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

[lornejl]

This just in, Norm Coleman has conceded for Al Franken !

[Ranta]

Great. Can you provide at least three links and the results of a polygraph test?

[lornejl]

read it again sweetie, it's a joke ; )

[aznurse]

this just in, Norm Coleman is conceited

[BannedInBoston]

Is Die.bold involved, I wonder? After the 2004 election, the Die.bold voting machines division changed its name to "Premier Election Solutions" (PES). This lead me to wonder, yeah, "solutions" for whom? Republicans who are behind in close elections? This in turn led me to write them suggesting a further name change to: Premier Ill.egal Software Solutions. (I'll leave the acronym as an exercise for the reader.) Haven't heard back from them though....

[HansB]

Desired Results Systems: oversight unnecessary and in any case impossible.
Count Once Machines: no recounts, they just confuse people.
Or:
Vote Right Solutions: includes automatic correction of voter bias.

[MNmommy]

I'm pretty sure that they are mostly ESS machines. I'm not positive though.

[roshni]

If ballots are missing, they need to be accounted for.
The GOP thinks it can tamper with election results - not this time.

[Gekster]

You make the claim, give the proof.

[jbunyon]

Florida and Bush...Giv­e proof back!!!

[truelockCA]

Franken the Kook needs to go away. I'm sorry...bu­t this dude has no business in public office. The elections are always fixed/crooked when the opposition is in the lead. There is no voter fraud going on in Minn....If there is, common sense would tell us it's about 50/50 both sides.

I think Sinister hit it on the head. Don't rush to judge just because Franken probably lost the only election he would ever have a chance to win (2008 Hate the Bush Vote).

[cfreedom]

Why do you say Franken has no business in public office? Everybody has the right in the USA. Profession, save very few, is irrelevant. That's what America is all about. But you braindead Republicans, repulsed by books like vampires to light, have no problem disqualifying a true thinker like Franken while gladly embracing empty actors like Reagan. Haven't you guys wrecked the country enough? Please let some thinkers take over.

[lornejl]

Gov. of the people, by the people, and for the people.

Franken isn't a people ?

[khiva]

Wrong. Franken is a Democrat. The worst Democrat on his/her worst day is better than the best Repuglican on their best day.

[BannedInBoston]

Amen.

[Blue in NH]

So a man who makes his living as a comedian is less qualified for public office than an actor (Reagan, Swartzenegger, Thompson) or a preacher (Huckabee) or a singer (Bono). Give the guy a break. He's smart and dedidcated.

[meede]

Try a wrestler that had his brains jumbled!!

[Delphine]

Al Franken is far an away smarter than 90% of politicians. Just because he's made a living as an entertainer you say he has no business in public office. Why? Is there something about someone's previous job (Delay=ext­erminator, for example) that disqualifies him or her?

In the meantime, Franken isn't accusing anyone of fraud, he's just making sure all ballots are accounted for.

Why is it that re puke licans think that "counting every vote" is fraud?

Meantime, the two are within 200 votes of one another, so apparently a hell of a lot of people disagree with you.

[ElBruce]

"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."

Hey, that adds up to 283.

[Phalanxman]

Some of them voted twice.

[YunekFlava]

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!

[Gekster]

They voted twice if they were liberal. Thats the way they do elections. Vote early and often.

[BannedInBoston]

Election math.

[qdog112]

Fuzzy Math

[mathme]

There were 283 ballots, yes, but not everyone had to vote in the senate race or they could have written in a 3rd party, or any number of other explanations. I imagine that the author assumed that readers would know that voters were not compelled to vote for either candidate.

[mathme]

D'OH! I flipped those numbers in my mind! I need to read more closely before I open my big.. um... fingers? Hmm... Too many tasks at once! :">

[MaybeMilo]

The GOP's probably done the same thing with the missing ballots as they've done to the Constitution: used them as toilet paper.

[Gekster]

Don't make a claim without proof. Give me proof.

[qdog112]

Smell the brown stains on the remnants of the constitution.

That's your PROOF.

[Maezeppa]

This is not good. Franken wouldn't be raising this if there was confidence the count was going his way. Those contested ballots might not be so good for him. According to Nate Silver Frankin's projected to win by 27 votes but that's looking at statistics. Franken's people have looked at the actual ballots.

[RRundbaken]

Do not put anything past the GOP. They have already engaged in voter nullification, voter purges, intimidation, and all sorts of illegal activities to steal elections.

[BannedInBoston]

Reason #666 Why I Am Not A Republican­....

[Gekster]

Andwhat has Acorn done?

[qdog112]

Helped to register and get out the voters least likely to have the means to get to the polls.

I think they call it community service - whatca know 'bout that?

[mathme]

Why don't *you* explain what ACORN has done, exactly. Don't use generalities, either; explain what they did that bothers you so much. Was it that they turned in fraudulently completed registration forms as they were required to do by law? Was it that they flagged those registration forms before turning them in that bothers you so much?

[rabiddog6708]

Has anyone looked for the ballots under Coleman's mattress?

[vietveter]

They are under his teeth

[HWBII]

That's funny. What a set of choppers. And he should stop the bleaching.­..

[Gekster]

Or Frankins car trunk?

[PatsyT]

spell much?

[Vincero]

we have 200 million electonic bank transfers a day with complete records.

yet we cant keep track of votes.

why?

because they dont want to!

[LeeCalif]

That's rite.

Also remember, Senator Chuck Hagel (R) Nebr. owns ES & S. A major voting machine company.

The company that, in fact, was used for Mexico's Presidential election.
The conservative won that election by a razor thin margin.
ES & S also was used in Omaha, Nebr. when Mr. Hagel won.
It was known by another name but the name was changed shortly after that election.

[Gekster]

Explain what you are implying, and give detail.

[mathme]

Do you vote in NE? We have paper ballots.

[HWBII]

Vincero, my thoughts exactly. Not only bank transfers but ATM records and gazillions of over the counter purchases with accurate receipts. Of course we can solve this problem. Unfortunately the founding fathers left it all up to the states, which until the middle of the nineteenth century just had voice votes in the town squares. An Australian came up with the novel idea of state-issued ballots around that time and it caught on... sort of. But we are still held hostage to nineteenth century ways of counting ballots. I am sure Scalia et al would argue that the FF's intended it just the way it is! Original intent, and all that. Wouldn't you love to hear that Supreme Court case?

[JessWonderin]

and funny thing . . , those machines that "count" BILLIONS of transactions , those very ATMs are MADE by DIEBOLD . . . guess the BANKS hire PROFESSIONAL Quality Control Managers instead of Republican Horse Show Judges and PTA Vice Presidents . . . .

[cjgnew]

It's so close that either one can claim victory. Perhaps they should agree to flip a coin, and whoever calls it right gets to be the serving senator. Other than that, perhaps they could both agree on a runoff, which, hopefully, would give Minnesotans an opportunity to clarify their intent.

[bibimimi]

The runoff scenario would not surprise me in the least.

[fiorastar]

Seems like the fairest thing to do.

[Bluedanube]

All in all the U.S. has an half-assed election system but then Americans are willing to put up with half-assed. Expect the "universal" health care plan will be another half-assed solution. Far be it from the States to learn from Canada or European nations that have successful systems.

[majorteddy]

We should get the Canadians to run our elections.

[roshni]

At this point, we should get Zimbabwe to run our elections.

[jsomerville5]

Why on earth would we want the Canadians to run our elections ? I grew up there and am so happy now to live in the US. They keep saying how much better they are than the US but that is not the truth. They have far fewer people in that country. The US is a much more complicated and more populated country.

It appears that Franken is going to lose to Coleman. He fought a good fight but with such a high percentage of ballots counted, it does not look good for him,

[Jiovanna]

This news coverage is actually boring. With a vote this close, it's hard to care who wins. It's a toss-up so the loser will have to accept his destiny--whoever that will be--to be or not to be that is the question, dear Brutus! Things must be boring, indeed, in Minnesota to be arguing about this absurdity! Get a life and move on!

[mairs]

You're kidding, right? It's all a bore and it doesn't matter who wins? It does matter, to both Republicans and Democrats. It's one Senator more or less toward 60 for the Democratic party.

[Tommygun2146]

Spoken like a true pub.

[strandwolf]

Jaded thrill seeker, eh? You can always relocate to Zimbabwe, or brave the storms on the surface of Jupiter.

[flydoghead]

Just curious, what DO you think is important ?

"....hard to care who wins ? "

Why because it is difficult ?

move on ?

Why did you bother to post or even visit this site if it is so boring ?

[roshni]

With a vote this close, it's especially important to do it properly.
Bush stole the election in 2000. We are not falling for it again.

[Gekster]

Again I ask for proof. Every major newspaper in the country counted and recounted all the ballots in Florida, counted them every wich way in hell, and all came out with Mr. Bush the winner. Please tell me how he stole what election.

[Cybersquirt]

Center for Election Integrity MN...

Don't you mean CITIZENS for Election Integrity?

http://www.ceimn.org/

[Ramirez]

And there is no "Robbinsdale County" as they reported. There is a town of Robbinsdale located in Hennepin County MN. That is probably what they meant. I guess.

[Cybersquirt]

:(

[arrtimus]

Anybody check the trunk of Frankens car?

[Cinnamonape]

Last time someone checked a trunk of a car (that of an election official) there were ballots discovered. All of them that were marked for Franken.

But these were certainly legitimate ballots since the voter rolls showed that when you added these votes into the precinct totals you got the number that matched the number of people that cast ballots at that precinct. So it actually looks more likely that someone opposed to Franken tried to remove ballots that supported him.

[RealityBaseCamp]

That's what I thought at first, but it turned out to be a Republican talking point, and - guess what - a lie! But yeah, Franken ballots that turned up in a trunk sounded more like abducted ballots than planted ballots.

[Gekster]

In the trunk of a Democrat pollster?