More Minnesota Absentee Ballots Found; Franken Makes Major Push

The Minnesota Senate recount campaign has firmly entered its legal stages, with Al Franken's chief counsel sending a lengthy and sharply argued memorandum to the Secretary of State's office on Thursday making the case for counting a group of contested absentee ballots.

The newsworthy thrust of David Lillehaug's 39-page brief for Secretary of State Mark Ritchie was the direct highlighting of 62 individual cases where voters were either "erroneously rejected by election officials for not being registered," or their absentee ballots were wrongfully rejected.

Around the same time that this memo was made public, local reports emerged that put the number of potentially wrongfully rejected absentee ballots at approximately 2,000 -- far greater than the 500 to 1,000 range that has been previously cited.

"Ballots that were not rejected by local or county officials for one of the four statutory reasons are not 'rejected' ballots under Minnesota law, but rather are 'uncounted' ballots," wrote Lillehaug. Later he added, "State procedure and past practice plainly require that all uncounted ballots that have not been rejected be counted, even if they were previously left uncounted at an earlier stage of the process. Counties are responsible for locating such ballots and counting them."

Whether or not the state decides to count the group of absentee ballots that didn't meet any of the four established criteria for rejection will likely determine the election's outcome. All other ballots are known as belonging to "Pile 5."

Franken's campaign contends that, following the hand recount and assuming that no challenges will be upheld, they will end the process up by a mere four votes. The campaign is still, nevertheless, pushing for Ritchie to count the contested group of absentee ballots, noting that many came from Democratic strongholds.

"In recent days, Minneapolis has conceded 171 ballots belong in so-called 'Pile 5,' and the Ramsey County elections official has stated publicly that 100 ballots were erroneously rejected in that county," wrote Lillehaug.

"Once a state has created the right to vote by absentee ballot and established certain governing rules for the process, it cannot retroactively deprive those voters who have substantially complied with the process of their right to have their ballots counted," Lillehaug concludes.

To get a sense of just how hotly contested the legal arguments surrounding this issue have become, Lillehaug referenced, in his memo, court rules and legislative actions that stemmed from the mid-19th Century.

A state decision in 1887, he writes, "recodified the election laws and imposed a duty on the state canvassing board to certify a 'correct' report." Earlier he dismissed court decisions from 1858 (O'Ferrall v Colby) and another from 1865 (Taylor v. Taylor), which have been used to argue against counting the rejected absentee ballots.

On Friday, Minnesota's state canvassing boards will ultimately decided on whether this group of ballots will be counted in the final recount tally.

Comments

[peachfuzz]

This is insane.

[Rebecca]

Go AL Go!

[jdmccl]

Dont forget the shoutout to Blago. Great team, no corruption.

[kylie]

Yea, he can join the ranks of DeLay, Ney, Cunningham, Libby, Abramoff, Gingrich, Vitter, Craig, Blackwell, Harris, etc.

[macbabe]

Hang In there Al...
everyone's got hope the right thing will come about and put you on top!!

[inluvwkeitholbermann]

i must admit that this is getting a bit exhausting...


YA Y, AL!!!!!! YOU CAN DO IT!!!!!!!

[nancytheragingliberal]

How about ol' John Kerry, with that beaten dog voice and look and "I concede". He should have fought , just the way Al is doing. Count those votes. Good job, Al! I miss you on AAR. Just loved your show and listened every day, 5 days a week.

[anastasiabeaverhousen]

I know!!! His guests were the best - why won't th other shows pick up Joe Conasen and Tom Oliphant? Joe is sharp as a tack and Tom had great wit.....

[shockmagog]

I miss Al on AAR as well.

Thom Hartmann is aggravating to say the least.

[RickCoMatic]

Take another day or two.
Count ALL the Ballots!
Everyone who voted deserves to have their ballot be meaningful in the decision!
Count EVERY ballot that can be determined to display the Voters intent.
Embrace the Democratic Process.
Dismiss ONLY those which are impossible to determine the voters intent.
Do your duty.
Uphold the Process by being thorough and most of all ... correct!

[alumtrix]

How about the voters doing it "CORRECT" the first time. Has that notion crossed anyone's mind out there?

"Dismiss ONLY those which are impossible to determine the voters intent."

Sorry buddy, how about counting the ballots where the voter actually voted for someone so nobody is subjected to determine the voters intent. I still shake my head every time I see the videos of the people from Florida holding the ballots up to the light as if there's a hidden message in there somehwere.

[Grunty1]

99.9% of them did. We are talking about a few thousand ballots out of millions.

[unscum]

Do you think this would every happen in a place like Florida or in any other southern state for that matter? Hat's off to Minnesota for a transparent recount that adheres to the rule of law. Count every ballot.

[Gusto2]

This will have never happened in a southern state. These folks are still way behind time. They are against anything that means change. That is the reason why Saxby Chambliss is still a Senator.

[eugenegerard]

Saxby can thank election fraud, Karl Rove and Diebold for his seat.

[Tyrione]

Law of Probability and Statistics dictates that this distribution will be a wash.

[Cinnamonape]

I think you are confusing sampling probability and actual counting. One can have accurate and precise, and repeated counts that are far more accurate than the SE that a subsample woukld have. All one needs to do is demand care, repeated confirmation by multiple counters, and consistency.

[anotherplayaguy]

Actually, no. This election is a tie and should be determined by the Minnesota law that provides for a coin toss. One cannot accurately count all the ballots, even if they were all clearly marked. There is a statistical error built into the system: you know, every time you count 1873 pennies, it comes out different, not because the number changes but because counting errors are inherent to the system. Anything this close is a tie. One recount will go one way, another the other. Repeat..

[redneckliberalpostbush]

hell yeah! go AL GO!

[jse17]

Who knows, perhaps Al’s determination will lead to one of the favorites of the “values - social conservative agenda.” Is it not time we initiate a, “War on stealing elections program!” The conservatives love mandatory sentences for convictions and certainly their ultimate, cherished, and treasured penalty, capital punishment should not be ruled out!

[redneckliberalpostbush]

Yeah! I like that idea jse17! a WAR ON GOP BS!!!

[Benevolus]

THIS STATE IS SO INCOMPETENT that they should only get 1 Senator.

How difficult is it to run an election? Make a decision and that is it.

Not a Coleman fan, but it looks like he won both times. Enough. The seat matters very little now with the GA seat going Republican.

The fact is the Democrats deserve to lose this seat. If they put anyone with any experience on the ticket they would have won.

Franken had ZERO experience in government. The US Senate is not an entry level position for celebrities. Run for Congress and then come back for a Senate shot in 6 years.

Franken running in MN is like Fran Drescher wanting to be a Senator in NY. What have these people done?

[milo h minderbinder]

"it looks like he won both times"

Wrong, there is no "both times", there has only been one complete count so far.

The second count is still in progress, particularly the thousands of contested ballots - it's meaningless to be ahead when there are still about four thousand challenged ballots that need to be determined.

When the second (and more deliberate) count is done, we'll all know the winner, it shouldn't take more than another week or two. What's the hurry anyway since they don't swear in until January?

And how is Franken running any different then Reagan or Fred Thompson or Sonny Bono?

[MaybeMilo]

I'm still trying to decide if buying my Lincoln Memorial Medallion from Al back in the late 70s (?) was a smart move.

[truthglow]

At least HE is not being investigated by the FBI, as is the current MN senator!

[T Pol]

No, Franken is mega intelligent, educated and familiar with national and international issues. He probably knows more about the Constitution and the legislative process than you do.

I don't know Fran Drescher's real resume, although there was something about being some kind of ambassador (which floored me).

Franken, although a comedian, understands quite well the policies at which he pokes fun.

[Gusto2]

When Saxby Chambliss ran for the senate seat for the first time, he too had NO experience in government. Did Arnold had any experience in government when he ran for governor of California? Please, the experience argument is mute in todays world. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, etv all had "experience" and look where our beloved country is NOW.

[Cinnamonape]

"Not a Coleman fan, but it looks like he won both times. Enough. The seat matters very little now with the GA seat going Republican."

First- Where is the evidence that Coleman won this time? The votes have not yet been entirely counted...ever? There have always been absentee and provisional ballots out. There has never been a final certified vote.

Second- Of course the seat counts. You assume that all issues are decided on strict party lines. That's not reality. Olympia Snowe and Sue Collins may break with their caucus on certain issues, ditto with Voinivich, or others. And conversely Franken may not vote with the majority of his caucus. Certainly there might be "Blue Dogs" that may do so. Coleman has been a pretty stolid member of the Republican caucus, dioing what the leadership tells him. So he'd likely be in their 41 seat fold. But is one or two Republicans jumped the aisle that coukld be the decisive vote on some issues.

[trudem2]

Just goes to show you how convuluted our election process is....basically, the initial counts can't be trusted. Al's determination demonstrates if you hang on, the truth will finally come out. I'm glad the count is favoring his election but the whole episode just demonstrates once again the American election process can't be trusted.

[Lemmy]

If you hang on, votes will be manufactured. All the "found" votes were in Democratic precincts to boot. Hmmmmm . . . . . .

[milo h minderbinder]

Here's another question:

If you found out that your vote was included in a number of ballots that was lost and later found, you would favor NOT counting your vote just because it was lost initially?

Yes or no, please answer.

[glesslib]

Spare me your party rhetoric. We all just lived through the past 8 years, courtesy of the manufactured republican votes, later followed by the very Republican SCOTUS giving us W. Sanctimony is a little out of the pale for the GOP and it's fans.

[Gusto2]

You republicans should know a thing or two about manufactured votes, so I'm going to dismiss your comment.

[Giglawyer]

Lenny's point is well taken, at least to some extent. All legitimately cast votes should be counted, and the votes that do not meet criteria for any reason should be rejected. Votes that are "found" should be strictly scrutinized, to avoid future elections being decided by "found votes."

[BOBONDE]

IT WOULD BE NICE TO NOT HAVE TO LOOK AT COLEMAN'S SMIRK ANYMORE.

[truthglow]

And his chicklet false teeth!

[libdemannie]

I gave another $20 this week so Al can keep counting. I hope others toss 20 or so his way. Al will be a fearless Senator. Isn't that what we want?? Democracy is not free, folks.

[Donns]

One man One vote. If we had that system in this country the political scene might be a lot different.

I believe we do tell other countrys that they need to do that.