Thread: Senate recount: Franken protests after Minneapolis pares vot

Warning, this is a drama.

Senate recount: Franken protests after Minneapolis pares vote total

At issue are 133 ballots that the city said were counted twice on Election Day, an explanation that Franken contends are contradicted by records from that day.

By Mark Brunswick, Star Tribune
Last update: December 3, 2008 - 6:30 PM

Democrat Al Franken's campaign lodged a protest today over 133 votes that it said could not be accounted for during the U.S. Senate recount of a precinct in Minneapolis, which resulted in a loss of as many as 46 votes for the candidate.

Campaign officials sent a letter to the Secretary of State's office and Minneapolis elections director Cindy Reichert demanding that the votes in one city precinct not be officially reported until a search is conducted for the ballots.

Reichert, who said the discrepency was resolved "to my satisfaction," said she plans to report it to the Secretary of State's office.

In the first precinct of the city's Third Ward, the recount showed Franken with 1,010 votes, 80 fewer than the Election Day count. It showed Republican Sen. Norm Coleman with 34 votes fewer than on Election Day. Only two votes were challenged in the precinct, one by each campaign.

Reichert said the disparity in the numbers sent officials searching for the possibility of a missing ballot envelope. When none could be found, she said she believes that write-in ballots at the precinct, which were diverted on the side of the ballot box on Election Day, may have been fed through the ballot counter twice on Nov. 4.

"The reason we do hand recounts of the voted ballots is to find human errors," Reichert said today. "We believe there were human errors made in this precinct. The vote totals that we counted on the ballots are what is being submitted to the Secretary of State's office."

But Franken campaign officials said Reichert's explanation can't account for the discrepancy, given that 2,029 people voted on Election Day and the recount recorded only 1,896 votes.

The developments came a day after Franken picked up 37 votes from a precinct in Maplewood after election officials discovered a pile of ballots that weren't counted the first time around.

Earlier today, Franken campaign officials said they were withdrawing 633 ballot challenges made during the U.S. Senate recount and is likely to withdraw more to speed the process in the race with Republican Sen. Norm Coleman.

At an afternoon news conference, Franken campaign attorney Marc Elias said that withdrawing the challenges will not affect the ultimate outcome of the count..

"The only practical impact of what we are doing today is to save the state Canvassing Board the trouble of looking through these challenged ballots and saving the taxpayers of Minnesota the cost of copying and scanning these challenged ballots," Elias said.

Minnesota's 87 counties are to complete their recounting of ballots from the Nov. 4 election on Friday. Challenged ballots, which totaled more than 6,000 before the Franken campaign's announcement, will go to the five-member state Canvassing Board for a final decision. The board is scheduled to meet on Dec. 16 for its review of the recount. It had asked the two campaigns to cut back challenges by culling those that are unwarranted.

Shortly after the Franken campaign news conference, Coleman campaign officials said at a briefing that they would hold off on withdrawing any of their challenged ballots until recounting is completed at the end of the week.

Coleman's lead recount attorney, Fritz Knaak, also suggested that the Franken campaign's announcement may have been an attempt to "create news" and keep momentum to help with political fundraising.

At their news conference, Franken officials claimed that their internal calculations showed that the campaign has gained a net of 237 votes during the recount, which began with Coleman holding a 215-vote lead, and is now ahead by 22 votes.

Knaak dismissed that assertion. In joking with reporters -- and taking a jab at the Franken campaign's counting methodology -- Knaak said that he thought Coleman was ahead by 2,200 votes. "I have no evidence of this," he said, smiling, "[but] I like the sound of it, so there it is."

Knaak however said the Coleman campaign was confident. "We believe we're well ahead in this recount," he said.

The Star Tribune's latest tabulation showed Coleman with a 295-vote advantage. The difference is due at least in part to the challenged ballots and how they are considered in the tabulations.

http://www.startribune.com/politics/nat ... c:_Yyc:aUU

Senate recount: Franken protests after Minneapolis pares vote total

WHAT A BIG WHINER! Franken lost fair and square. I guess his arrangement with ACORN didnt work out?

So true!

When I first heard Franken was running for the senate I thought it was some kind of joke.Did people really take him serious enough to vote for him?

I hope the joke doesn't turn out to be on all of us.

"The reason we do hand recounts of the voted ballots is to find human errors," Reichert said today. "We believe there were human errors made in this precinct.

Rather than human error, could it be human fraud?

Challenge, steal votes, intimidate, threaten, harass, assault and whine....just more of the left wing liberal way of life...........

When it gets this close it is necessary to bring up non citizen voting and the motor voter program leading to fraud. Remember what happened to the Washington Gubernatorial Race.

Originally Posted by Richard

When it gets this close it is necessary to bring up non citizen voting and the motor voter program leading to fraud. Remember what happened to the Washington Gubernatorial Race.

Yes you are right, and also remember how Loretta Sanchez was elected the first time to Congress, by non-citizens voting.