Franken Camp Calls For Investigation Of Missing Ballots

Al Franken's Senate campaign called on the Minnesota Secretary of State to launch a comprehensive investigation into the possibility of missing ballots in the state's recount election.

In a conference call with reporters on Monday, aides to the Democratic challenger said that they were growing increasingly concerned with news reports that ballots from Election Day -- which by state law must be recounted -- have gone missing.

"The number of votes counted on November 4th," said spokesman Andy Barr, "exceeds the number of ballots produced for consideration during the recount."

Marc Elias, Franken's chief lawyer, said that the campaign was not alleging foul play, noting that many of these missing ballots could be the product of administrative oversight or simple misplacement. But, with the election margin down to double digits (according to the Franken campaign's internal numbers, which they would not detail) he added that every single vote was of the utmost importance.

"[Missing ballots] should be a serious matter for cause and concern. That is why today we are calling on the Secretary of State to launch an investigation to find these ballots and make sure they are counted... to immediately instruct local elected officials to redouble their efforts to find all missing ballots," said Elias. "We know this is a close election... in an election this close we cannot let any lawful vote go uncounted."

The Coleman campaign, too, has said that reports of missing ballots should be taking seriously -- and there is little indication that these missing ballots would benefit one candidate or another. For example, on Friday, 74 ballots were discovered missing in St. Louis County, only to be found in a locked counting machine inside a warehouse. The county auditor said that the ballots contained votes for Franken and Coleman. On Thursday, meanwhile, the Center for Election Integrity MN reported that 243 ballots had gone missing in Robbinsdale County, only to be later found. Of that bunch 143 were votes for Franken, 140 for Coleman.

Those cases, however, have been successfully solved. In a memo to the Secretary of State, David Lillehaug, another attorney for the Franken campaign, claimed that there were still five missing ballots in Clay County, three in St. Louis, and 13 in Washington County.

"In an election this close," he added, "these discrepancies should be cause for serious concern to every Minnesota voter."

Comments

[tcuoohjohn]

Gotta admit this is a real barn burner of a race. Lots of suspense.

[MNmommy]

Pssst, Nico - Robbinsdale is a city not a county. It's located in Hennepin County (Minneapolis first ring suburb).

http://www.ceimn.org/blog/breaking_news_recount_report_robbinsdale_hennepin_november_20th_1110

[MNmommy]

Here's a link stating that they were found - for anyone concerned.

http://www.ceimn.org/blog/recount_report_robbinsdale_hennepin_november_20th_1143

[hugs4u]

If republicans can win an election, they sure can steal one.

[veracity]

America's "voting process" is simply DISGRACEFUL beyond words.....

and the Pelosi/Hoyer Democrats have had PLENTY of time to, at the very least, set in motion an entire revamp of the system, towards more accurate, verifiable, and re-countable voting, just as Republicans in 2002 used the Florida 2000 vote debacle as AN EXCUSE to RAM their hyper-partisan "HAVA" ("help America vote act") malarky down America's throats...­.

...vote machines produced by companies (Diebold, ESS, Sequoia) which COULD have been made to standards of strict accountability & verification - you know, just ATM machines and financial institution software -

- BUT THAT WAS _NOT_ the intention of the multi-million taxpayer funded "HELP GET REPUBLICANS INTO OFFICE on PROPRIETARY VOTING MACHINES" act.

[Zork4]

I totally agree it needs revamping but Pelosi has limited power here.

The elections are run by State Secretaries of State (remember Kathleen Harris in FLA 2000 and Ken Blackwell in Ohio 2004?), and practically, control devolves to the County level. I'm not a Constitutional scholar, so I don't know what it would take to set uniform national standards for ballots and procedures, but it is completely overdue. One obvious change is to have registration be proactive as it is in Canada and many other countries. The problem is that Republicans don't like it because low turnout works in their favor (older conservatives tend to be reliable voters).

A standard national ballot would be a start, none of this BS where Pat Buchanan picks up a chunk of the Jewish vote in Dade County. "Not my voters" as he himself said. And bye bye hackable computer voting with proprietary software and no paper trail. Optical scan paper ballots please.

[MG]

Minnesota is bleeding blue for Al Franken. God bless us all!

[atlantishp]

"We know this is a close election..­. in an election this close we cannot let any lawful vote go uncounted.­"

Shouldn't this be true in all elections regardless of the closeness?

[DinkSinger]

No, spending tens of thousands of tax dollars to make sure that every vote is accurately counted is a waste of money if the outcome is not in doubt. For example, in my home CD, Connecticut 1, John Larson received 211,563 votes. His Republican opponent received 76,851. We didn't need a recount.

[vernbvb]

This election appears to have a lot of help getting it "close". Looks like a lot of tampering went on with ballots and registration forms. I hope that this whole scam blows up in the face of whoever is behind it;

[watchingthings]

Why is Minnesota having such a hard time with the election? How does a state lose and misplace boxes of ballots?

[bubbuh]

Remember that most the folks involved inthe recount are just like us: volunteers and often first timers. This accounts for virtually all of the confusion. Plus, the media is magnifying each little problem to increase the sensationalism and reader reaction.

[Pragmatus]

Al Franken is a published author in addition to his comedy work and his political radio work. This is much more than can be said for Ronald Reagan or George Murphy, two other politicians who started out in entertainment.

Franken is smart, articulate and principled. I think that's a pretty good start for a U S Senator.
.

[Gekster]

I see dillusion works for you.

[beantowner]

And a spelling lesson might work for you.

[Zork4]

What is good about Norm Coleman? He's not exactly a solid candidate and anyway he may be tossed for ethics violations (not only Dems are concerned about the 75K, the suits, the cheap apt.) even if he does win.

Franken was a bit of a blowhard but he backed it up with research, he proved that Limbaugh's fact checking is almost non-existent. My guess is that Franken would work hard to be a good Senator for Minnesota. What has Norm C. done for the State?

[notconfindtweenhatnboots]

Franken has been talking about politics for decades. As I remember, he began on Saturday Night Live as a political commentator. Although he was funny, his original appearance always were focused on politics and what could be done to improve our country. The humor was just a tool he used to get his point across.

As time went on, they began to use his humor for it's own sake, rather than for the political agenda that he had in the beginning. I would trust him to represent my state, if I was in Minnesota.

[lemonyashes]

The same cannot be said of Norm Coleman.

[Oldbuck]

With the amounts of votes cast it is hard to believe that this election was as close as it was I am sorry but I don't trust Norm as far as I could throw him.

[BannedInBoston]

(Which isn't a bad idea, actually..­..)

[notconfindtweenhatnboots]

finally, a use for that bridge to nowhere?

[HWBII]

Maybe this will go to the Supremes, as in Bush v. Gore..... I wonder who'd win then?

[FrankFurter]

I'd lay odds it wouldn't be an independent or a Democrat.

[BlueStateMan]

Bush v Gore was about the validity of the recount ITSELF... NOT how the recount was being conducted.

Minnesota REQUIRES a recount (Norm Coleman's missives notwithstanding) so the SCOTUS would have nothing to say about it.

[RSU]

Would you do me a favor and let PK know that I'd like to talk with her?

[Pragmatus]

Sorry to disillusion you, but Bush v. Gore was about the Republicans on the Supreme Court finagling Bush's election victory then digging around in the law to find an excuse justifying their action.

The "validity of the recount" had nothing to do with the decision. When the court got its hands on the process, Bush was ahead by 537 votes in FL, and they saw a chance to seal his victory and took it.

A similar scenario awaits Coleman v. Franken if it gets that far.
.

[doublels]

Go get 'em, Al!! Fight to your last breath.

[pokemon]

Each person simple needs to do a paper ballot, with your finger print on it. Each ballot is then counted. That way if anyone pretends (as in older small counties) that someone voted there has to be a finger print, and just let it be known that if your finger print is on more then one... Clank Clank.. you going to jail.

then we would have a slower election night but if counted as they go it would be clean and safe.

[Gekster]

A finger print on a ballot would cancel the secret ballot.
You still agree with a secret ballot, don't you?
It would be better if we voted, and did like the Iraqies, and dip a finger in ink.
For conservatives, a finger from either hand.
For liberals, a finger from each hand.

[dru007]

HEy did anyone notice this?
"On Thursday, meanwhile, the Center for Election Integrity MN reported that 243 ballots had gone missing in Robbinsdale County, only to be later found. Of that bunch 143 were votes for Franken, 140 for Coleman."
Excuse me but 143 + 140 does not equal 243, aren't journalists required to finish the 3rd grade?

[Hajji]

3rd party Candidate, write-ins and/or undervotes.

Uhm...are YOU smarter than a journalist?

[MG]

so 3rd party candidates decrease the number of overall ballots???
who's smarter than a what now??

[Myshkin57]

Barkley got negative 40 votes? What a maverick!!!

[naviline]

Yeah, I was puzzled by that too.

[fiorastar]

Unless of course the Coleman votes had an "extra" 40. Not unheard of on the Republican side of election manipulations.

[DinkSinger]

Thats the problem with paper ballots, you can always add a few.

[Hajji]

Oh, I guess I'M not as smart...

I thought I had the whole "comprehension" thing down...

Sorry

-T

[bubbuh]

As the lolcatmeister would say: fact checking..­.u r doinit rong.

[bubbuh]

TeeHee

http://icanhascheezburger.com/

[Okieborn]

I knew this Franken Coleman re-count was going to smoothly !!!!
Oh Well Welcome back Norm !!!

[NicoloM]

I'm curious, in the recount each side is challenging ballots. Are those ballots counted in the totals for each candidate, or are we getting a result that represents a lesser number which reflects a more contentious side?
Does anyone know the totals which include ballots challenged by the other side?

[lornejl]

It's very simple....­If a train is leaving Chicago traveling east at 32 mph and another train leaves Boston southbound ........We­ll, you know the rest.

[Colmore]

32 MPH? You are on the wrong train at that speed.

[Ranta]

[MG]

Good question. The answer is these ballots were misplaced, and that we won't have a clue about anything until the canvassing board meets again.

p.s. Where do you get your weed?!

[bubbuh]

AL your vote count questions answered here:

http://ww2.startribune.com/news/metro/elections/returns/2008/recount/msenco.html