Politics

ST. PAUL (AP) ― With a shrinking number of votes left to recount, tension in Minnesota's tight Senate race rose on Monday at the sites where ballots were getting a second look.

The campaigns of Democrat Al Franken and Republican Norm Coleman traded more fire over the cascading pile of disputed ballots, each accusing the other of running up the challenges.

Meanwhile, Franken's campaign sounded alarms over discrepancies in the number of ballots that registered on Nov. 4 versus the number tallied during the recount. They sought the secretary of state's help in investigating reports of "missing" ballots.

"For a hand count of ballots to be accurate, all ballots counted must be made available for review," Franken attorney David Lillehaug said in a letter to Secretary of State Mark Ritchie.

Lillehaug continued, "In an election this close, and with accuracy and transparency paramount, these differences are a serious matter."

Coleman led Franken by 215 votes before the recount. Through Monday, the margin was 172, a comparison made possible because counties are reporting recount numbers that compare directly with their precincts' Nov. 4 results. However, those numbers are expected to shift daily until the counties complete their work. And the final outcome will likely rest on the 2,801 ballot challenges filed by the two campaigns, due to be taken up by a special canvassing board Dec. 16.

Franken's campaign offered examples of precincts from across Minnesota where the overall number of votes reported cast on Election Day didn't correspond with the number of ballots produced for the recount. In Oak Park Heights, for instance, one precinct showed 1,462 votes on Nov. 4, but only 1,449 during the recount.

In some places, election officials have said the mismatched figures were the result of a faulty machine reading on Election Day that led to some ballots being fed through twice. Others located ballots in storage areas.

Deputy Secretary of State Jim Gelbmann said his office was reviewing Franken's letter but had not yet had a chance to consider all the implications.

Coleman's campaign manager Cullen Sheehan said last week that the senator's advisers were also monitoring reports of the new precinct counts not matching up with voting machine tapes.

Coleman entered the recount with a 215-vote advantage out of nearly 2.9 million cast. As of Monday evening, 2.1 million ballots had been recounted and 64 of 87 counties were done.

According to figures counties have reported to the state, Franken has fared better than Coleman in the early stages of the recount.

It's difficult to say exactly where the race stands because both campaigns have challenged hundreds of ballots. Unless the campaigns withdraw their challenges, they will be decided by the state Canvassing Board during meetings that begin Dec. 16.

If anything, the fervor of challenges is rising.

Stearns County Auditor-Treasurer Randy Schreifels said he's grown frustrated by frivolous challenges that are slowing the process. He said voter intent was clear on most of them.

"This morning, for example, a ballot was challenged because the oval wasn't completely blackened, although the majority of it was filled in," Schreifels said in a news release. "Another ballot was challenged because there was a mark, or a small line, somewhere else on the ballot, not even near the U.S. Senate race."

In Ramsey County, volunteers for both campaigns were lowering their bar for challenges, requesting that even ballots with hard-to-find stray pen marks be set aside for the state Canvassing Board.

"We just had some people who were inclined to challenge just about everything," Elections Manager Joe Mansky said.

Mansky said he expects the county's recount to wrap up by Dec. 2 or 3, but it depends on how much time is taken up with challenges. That said, counters finished reviewing ballots in St. Paul, the state's second-largest city. Franken gained 34 votes on Coleman, but more than three times as many ballots were challenged, 63 by Franken monitors, 68 by Coleman observers.

Coleman attorney Fritz Knaak blamed Franken's volunteers for increasing the pace of challenges to make the race appear closer. Challenges can take would-be votes off the board for the candidates until they are withdrawn or overruled.

"We call this on their part, a strategy of deceptive deflation," Knaak said. "In other words, they're trying to deflate the actual numbers on the Coleman side by increasing the number of challenges."

Franken lawyer Marc Elias disputed the claim.

"He's got a fancy phrase which I can't match. But he's wrong," Elias said, adding, "There is no benefit to us to have ballots go before the canvass board that are clearly nonmeritorious challenges. Ultimately, the canvassing board is going to decide what the count is."

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Norm Coleman was born in New York City in 1949. Al Franken was born in New York City in 1951.

 

 

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