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2008-12-05 Home Front: Politix

Glut of ballot challenges chokes recount

Unless Minnesota's U.S. Senate campaigns aggressively withdraw some of the ballots they've challenged during the 3-week-old recount, it could take more than a month for a state board to judge them.

As of Wednesday, 6,326 ballots were taken off the piles of recounted votes after observers for Democrat Al Franken or Republican Sen. Norm Coleman questioned the voters' intent or the validity of the votes. A State Canvassing Board, made up of two county and two Supreme Court judges and the secretary of state, will determine how those ballots should be counted later this month.

The Franken campaign Wednesday made a move to reduce the size of that challenged stack. It told the secretary of state's office that the campaign wanted to withdraw 633 of its more than 3,000 ballot challenges.

All counties are expected to finish sifting through ballots by Friday. As of Wednesday night, when about 98 percent of ballots were counted, Coleman led Franken by 316 votes, when comparing the Election Day totals to the recounted totals. That vote lead doesn't include any of the challenged ballots.

After "painstaking" examination of some of the challenged ballots, folks at Franken headquarters decided voter intent was clear, and the 633 ballots were valid. The campaign likely will remove more ballots from those the canvassing board will have to plow through. "This is as far as we have gotten in this process," said Franken recount attorney Marc Elias.

Both campaigns have claimed since the recount started Nov. 19 that their opponents were challenging ballots in order to inflate the vote counts. Elias claimed Wednesday that if the challenges were counted as they eventually will be, Franken would actually be leading by 22 votes in the race.

Last week, Coleman recount attorney Fritz Knaak asked the Franken campaign for a détente in the "game of ballot challenge one-upmanship" but hasn't yet withdrawn any challenges levied by the Coleman campaign.

Posted by Fred 2008-12-05 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11131 views ] Top

#1 I find it really hard to believe that more than a couple hundred people in the whole of Minnesota would want to vote for Al Franken to be their Senator. He's a clown, and a blowhard, and a world class nut.

Posted by bigjim-ky 2008-12-05 10:59|| 2008-12-05 10:59|| Front Page Top

#2 And he differs from Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura in what respect?

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2008-12-05 11:20|| 2008-12-05 11:20|| Front Page Top

#3 ....well at least Jesse did his time in the field and understood the follow on gig was really all about entertainment.

Posted by Procopius2k 2008-12-05 12:38|| 2008-12-05 12:38|| Front Page Top

#4 Has everybody seen some of these things? Now even the folks in Florida have people to point and laugh at...

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2008/11/19_challenged_ballots/

Posted by tu3031 2008-12-05 12:59|| 2008-12-05 12:59|| Front Page Top

#5 That was fun -- do the gradings mean anything?

Posted by 3dc 2008-12-05 17:14|| 2008-12-05 17:14|| Front Page Top

#6 These all should be thrown out. If a voter makes a mistake or spoils the ballot, he or she goes back for more. Intent does not cut it. The directions are clear. Letting anything like this go is letting the whole camel into the tent. Where will it stop?

We have similar problems with bids at work. The instructions are clear. For example, no faxes. We get faxes. Bid is non responsive.

Franken is just trying to get into the tent. A typical dem. The ends justify the means. We are counting ballots, not interpreting ink slobber or chicken scratches. He is trying to harvest votes out of background noise.

Posted by Alaska Paul 2008-12-05 19:11|| 2008-12-05 19:11|| Front Page Top

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14:04 Super Hose
14:02 Super Hose
13:37 Procopius2k
13:35 Grom the Affective
13:34 Procopius2k
13:27 Grom the Affective
13:21 NN2N1
13:18 Grom the Affective
12:50 Remoteman
12:45 Secret Master
12:24 Matt
12:07 Abu Uluque
12:03 Grom the Affective
11:59 Grom the Affective
11:35 Super Hose
11:33 Super Hose
11:29 Besoeker
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11:28 Super Hose
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11:22 Grom the Affective
11:20 Super Hose