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

[kellygrrrl]

the GOP of MN and AK were obviously not privy to the National Memo: When there are 6,000 lawyers standing over your shoulder and a bright spotlight shining on you, best not to even attempt the dirty tricks

[SinisterK9]

Maybe we ought to wait for that thing called evidence before we start labeling either side crooked.

[willfarnaby]

8+ years of the BushCheney murder-tor­ture-corru­ption-poll­ution Family, with universal Rethug support has provided enough evidence for 10,000 years of diligent sifting.

[kellygrrrl]

so you're telling me you think a great many GOPers were not operating on the RovePlayBook?
hahahhahah­ahahhahaha

[elcojonu]

Yes sir, just like Florida.
We will see what the Democrats in the land of a thousand lakes are made of.
You play clean when your opponent plays clean, dirty when your opponent plays dirty; it's as simple as that.

[pegbo]

ten thousand lakes.

[strandwolf]

At a minimum...­but then some may have been drained so that Wallmart Superstores could do their bizz.

[Gekster]

Explain whats like Florida and give me proof.

[old lady]

I understand lawyers for the AIP have filed a petition to throw out the election results so Sara can name herself the Senator from Minnesota - sort of a consolation prize following the felon's loss in Alaska...

[RealityBaseCamp]

That's great . . . She probably thinks she can do it, too.

[Gekster]

Stop the glucoma medicine for a few weeks. You will be able to see better.

[AuntSally]

Further complicating matters are the strange rules of Minnesota math:
"243 missing ballots in Robinsdale County: 143 for Franken, 140 for Coleman...­"

[Quaoar]

The Lizard People stole 40 ballots so they could write themselves in.

[mairs]

I voted for the Lizard People. How did you know?

[strandwolf]

That is a calumny. Would this lil guy mess with the sacred franchise?
http://photos.somd.com/data/580/medium/320.jpg

[wadenelson1]

It's the new math.

[Chicago48]

Why don't they just hold another election?

[research]

Too logical.

[Last-LiberalRepublicans]

EXACTLY! Goverment like taking the HARD way out!!

[Ramirez]

There is no provision for that in the law.

[strandwolf]

The law just might be an a$$. Look in the mirror for another one.

[RenoSage]

Do you know how much an election costs?

[research]

What is democracy worth?

[Stoppassingthebuck]

Just imagine if GW had not stolen the election in 2000, how different this country would be. I hope the people involved in that situation and any other stolen election are disgusted with themselves.

[Ramirez]

Here are the results of the media recount AFTER Bush took office.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/florida.ballots/stories/main.html

[lornejl]

Try again pilgrim...­.

http://archive.democrats.com/display.cfm?id=181

[omalley313]

I personally know of someone who bragged about voting twice (two absentee ballots) in 2000. A republican, who was apopleptic when early in the count it looked like Gore might have had it. He has since passed away. He probably would have had a stroke anyway this election :)

[Zork4]

Although the CNN story appears to support the Bush win, if you read the whole thing the story gives several ways that Gore might have won. The over 5,000 votes Reform Party Candidate got because of a badly designed ballot--votes even Pat agreed were likely not meant for him --were probably Gore votes. A revote in that County would have been a fair way to resolve the problem. The story also never addresses the purging deal between Kathleen Harris and ChoicePoint using data from Texas, W's home State, that disenfranchised thousands of voters by wrongly calling them felons. The election was stolen before a ballot was cast. Furthermore, flyers telling voters they would be arrested at the polls if they had outstanding traffic tickets and other such nonsense were used to dissuade voters from going to the polls. These flyers were not distributed in Republican precincts.

The reason Fox and the radio Right made such a big deal out of ACORN's activities was that these large scale purging schemes are still a part of party strategy. It was tried in Colorado and Pennsylvania. And among the scams this year were flyers telling people if their house had been foreclosed they couldn't vote. In the land of the free. Sickening.

[devanate]

I hope they are prosecuted.

[Gekster]

For what? Your liberal imagination?

[SinisterK9]

Just imagine if people posted about the topic, and didn't go off on tangents about Bush every 5 minutes. How different would the world be?

[strandwolf]

Bush a tangent? Isn't that trigonometry? Talk about an oxymoron.

[roshni]

Bush is very relevant to stolen elections and vote tampering.

[callings]

well, dogstyle, since bush set the standard for election theft in what used to be a free country, it's relevant. roll over. good boy.

[indypete]

The world would hardly be different but this site would be a lot less entertaining!

[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. Second time said.

[Zork4]

Look above.

[spinns17]

al ,call for a run off election

[Ramirez]

No need yet. He will if the recount goes against him.

[bbbtmenw]

Hey,,,its the Republicans that cheat.....­If anything, the republicans were trying to under count the 124 votes and wrote 24

[kellygrrrl]

Nate Silver has an interesting piece on the surge in Coleman's ballot challenges.
Looks like someone's getting pretty desperate

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/11/coleman-challenges-increasing.html

[Gekster]

I checked your source. Dem hack site. Get something neutral.

[PatsyT]

I think you need a martini.

[TimmySlagle]

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

Well duh! Election judges kept "finding" Franken votes. One official claimed a "clerical error" caused her to record only 24 votes for Franken, rather than 124. There's a hundred votes right there, that didn't really exist.

There has been so much fraud on the part of the Franken campaign (including putting an election judge on his payroll) that there's bound to be discrepancies. Stealing an election is always messy.

[23000Days]

If Franken were out to steal the election, he would have already won.
The 124 votes were verified by ballots.
TS is a BOZO......

[Blain]

Exactly, if it was fraud she could have just stated that it was 500 votes. Too much Limbaugh is not good for you 23000Days

[TimmySlagle]

Yes, ballots that are now missing.

[ScoutandBuckGoodDogs]

Do you really want to throw stones from your glass house? Need I mention the clusterf*ck called the Rethuglican party who STO.LE the presidency? Look at where that got us...

[TimmySlagle]

"party who STO.LE the presidency?"

You mean the Party that prevented a presidential election from being stolen.

All recounts found Gore to be the loser.

[certainot]

is that limbaugh, or hannity you're channeling?

[dkelly35]

look back at 2006 , how many repubes wanted a recount when it was close ? NONE

[leftcoastindy]

Well duh! Election judges kept "finding" Franken votes. One official claimed a "clerical error" caused her to record only 24 votes for Franken, rather than 124. There's a hundred votes right there, that didn't really exist."

Re-read it Timmy. You're confused. The reason they are asking to find more ballots is that the NOV 4th count was higher. Duh!

[YunekFlava]

Not to be picky or anything, but there apparently is a typo somewhere, because if 243 missing ballots were located, and 140 went to Coleman and 143 went to Franken that would actually be 283 ballots and not 243. Maybe it could have been in the amount that each or one of the candidates got, but there is definitely a problem somewhere. But none the less, the drama continues.

[Internaut]

Obviously, there are 40 additional ballots that are missing. Thank you, YunekFlava (yuk) for pointing this discrepancy out. I hope someone out there will follow Mr Flava's lead and report the 160 additional missing ballots (besides the 40).

[YunekFlava]

Misters don't have the kind of Flava, I've got, sir.

[Gekster]

With all the emphasis on sex-ed, and not math, science, history, and english, then it would be a fair sum for public educated students.

[PatsyT]

Can you say anything that lifts and enriches your country or are you stuck on stupid?

[vinny]

to stuff or unstuff the ballot box?

[vinny]

is this a "serious matter for cause and concern"? or "serious cause for concern"?

[instagladiator]

Uhh, as soon as I figure out if Africa is a continent or a country, I'll get right back to you on this one. OK?

[Gekster]

and what does that have to do with Minisota?

[mcantwell]

Here we go again.

[Telemachus]

How about this? -- The county clerk and recorder in every county must be a NONPARTISAN post. Voting machines must produce a RECEIPT for every voter. Any supplier of machines that makes a contribution to any candidate, party, or ballot issue is DISQUALIFIED and FINED an amount equal to the purchase price of every machine they ever sold, and every machine they ever produced is SCRAPPED.

Is this really so difficult, people????­??????????­??

[dadw5boys]

We can't do that for the U.S. Attorney General what makes you think it would work for an Election Supervisor ?

[Sonny4gov]

Why do we need machines at all? Paper ballot and pencil work just fine in most other developed nations.

And we should adopt a simple but brilliant idea from Canada -- count the ballots in public view.

[certainot]

it is because then republicans would have to work harder to steal elections, and they don't like real work, or thinking

[roshni]

No but the rethugs need leeway to cheat.