Franken Releases Video Urging State To Count Discarded Ballots

The Al Franken campaign has put out a web video designed to put public pressure on state officials to ensure that every vote is counted during the Minnesota Senate recount.

The six-minute long clip includes testimony from several Minnesotans who say that their votes were unfairly discounted because of clerical or administrative errors. The voters in the video all cast absentee ballots -- either because illness prevented them from going to the polls (one testimonial was from a quadriplegic), they were out of the state, or were busy volunteering on Election Day.

"In the closest Senate race in Minnesota history, every vote should be counted fairly," the web-video begins.

Currently, the state of Minnesota has highlighted between 500 and 1,000 absentee ballots that could have been wrongfully rejected on Election Day. On Friday the canvassing board will meet to decide whether or not these ballots should be counted in the official tally.

On a broader level, however, there is an interesting political dynamic at play here. The Franken and Coleman campaigns have, by-and-large, been in a fairly contentious public relations battle since the vote on November 4th, with each side lobbing largely legal challenges during the recount process. The release of a web video -- designed to tug at the hearts of state election officials -- is a new step forward in this process. Combine that with the news this morning that Sen. Coleman is under investigation by the FBI for allegedly receiving $75,000 in unreported contributions from a major GOP financier, and the Minnesota recount process could take a decided turn towards the political.

Comments

[samaire]

Please count these people's votes. Its what our country is all about.

[blastit]

I live in california and by vote wasn't counted, someone marked me absentee and when I went to the polls to vote they said I was sent out an absentee ballot and therefore I couldn't vote I could only vote provisional, my vote wasn't counted , If the Democrates don't fix our voting system I'm not going to even bother voting next election if they don't care why should I

[rabiddog6708]

Al Franken is fighting the good fight. Repubs like Coleman only want to win, they don't care if all legal ballots are counted as long as they come out on top.

[kidflash]

What a mess. The people of Minnesota are such oddballs.

[AgeofReason]

Yeah! Who can believe that these people actually thought anyone was going to count the votes! Geez, these people are so 1996!

[TheWombat]

Good call.

[GeorgeKaplan]

Just Minnesota? All close elections in this country are a huge mess. 8 years on from 2000 and we still have elections that voters have no great confidence in. We have the money to do elections right and its a curiosity that this is not on the congresses radar.

[karela]

A very compelling video. I've worked hard during this election. I too would be very angry if my vote had not been counted. And a person should certainly not lose their vote because they become handicapped for pete sake! These votes must be counted or there will be heck to pay.

[VikingQuest]

This may have a lot more legs if he didn't lie about the first story with the signature being the reason a ballot was discarded.

[courageunderfire]

Great job Al Franken for standing up and fighting for all the ballots to be counted.
I thought this was a great message from the real people who had their votes rejected.
May justice prevail and Al Franken be elected the new senator from MN!

[vtlt8]

Unless you're a republican...then who gives a sh*t.

[Jezreel]

Agreed!

[Jezreel]

Agreed, Courageunderfire!

[trendier]

I would not accept defeit eiher. If I lost I would always contend that the election was stolen from me. I've always believed that Bush stole the election from Gore and from Kerry. I will never accept that he was voted in.

[MinnesotaProud]

Hey I am from Minnesota too and a Democrat......but,This video has to be BULL!! Coleman will no doubt use it to go after Franken! Franken already was turned down when he tried to find out who the rejected ballots belonged to. Here is the clip from the Minneapolis article:
"Franken's campaign had made the push to factor in rejected absentee ballots key to its recount strategy, even going to court to force county officials to turn over data on voters whose ballots didn't count.
Marc Elias, the legal chief for Franken, said the campaign won't appeal the board's ruling but it could seek intervention of another kind once the recount wraps up."
http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senate/35181764.html?page=1&c=y

[TekBoss]

Not counting someone's vote is a slap in the face of every veteran who ever served, or died, to protect our democracy whose foundation is the right to vote!

You Minnesotans should go kick some *** and take some names!

[bygollymissmolly]

Ok, somewhere along the line during the recount they found a pile of ballots that were erroneously not counted in the first place. They counted them as they should have. So how are these ballots any different? These are actually more egregious than missed ballots. These are ballots that are not being counted because of human error.

If they refuse to count these ballots Al Franken should and will take it to court and I will back him every step of the way, even giving him financial support if he needs it. And not because I want Al Franken to win, but because we need to do something to stop disenfranchising voters in this country.

[bygollymissmolly]

It makes me want to cry thinking that Minnesota may disenfranchise these people. Franken is right, every valid vote should be counted. I am hoping that the Election Board does the right thing because if they don't, they will be making a mockery of our electoral process and will guarantee a legal challenge.

[Okieborn]

Thank You Mr. Franken for fighting for America !!!!

[libladyohio]

I've never figured out how the republicans don't take a huge PR hit for consistently not wanting to count all the votes - but I suppose a compliant M$M and the dumbing down of a large portion of America are the main reasons. The world record under reported story is that the 2000 recount in Florida continued after the Supreme Court Coup stopped the official count, and by any kind of chad counting criteria Gore actually won the state, even with the Dragon Lady and Jeb caging countless people for VWB (voting while black).

I know there is a lot on the plate, but our election procedure going forward should involve only paper ballots, no computers, and the custody and counting of the ballots should be 100% monitored and 100% transparent.

It will be a great thing two different ways if Franken is the winner here - it means one less republican we would have to sway to get needed legislation passed, and, as Stephanie Miller has pointed out, it will be fun to hear Bill O'Reilly have to say Senator Franken.

[Rumplestiltskin]

"and by any kind of chad counting criteria Gore actually won the state"

Incorrect. Don't you believe in looking up data if you are going to make a statement?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_election_recount

[libladyohio]

I had looked it up some time ago, and also heard Thom Hartmann talking about it recently. What I had wrong, and I'll gladly own up to that, was the "any kind of chad criteria" comment", that I repeated from Hartmann and he's usually solid. What I remembered looking at myself some time ago was the NY Times report, where Gore won by all their different "counting rules".

And of course none of this changes the facts about the caging, which is ongoing - or the misleading ballots that had people voting for Pat Buchanan iwho never in a million years would have purposely voted for him.

Nor does it change the fact that it's the right always trying to limit who votes and how many of those votes get counted.

[LeeCalif]

I'm sending this to MikeMalloy.com