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

[Carolab]

Yes! They should allow them all statewide. If the judge approved Ramsey you should approve them all on the grounds of "equal protection".

[VikingQuest]

Allow what?

How do you know they weren't rejected for a legit reason?

[milo h minderbinder]

Wrongly rejected absentee ballots.

And "wrongly rejected" means BY DEFINITION they weren't rejected for a legit reason.

[Grunty1]

That's what the lawsuit was about, genius. Unless the rejected ballots are turned over, how ARE we supposed to know why they were rejected?

[kjstjohn]

To the Bush v Gore Court: Oh what a tangled web we weave . . .

[frappe]

Excellent! Anyone who is eligible to vote should have his or her vote counted. (And counted accurately, of course.) That's a pretty simple principle but one that many Republicans seem to have a hard time wrapping their arms around.

[VikingQuest]

Not really, I think it is more the fact that groups like ACORN register a bunch of frauds. They catch a lot but not all.

What is to stop someone from getting 5 abs. ballots sent to the same house?

[milo h minderbinder]

Seriously, you think there are no protections to prevent people doing as many fake registrations as they want and voting with a bunch of absentee ballots?

[kjstjohn]

A computer?

[Durango]

Lets see?

Poll workers.

computers.

County Clerks.

Election law.
Ever worked an election?

Obviously not.

[repearwo]

Your ignorance of the voting process and failure to turn off certain radio show talk hosts is showing. IF 210 absentee ballots are turned in for one registered voter only one would count.

The Acorn myth is just that. People they hire may not do their job right (I would support a ban on people hired specifically to register voters) but ACORN is required by law to turn in all registration forms turned into them. IT is up to the local government officials to verify and sort out bad registration data. IF their is fraud on the part of a paid registrar there are laws to punish that.

In fact when it comes to registering voters very little gets by to the actual voter lists. You will have to find something else to be paranoid about.

[Carolab]

Read Brad Blog about the myth of the ACORN "fraud". You are seriously misinformed. IT WAS A HOAX:

http://www.bradblog.com/?page_id=6500

[Brenbooks]

Hey Chris: I only voted 3 times. Is that wrong?

[lynettema]

BS

[spamonwry]

My family has a long history of always voting... My late parents and grandparents never miss an election - of course, none of them are doing well.... they're all still dead, but they still vote!!!!

[NeverRepublican]

Ah, yeah...you can go to jail for that dork.

[swellsoire]

Where? In Texas?

[113]

Lets go Al !!!!!!

[oldmilitant]

Why do so many states in "the land of the Free and the home of the Brave" seem so anxious to supress votes/voters? If someone made an effort to vote, shouldn't the govt's energy be directed toward COUNTING the vote?

[VikingQuest]

If it is legal, yes.

[Carolab]

You get it. We need to get rid of the machines and stop the suppression.

[Durango]

Wouldn't you think that would be the case?

Voting is a RIGHT.

if those absentee ballots were legitimately cast, and apparently they were, there is NO EXCUSE for not counting them.

None.

None this side of a Banana Republic.

Whose democracies seem to be working pretty well these days anyhow.

[steamboat]

Franken will now win because the Sec. of State in Minnesota running the recount is a very liberal democrat.

[legalgirl]

Meaning it will be fair and legal

[steamboat]

Won't be fair at all.........but I do agree with you all on Florida.

[Myshkin57]

So are you saying that Bush only won Florida in 2000 because of the conservative Republican Secretary of State there? If so, then at least you're making progress.

[SUIGENEROUSLA]

steamboat says: "d'oh!"

[bugsbonzai]

I agree completely. Because the Secretary of State is a liberal Democrat, the election recount will be fair and all legal attempts to count all the votes of EVERYONE who voted will be pursued. You know, sort of a mirror image reverse of the Florida debacle where every attempt to suppress legal votes was made.

[gratonite]

Counting isn't really a partisan thing.

[swellsoire]

Everyone knows that facts have a liberal bias and reality has a radical bent.

[swellsoire]

One, Two, Three, Four...Seems non-partisan to me!

[Durango]

In a democracy the guy /gal with the most votes is supposed to win.

Sounds like a simple concept to me.

[Shake-A-Spear]

Franken will now win because he won -- as a meticulous recount will show. Nothing to do with the political persuasion of the Sec. of State. Would this were true of your boy Scalia at the Supreme Court -- the "get-over-it" wiseguy -- who anointed Bush, Jr.

[castleberry]

Hooray!

[milo h minderbinder]

With the numbers this close, I really believe a recount favors Franken, and probably by a pretty comfortable margin.

The biggest common sense reason is that he did much better in urban areas while Coleman did better in rural. Urban areas generally have much busier polling places - with longer waits, more pressure on voters and election officials to rush, and more physical wear and tear with the mechanical voting machines, it seems likely that there are simply more mistakes in the areas where Franken did better.

I'm not optimistic about Georgia, but Franken has a VERY good shot.

[ctchic]

your name reminds me of someone i used to chat with

[nellie]

What's with the weird photo?

Whoever the photo editor is today, you're having a little too much fun...

[liberalsrheros]

he was doing his cheney imitation?

[rzan1]

Well, let's face it. Franken isn't exactly handsome.

[jackstpaul]

My very fact-filled, local perspective, benign post just disappeared. What goes on here?

[Myshkin57]

Don't try to figure it out. You will go nuts.

[GreenEyedGuru]

It's still there.. for some reason posts seem to disappear right after posting (even if they aren't marked for moderation, which is stupid to begin with) and reappear a few minutes later.

[Dave01]

Which post would that be? The one about St. Paul? If so, then it's down wind.

[freshnotbitter]

If Franken wins we need to beat Saxby Chambliss in Georgia run off to gain 60 seats.

Does anybody know if Chambliss is using Hillary in his ads for his campaign? Just curious.

[Fraugher]

60 seats would be a curse... it makes every Senator capable of holding out one vote, thus turning the Dems into old school porkaholics...

If you can't convince a single Republican its a good idea, its probably not.

[Ratprick]

Your anal ysis is quite trenchant. If you can't convince a Republican it must be a bad idea. After all, it was Republicans who insisted and continue to insist that George W. Bush is a great leader. A war president, even.

And better yet, it was Republicans that presented Sarah Palin as the potential leader of the free world. If you can't convince these A students their judgment might be questionable then your ideas don't deserve the least bit of consideration.

Beware the Weapons of Mass Destruction. Saddam is gonna gitcha. My Pet Goat. Republicans. Wow.

[FreedomAgain]

I think 60 seats would be great. They are going to need all the power they can get to undo the past 8 years of corruption and make lasting change for the future.

[soupson52]

What does it say for democracy if an out and out liar (chambliss) is sent back to the senate? I am not, personally, concerned about dems being porkaholics. Does the name ted stevens, king of pork, ring any bells, Fraugher?

[NeverRepublican]

You weren't paying very close attention between 2001-2006 were you.

[liberalsrheros]

60 includes lieberman, there's your one republican.

[ShanniC]

Saxby will win the runoff. The odds are not in Martin's favor.

[MelDel7365]

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

I don't understand this - if the ballots were WRONGLY rejected - why on earth would they not be allowed into the recount?? Not allowing wrongly rejected absentee ballots here, it seems to me, would set a dangerous precident....what would stop unethical elections officials from "oops" wrongly rejecting ballots for a candidate they oppose in the future?? This seems wrong - why is there even a dispute here?? We do still live in a democracy, don't we?

[Puzes]

Exactly!

[BUMbO]

Republicans do NOT like it when democracy works for the other side.

[KeepMeLearning]

Last time I checked our democracy had gone AWOL.

[brt929]

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

So he has only won half the battle.

Maybe it's time for Federal legislation to examine uniform election rules, since the states are not capable of coming up with a decent plan.

[Jaradan]

Obama's been working on this as a U.S. and State Senator. See his record of bills introduced or passed re: Voter Protection and Election Fraud. I'm sure he'll make this top priority as POTUS...if he wants to be re-elected. ;)

[bygollymissmolly]

A key board hasn't decided whether to allow wrongly rejected absentee ballots into the statewide recount.
---------------------------------
Excuse me. They do not have the right to take away a citizen's right to vote if they made a mistake. Any ballot found to have been wrongly rejected has to be counted, otherwise they will be making a mockery of our election system.

[jackstpaul]

Ramsey County is where St. Paul is--it makes up about 3/4 of the county. It's a very Dem County--probably 60-40, so this should benefit Franken, if.....

Perhaps it's a good precedent, but there is the issue of whether the votes would even be allowed to count. The AG's office issued an opinion that they can't--a Dem is the AG.