee ballots that were improperly set aside on Election Day. (File)
CBS
Minnesota's Senate campaigns dug in Wednesday over how election officials should handle supposedly missing or wrongly rejected ballots.
The state Canvassing Board is due Friday to discuss the fate of hundreds of absentee ballots that were improperly set aside on Election Day. Most counties have agreed to voluntarily sort their rejected ballots to determine which met the four standards for dismissal and which were erroneously held back.
Meanwhile, Republican Sen. Norm Coleman's campaign took issue with the way Minneapolis officials are accounting for 133 ballots that were counted on Election Day but now can't be found. The city has said it would submit two sets of results for the affected precinct -- one from the recount and one from Nov. 4.
The sorting of validly rejected and wrongly rejected absentee ballots began this week. Initial reports suggest that, statewide, hundreds of ballots were rejected because election judges may have erred.
Democrat Al Franken's campaign argues those ballots should be included in the recount, calling them uncounted votes. The campaign put out a video featuring people whose absentee ballots were discarded.
"These are not just numbers. These are not just ballots. These are not just tally marks. These are people," said Franken spokesman Andy Barr.
Coleman's campaign has said a decision on those ballots should be left to an election contest lawsuit likely to follow the completed recount.
On the Minneapolis matter, Coleman's campaign lawyer sent a letter to the city elections coordinator telling her that only results of the manual recount are valid for consideration by the state board.
The ballots for a part of one precinct haven't turned up during an exhaustive search and the city says it has stopped looking. So the city has forwarded Nov. 4 results as a possible substitute.
Coleman lawyer Fritz Knaak objects to that option. The campaign notes it hasn't seen any evidence that those ballots exist, so it would be wrong to revert to the election night results.
Knaak's letter cites state rules and case law to conclude "the purpose of an administrative recount under Minnesota law is to simply count the ballots located and presented to the local election official."
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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