Franken Loses Absentee Ballot Appeal In MN Recount

St. Paul Pioneer Press:

The state Canvassing Board today rejected Democrat Al Franken's request to count absentee ballots his campaign says were wrongly rejected by poll judges.

Republican Sen. Norm Coleman's team had argued that the board lacks the power to include those ballots in the recount.

At the start of the recount, Coleman had a 215-vote lead out of 2.9 million ballots cast. Through Tuesday night, state figures showed a 238-vote lead when Nov. 4 tallies are compared with new counts in precincts where the recount is done.

Read the whole story: St. Paul Pioneer Press

Comments

[dadw5boys]

HOW MANY ABSENTEE VOTES ARE MILITARY ?

COUNT THE VOTES !!!!!!!

[CR46]

I'm rooting for you Al. and don't worry if you don't win theres always next year after Coleman is a convicted felon and removed from the senate, following in the footsteps of Ted Stevens. Coleman in the end may wish he had lost, and maybe the ethics violations would just go away. But if Coleman wins these violations will NOT fade away and he'll end up a felon!!!

[JackND]

So basically Reid got schooled in decorum by McConnell. That's gotta sting.

Maybe if Franken pulls this out, he can have Reid's job?

[Okieborn]

Well here we go again !!!
Repubs. pull off another voting scam !!!
Wecome back Sen. Coleman !!

[atlantajoe]

yes, 5 to 0 is a scam.

[DrJohnnySkeptic]

Thank God it is all over... no more will I have to see Al Franken.

[ChristianEcon.com]

Yeah you and Bill O'Reilly and his passion for promoting the ideology that sent our economy into a tailspin would be happy. The rest of us want Franken, who exposed O'Reilly on several occasions.

[mamacat]

Good luck Al. It's not over until it's over!

[atomic]

This is about the right wing agenda ... if Al Franken wins that's one step closer to Democratic rule which might destroy all their vicious hate mongering march to a religious based government. It has already been reported that it is the religious fundamentalists who helped steal the elections in 2000 & 2004. These are the people who believe that killing is okay when they are the ones doing it ... in other words this election is about their rule and not about Al Franken and you can bet they stole this for a fact. We don't know how exactly just yet but it will come out eventually ... The right wing religious freaks who have become the Republican party are dangerous because they are capable of criminally insane behavior. Let's hope that Al prevails against these monster parasites.

[atomic]

Al Franken is by far the better candidate despite what the nasty right wing comments. He would make an honest statesmen that's for sure. And given that the Republican party is morally bankrupt and incapable of winning without creating some sort of smear it would really be bad if All loses this to another self absorbed politician willing to exploit the working class to satisfy his elite base. For the working people who voted for Coleman ... good luck. The Republican party sold you out a long time ago ... that you would continue to vote for them and defend them even now is pretty sad.

[atlantajoe]

Al franken is a tax cheat that does not believe in free speech unless it is his. I t was just a couple of years ago that al assaulted some old man that had had a different opinion than al.
Instead of debating, al charged the man and tackled him, not surprising from a liberal.

Did you happen to see the video of the gays in san fran assault the old lady carrying the large cross? That took alot of guts by those tolerant tough guy gays.

[ChristianEcon.com]

Sorry, Franken gave wide exposure to O'Reilly's lies and fallacies (as well as Dumbaugh), and loudly criticized the Bush admin. long before it was popular or even safe. Franken's a hero to those of us who actually don't want Third World America, and should be a U.S. senator.

[JayeSF]

Not necessarily as bad as the headline makes it sound. basically, Franken camp was asking that all of the rejected ballots be counted. That was a pretty tall order. The board left open the "4-piles, 5th pile" option, as well as routes to appeal to the state AG...and of course, if necessary, to the courts. So that 5th pile (the ones which local county officials determine to not have been rejected under proper gorunds) may ultimately get counted...­..

The issue here to me is that, lil' normie coleman is up officially by 280 votes (I am not sure how the Franken "internal" numbers show the race much, much closer...b­ut I hope it's not just hype) with 85% counted...­.

...but NOW there are tons and tons (over 2, 200) at this point of contested/­challenged­. So...THAT is lil' normies tactic....­by the end of this there will be at least 2, 300 votes challenged, and likely a final spread of maybe 200 in the tally....

...so, the issue becomes what happens to those challenged votes (surely all of the challenges will not be upheld) and what happens to that "5th pile" ?

Folks, long after the "official recount is completed, this thing is gonna be goin' on a while...so get ready for a long haul.....

...and, agreed, Al...don't back down. It doesn't sound like they intend to.

[StaninLA]

Yo, Nate! What sayeth you?

[Actionmac]

Franken by 27... and sticking to it.

[obamaluv]

Sara Palin' influence

[trucap]

hope its just a bump in the road to winning.ha­ng on al , and take it to supreme c. don't concede. no more florida or ohio.

[viflyer]

I may be wrong, but it looks like they ( the board ) are doing their best to sort things out. It still may turn out in Al's favor, and he would have made a good Senator, but I think his sharp tongue didn't serve him well in this race. So I won't feel too bad for HIM if he doesn't carry the day. However, I will feel sorry for the people of Minnesota that will have a slimball like Collman serving as their Senator. Now THAT is a sad state of affairs, you betcha!

[trollsbwild]

I prefer to hold out hope until the final results are in. However, if Al should lose this very close election, he has no reason to hang his head. It will be Mn.'s loss and our potential gain. He had a great show on Air America Radio.

[bigironal25]

If nearly half of Minnesota voted for that creep Coleman all I can say is there are a bunch of stupid people in Minnesota and they deserve this piece of sh*t if they are indeed that moronic!

[PatsyT]

Take it to the next court Al !! Don't let them roll you!
Never again (Florida)

[VOTER]

If possible to do so, I heartily agree.

We have had enough of GOP Voting Scams.

[boing007]

"Apparently none of these votes wanted the a JOKER representing them in Washington­."

So why did they vote for Norm Coleman?