With Recount Complete And More Ballots Counted, Franken's Lead Appears To Be Insurmountable
By <http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/kleefeld>Eric Kleefeld - January 3, 2009, 6:54PM <http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/01/with_more_absentee_ballots_cou.php>http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/01/with_more_absentee_ballots_cou.php Today's events in Minnesota make it appear that a Norm Coleman victory is now pretty much impossible -- and it just so happens to have occurred on the day his Senate term officially expired. A nice extra touch. Election officials today counted through about 950 absentee ballots that both campaigns agreed had been wrongly rejected, completing the recount unless there is any new court intervention. The result: Al Franken's paper-thin lead of 49 votes has now jumped to 225 votes -- way beyond what most people crunching the numbers expected, based on the geographic spread of the newly-counted ballots. With these new figures, it's worth examining just how slim the odds would be of Coleman finding some way to win this thing, should he follow through on his campaign's vow to challenge the result in court. First, there's Coleman's claim that 25 selected precincts double-counted a bunch of absentee votes for Franken, netting Franken about 110 votes. During the recount, the state Supreme Court ruled that Coleman could only raise this issue after the recount concluded and an apparent winner was determined. But if courts agree with him on that and took those votes away from Franken, Coleman would still lose. Then there's the canvassing board's decision to restore to Franken a net total of 46 votes that went missing from a single precinct during the recount. Coleman's campaign has indicated that they plan to contest that decision, but winning on it would still have him behind. One other thing: The burden of proof in any legal arguments will be on Coleman, with the assumption going in that Franken's victory was legitimate. And even if he won both of the two issues above, he'd still be almost one hundred votes behind. What options does he have left? Coleman's only hope would be to win on his campaign's latest efforts to restart this phase of the recount and force the counting of about 650 rejected absentee ballot envelopes from red precincts, which the local officials say were tossed properly. An affidavit from a <http://www.mncourts.gov/Documents/0/Public/Other/2008%20Elections/HCA_Emergency_Motion_2.doc>Hennepin County election official shows the Coleman campaign hasn't even supplied reasons to look at these ballots, and election officials in multiple counties, including <http://www.mncourts.gov/Documents/0/Public/Other/2008%20Elections/Ramsey.pdf>Ramsey county, <http://www.mncourts.gov/Documents/0/Public/Other/2008%20Elections/Pipestone.pdf>Pipestone County and others all say they've been taking the time to review the Coleman list, and they stand by their decisions. The Coleman campaign still seems likely to file an election contest, challenging this result in court. This would bottle up Franken's victory for weeks or even months, and delay Al Franken from being able to take his seat in the Senate. But at this point it's difficult to see how they could have much of a leg to stand on. It really does look like Al Franken's lead is insurmountable. On Sun, Jan 4, 2009 at 9:47 PM, Theron Horton <<mailto:theronhor...@mac.com>theronhor...@mac.com> wrote: Just the AP article on this so far: <http://www.in-forum.com/ap/index.cfm?page=view&id=D95FVNS80>http://www.in-forum.com/ap/index.cfm?page=view&id=D95FVNS80 Franken gains big in count of new Minn. ballots By BRIAN BAKST Associated Press Writer The Associated Press - Sunday, January 04, 2009 ST. PAUL, Minn. Democrat Al Franken pushed his lead in Minnesota's Senate recount above 220 Saturday as state and campaign officials counted absentee ballots that weren't part of the original election tally. Franken netted at least 175 votes more than Republican Norm Coleman in the review of the formerly sealed absentee ballots. There were more than 900 in the pile that were counted Saturday. The count came on the day Coleman's term as senator officially expired. He entered this step trailing Democratic challenger Al Franken by 49 votes. The ballots under consideration were among those rejected by poll workers but later found to be excluded in error. The campaigns later agreed they should be added to the recount. But before the counting process started Saturday morning, Coleman's campaign objected to moving forward. Attorney Tony Trimble demanded the counting wait until the Supreme Court rules on the campaign's request to add hundreds more ballots to the mix. "We feel you are proceeding in a very inconsistent and unconstitutional manner," Trimble told representatives of the secretary of state's office. Franken's lawyer Marc Elias said if the court wanted to delay the count it would have ordered it halted. Things got going after the secretary of state's office consulted the attorney general's office. The painstaking process of preparing the ballots for counting meant not a single one had actually been counted by a lunch break. Each ballot is supposed to be enclosed in an unmarked secrecy envelope inside of an envelope containing the voter's name. The morning was spent segregating the two envelopes to prevent anyone from connecting a person's vote to their name. The absentee ballots were from around Minnesota. They were among nearly 12,000 rejected on or before Nov. 4. Local officials re-examined them under a court order and decided they should have been counted. The court, however, required signoff from the campaigns. Another 400 identified by local officials were struck by one of the campaigns. Minnesota has four legal reasons for rejecting an absentee ballot: If the voter's name and address on the envelope don't match their application; if their signature isn't genuine; if the voter isn't properly registered or eligible; or if the voter has been found to have already voted in the election. The state Supreme Court ordered that rejected absentees be included in cases where the candidates and local officials agreed errors were made. Coleman's campaign has a pending request before the high court to include an additional 650 ballots it says were improperly rejected but not forwarded by local officials to St. Paul for counting. The court has not said when it would rule in that case. The end of the recount is pushing within sight though. The state Canvassing Board will reconvene Monday and, if need be, Tuesday to consider challenges to the actual ballots from the weekend count. Campaigns could challenge ballots where they thought voter intent was unclear or had another deficiency that would disqualify it. When that is done, the board will declare which candidate received the most overall votes in the election. Barring court intervention, it will be Franken. That declaration opens a seven-day window for the losing candidate to challenge the result in court. Such a lawsuit could take months to resolve and leave Minnesota with only one senator for the time being. Coleman's campaign has said there is little doubt it will challenge the outcome if the senator was on the losing end. Franken's campaign has refused to outline its potential next steps. Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. ________________________________________________________________________________ On Jan 4, 2009, at 8:12 PM, Mark Crispin Miller wrote: >>Original-recipient: rfc822;<mailto:m...@mail.nyu.edu>m...@mail.nyu.edu >> >DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; >c=relaxed/relaxed; > d=<http://gmail.com>gmail.com; > >s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from > > :user-agent:mime-version:to:subject:content-type > >:content-transfer-encoding; > >bh=OYXT9Ig4iuF6gPCOEiP3LfshhK4EZv+ng1MzWgs9EC8=; > >b=KJ29YN7Xa3jqymEx9q23RHaD7xb34FfHyTOVCenQYwSV+Xwnca09s+Jm56kOjcfEKh > >cp/pZ9hgTwtqT+EcEcLJ12TnB0S6UKj+fVoN5Fe8zkRJ5cNRUbdcxFhLSgm5AgXzmGwz > >LQ5pUafydns5Ym5o5UBczcLtfADhdBumn4s+s= > >Date: Sun, 04 Jan 2009 18:40:26 -0500 > >From: Mark Crispin Miller ><<mailto:markcrispinmil...@gmail.com>markcrispinmil...@gmail.com> > >To: <mailto:mark.mil...@nyu.edu>mark.mil...@nyu.edu > >Subject: [Fwd: OThers may have this question, too.] > > > > >-------- Original Message -------- > >Subject: OThers may have this question, too. > >Date: Sun, 04 Jan 2009 18:14:51 -0500 > >From: Charles Musser ><<mailto:charles.mus...@yale.edu>charles.mus...@yale.edu> > >To: > > <mailto:newsfromunderground+ow...@googlegroups.com>newsfromunderground+ow...@googlegroups.com > >References: <a0624084fc586e9717...@[10.0.1.2]> > > > > >Dear Mark, > > >Always find your emails useful and informative. > Thanks. Here is a question that no one seems >to be addressing. Coleman wants some additional >ballots to be counted. What is the nature of >these ballots. Why weren't they counted before. > Where do they come from, etc. How real are >these? etc. Does anyone know the answer to >this. If you have any info, I suspect other >readers would be grateful. > > >thanks, > > >Charlie > >> > > >-- > >Charles Musser > >Professor of American Studies, Film Studies and Theater Studies > >Yale University > >53 Wall Street mail: PO Box 208363 > >New Haven, Ct. 06511 New Haven, Ct. 06520 > > > > Content-Type: image/gif; name=ap_small.gif Content-ID: <1F70A208-C269-4E05-987A-DE8CE440C3B5> X-Attachment-Id: 0.1.1 --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to Mark Crispin Miller's "News From Underground" newsgroup. To unsubscribe, send a blank email to newsfromunderground-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com OR go to http://groups.google.com/group/newsfromunderground and click on the "Unsubscribe or change membership" link in the yellow bar at the top of the page, then click the "Unsubscribe" button on the next page. For more News From Underground, visit http://markcrispinmiller.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
<<inline: ap_small 10.gif>>