Question: How many people live in this county and why were there 84,000 absentee votes? Holy cow!
Hennepin Co. declines to reconsider absentees
Associated Press
Last update: November 10, 2008 - 5:41 PM
MINNEAPOLIS - Minnesota’s largest county has declined a request from Al Franken’s Senate campaign to reconsider some disqualified absentee ballots.
Franken trails GOP Sen. Norm Coleman by a little more than 200 votes and the race is headed for a recount starting next week.
Attorney David Lillehaug asked the Hennepin County canvassing board to reconsider 461 absentees that he said had been improperly rejected.
Lillehaug said some of the ballots were disqualified on the grounds that signatures didn’t match, or that the voter wasn’t properly registered. Lillehaug says the campaign knows at least some of those ballots to be valid.
The general counsel for the Minnesota Republican Party, Matthew Haapoja (HAP’-poy-uh), says that the Franken campaign is trying to find more votes where there are none.
Board members said the ballots could be dealt with during the upcoming recount.
Hennepin County did approve 84,002 absentees.