Franken Wins Absentee Ballot Lawsuit

ST. PAUL, Minn. — A Minnesota judge has granted a request by Democratic Senate candidate Al Franken for the release of information on voters whose absentee ballots were rejected.

Ramsey County Judge Dale Lindman directed the county to produce the data by the close of business Wednesday. It complied.

Franken wanted the rosters of disqualified absentee voters in all 87 counties to determine if they were properly rejected in the counting of ballots for his close race with incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman.

Lindman's ruling applies only to Ramsey County, the state's second-largest county and the home of the state capital, but it represents a partial victory for Franken.

A key board hasn't decided whether to allow wrongly rejected absentee ballots into the statewide recount.

Comments

[mamacat]

Good luck Al. Keep up the hard work.

[Blakkwolfe]

He's Al Franken! He's good enough, smart enough, and dog gone it, people like him!

[seereene1]

Wow...someone old enough on this site to remember that SNL bit. Thanks for the memories you wild and crazy guy!

[rukiddingmerightnow]

LOL! Love it

[Jaybird248]

It's just appropriate that a Saturday Night Live alum be a real life Senator.

Kind of a Circle of Life thing.

And besides, who could represent the land of Minnesota Nice better than Stuart Smiley?

You go, Al.

[Paul Peete - Huffpost Blogger]

What would make a board NOT count wrongly rejected ballots? Franken is smart to look at as many of these as he can get the court to allow. Coleman has shown his true nature and can't be trusted to 'play fair'.

[Ramirez]

Any ballot that is "wrongly rejected" should be counted.

[DumbDad]

"A key board hasn't decided... " Are ye a man or a mouse? let my keyboard do the thinking

[Carolab]

a KEY board

[HalBrown]

Hey Repubrobates, Franken is so funny it looks like he'll have you laughing all the way to losing yet another Senate seat.

I can't wait to say "two down, one to go!"

[courageunderfire]

It is a nice step in the right direction. Keep on keeping on...
"C'mon Al, you can take this guy"

[eugenegerard]

The way I count there are maybe 13 to 16 real Democratic Senators.

[BlueStateMan]

....and?

[MsLiz]

Then your system of measurement is flawed.

You sound like a right winger talking about real Christians.

[eugenegerard]

How many of your Democratic Senators voted for the REAL ID, The Patriot Act, The Military Commissions Act, Leaving Lieberman in his seat, the war, and giving 700 billion to the Bush thieves? I count by actions not bullshit.

[TheHandyman]

You are right but from seeing the other comments it seems these other people have no idea what a real Democrat is. I know label them the Demowon'ts because they won't do any of the things they say will. 4 "Demowon'ts" from the South ran on platforms identical to the Repugs. But hey, Americans aren't the best informed or brightest people just because they can use a computer to post nonsense on a website.

[rmetz74]

Call us when the way you count it becomes the law, k?

[JoDeeVa]

Are you just counting on your fingers and toes? Guess you won't be too happy to discover that changing things up will just take 20 of your "real Democratic Senators" then, eh? Or you could use Arabic numbers like the rest of us...but, you wouldn't be real happy with 60, would you? Not counting the Republicans good ole "not a real Democratic Senator" Joe Lieberman might bring to the table (or the "not real Democratic Senators" he might take away..that should make you happy!)

[BlueStateMan]

Christ... could they have picked a WORSE picture of Al?

[theconsigliere1]

Admittedly a bad photo, BUT... there will be many good photos once he is declared the newest Democratic Senator from the Great State of Minnesota. Then all eyes will be on the Georgia runoff vote. Go Dems!

[payos]

oh, he's a comedian, it's part of his stock in trade

[devanate]

I thought it was funny. Makes him look like he's already a senator.

[ggfree]

no kidding. what is up with that? and what is he saying to make that mouth shape?

[tcuoohjohn]

If the undervote is tallied then Franken will win. Historically the undervote is predominately Democrats and minorites.

[milo h minderbinder]

Which makes sense since those groups tend to be more urban meaning polling places are more busy and crowded, and more pressure for voters to rush instead of taking their time.

It's just common sense, the busier a polling place, the more likely that mistakes will be made by the voter OR the election official.

[BlueStateMan]

Except that this suit involves ABSENTEE ballots.

[Durango]

Curious fact isn't it?

[milo h minderbinder]

Not really if you think about it.

[barackobama4prez]

undervotes are usually underdogs and vote dem.

[jbeach]

I believe this is due to most recounts being done in swing states, and most elderly, minority and less-educated voters being Democrats in those states.

[mamacat]

To paraphrase Karl Rove, "the more education a person has, the more likely they are to vote Democrat." Interesting fact.

[southernfried]

thats change we can believe in

[hapiguy]

O'Realy saying Sen Franken,,,oh, be still my heart.....

[Mulvaney]

The photo reminds me of McCain's post debate photo with his tongue out.

But I have always thought that I would rather have a comedian as a candidate rather than a candidate who is a joke. Good luck Al.

[glaze]

Excellent, pithy and marry me if you are free and female.

[miltshook]

You know, I don't care if the Democrats make it to 60; I personally don't see a "filibuster-proof majority" even if they do, because there are still a handful of Dems who might as well be Republican.

But we need a guy like Al Franken in the Senate; someone with common sense, who is only running because the people have been ill-served by Norm Coleman.

Uh oh, I said something negative about Coleman.. does that mean he'll sue me?

Milt Shook
http://www.pleasecutthecrap.com

[Marlyn]

"there are still a handful of Dems who might as well be Republican."

Right.

[MsLiz]

Was that sarcasm? Because I don't know who Milt is talking about.

[Bitsko]

If miltshook means if you look at many of their voting records regarding defense spending, health care, child care, worker's rights, and other progressive issues, there certainly are quite a few conservative democratic Senators out there.

[BlueStateMan]

On the other hand... there are moderate repubs (Collins, Snowe, etc) that never vote to filibuster.

[wizargoz]

What is it about far north frozen states and vote counting? Is it just too cold to bother, or too cumbersome to keep taking the mitties off for a hand count? Or is it something else entirely- like Stevens (convicted felon) and Coleman (suspected felon)?

[milo h minderbinder]

In minnesota, they ARE doing a hand count.

It is just going to take a while to hand count almost three million ballots.

[BlueStateMan]

HOOOWAH!

[TheHandyman]

Canada handcounts all their ballots and they know the outcome with a couple of hours for the entire country. So, no, it has nothing to do with the frozen north which will see less and less freezing and more and more incompetency in a country that says it is the best. We suffer from a state of National delusion. And corporate greed.

[Ramirez]

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canadians shunned the polls during their general election with the lowest voter turnout on record, even as a global financial crisis threatened to plunge the nation's economy into recession.

Some 59.1 percent of eligible Canadian voters went to the polls Tuesday, breaking the previous record low turnout of just under 61 percent in 2004, according to preliminary results from Elections Canada released on Wednesday.

"This is a preliminary number that we'll be monitoring," Elections Canada spokesman David Rutherford said.

Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the first Western leader to face the electorate since the start of the international economic meltdown, won reelection with a bolstered minority government.

http://ca.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idCATRE49E1B320081015

[Durango]

When Lincoln was elected President he knew he had won before he went to bed that night.

Counting votes should not be that difficult.

[proggirl]

Waddaya mean, too cold to bother? What do you think we're doing right now?
Most of us in Minnesota, including our Repugnican Governor Pawlenty, are justifiably proud of the integrity of our state's election process.
We have a better than 82% turnout rate of eligible voters, and counting that many concerned citizens takes some time.
I understand the snarkiness about Coleman. He's earned that level of contempt and more. But please don't misconstrue him as representative of the state's attitude on this matter.

[ADVOCATE4ZPG]

In some U.S. states, absentee ballots must only be POSTMARKED on the day of the election, a fact which insures a slower count. All the same, what's the hurry? This RUSH to find out was exactly the strategic backdrop that allowed the BUSHY MOBOCRACY to abort an HONEST count of the POPULAR vote in Florida in the 2000 election which set up the present disaster!!!!

What's WRONG with a vote count continuing up until the U.S. Thanksgiving? It would be a welcome quadriennial distraction from encroachment of the so-called Christmass "promotion season"! Also, why should an election process that is prorogued to beyond two years come to a halt in TWO DAYS?

[dadw5boys]

A LOT OF ABSENTEE VOTES ARE MILITARY MEN AND WOMEN !!!!!!!!!!!!!

THEIR VOTES COUNT OR NO ONES VOTES COUNTS !!!!!!!!

[Carolab]

And your point is....?

[MsLiz]

That he knows where his caps lock key is.

[Big0725]

Now that's just plain ole BS.

No one vote is more important than another.

Just because someone is in the military, they aren't imbued with some special right.

[BlueStateMan]

HOOOWAH!!