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[Minnesota] Senate recount ends amid many questions
St. Paul Pioneer Press ^ | 12/06/2008 | Rachel E. Stassen-Berger and Dave Orrick

Posted on 12/06/2008 5:46:42 AM PST by rhema

But not how you think. As the recount came to close across the state, Minneapolis searched high and low for 133 ballots ... that are still missing.

The hand recount of 2.9 million ballots in Minnesota's U.S. Senate race in stations across the state ended Friday with more question marks than exclamation points.

After three weeks of painstaking and sometimes draining counting, the result of the Nov. 4 election is not much clearer than it was Nov. 5.

"I have maintained vehemently that it is impossible to know who, among those two candidates, is winning," Secretary of State Mark Ritchie said Friday.

After the recount, Republican Sen. Norm Coleman, who has led Democrat Al Franken in vote tallies by the narrowest of margins since Nov. 5, kept the lead. With 99.93 percent of ballots counted, Coleman had a 192-vote lead in the ballots recounted. He led by 215 before the recount.

But his lead doesn't include thousands of ballots the campaigns challenged, the bulk of the improperly rejected absentee ballots or 133 votes on missing ballots in Minneapolis.

The challenged ballots may be the most significant of those.

All told, the Franken and Coleman campaigns have taken 6,655 ballots out of the count by challenging an elections official's determination of the votes they contain.

The campaigns have asked the secretary of state's office to withdraw some of those challenges and assign those ballots to the proper candidate — Franken withdrew 633; Coleman withdrew 650 — and expect to withdraw more.

Still, given the slim lead, those challenged ballots could determine the winner.

Marc Elias, Franken's recount attorney, has said the challenges do just that. By the campaign's count, which includes determinations on all challenged ballots, Franken leads by four votes. Coleman's campaign has not released its internal count. Ultimately, the five-member state canvassing board will examine all the challenged ballots and decide how they should count. That meeting starts Dec. 16 and could take days — even weeks — depending on the number of challenged ballots.

The vote counts also don't include improperly rejected absentee ballots.

It's unclear which candidate would benefit from the inclusion of those ballots, but the Franken campaign has insisted they should be included in the recount while the Coleman campaign has insisted they should not.

It's also unclear how many absentee ballots were wrongfully left out of the count. That's why county officials, who may have thought they were done counting ballots, have more counting to do.

"Some are thrilled, and some are not thrilled," Ritchie said.

Over the next two weeks, county officials will tally the reasons their counties rejected absentee ballots to figure out how many were "mistakenly rejected."

Many counties will start Monday or Tuesday. Blue Earth, Polk and Watonwan counties won't start until Dec. 17. Houston County got a jump on their tally, and the figures, while small, indicate there may be a large stack of wrongly uncounted ballots. Out of 15 rejected absentees, two were "mistakenly rejected." That's a 13 percent mistake rate.

The canvassing board plans to meet Friday to figure out what to do with that information and whether to ask counties to include the votes on the mistakenly rejected ballots in the recount.

The Franken campaign isn't waiting. On Friday, campaign attorney David Lillehaug sent a letter to counties asking them all to open the wrongfully excluded absentee ballots and count them. He pointed to Itasca County, which this week did just that and found one vote each for Coleman, Franken and the Independence Party's Dean Barkley.

Coleman attorney Fritz Knaak said he has no objection to counties creating the lists of improperly rejected ballots — it will shorten the time needed if Franken goes to court to ensure those ballots are counted. But he maintains that voters whose ballots were rejected simply cannot have their votes tallied in the recount because they were never counted in the election.

But 133 votes from Minneapolis Ward 3, Precinct 1, were tallied on Election Day and weren't available for the recount. That's because an envelope with the ballots containing those votes has likely been lost, setting off the Magnificent Missing Ballot Envelope Hunt in the final act of the Muddled Minnesota Senate Recount.

Led by Minneapolis elections director Cindy Reichert, a dozen people — city workers, campaign representatives and lawyers and nonpartisan observers — examined every inch of the 8,000-square-foot elections warehouse in Northeast Minneapolis on Friday, looking for the missing ballot envelope.

They had a model of what they wanted to find: Deputy Secretary of State Jim Gelbmann had taken a white, 8.5-by-17-inch envelope, counted out 133 blank ballots, placed them inside and scribbled in black pen: "Size of envelope we are searching for."

The seekers sorted through trash, rolled ballot machines back and forth, opened cardboard boxes, wrestled with piles of large plastic sheets and even climbed atop a 6-foot-high butte of voting booth suitcases.

"We've looked in every logical place," Reichert said. "Now, we're looking in the illogical places."

By noon, one discovery had been made, amid a pile of sealed, unused ballots: a Ziploc-style plastic bag containing "less than 20" never-counted overseas absentee ballots.

"It's not unusual when you go through precinct materials to find stuff, although it would have been better if we didn't find that," Reichert said. She said she didn't know what the future of those ballots would be.

By afternoon, Gelbmann and elections technician Ginny Gelms were sifting through a pile of boxes filled with Election Day detritus.

Gelbmann paused at one point.

"What's the name of the patron saint of lost causes?" he asked.

"St. Jude," a Franken representative deadpanned back.

A summit was convened in a back corner to discuss whether to open each of the estimated 1,000 blue plastic suitcases holding folded voting booths. Could the much-sought ballot envelope be inside one?

"Unlikely," Gelbmann concluded.

"Improbable," a Franken attorney interjected.

"But plausible," Gelbmann suggested.

"No," a Coleman representative said. "I would say, 'not impossible.' "

They didn't open the blue suitcases, and at 2 p.m., Reichert declared the search over.

"We've basically looked everywhere conceivable," she announced.

Gelbmann said the next logical step would be to ask to search the polling place — University Lutheran Church of Hope — and then the cars of election judges.

"I'm confident it's not in the warehouse," Gelbmann said. "We've looked everywhere but the absurd."

It's unclear how absurd the search will get. It is clear that the count ended without those precious 133 votes, but Minneapolis will continue looking.

And if the envelope is never found?

The canvassing board must decide how to handle it. It could opt to simply toss those votes or it could add in the 133 votes counted on Election Day.


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Minnesota
KEYWORDS: coleman; franken; mn2008; senate; sorosboyfranken
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1 posted on 12/06/2008 5:46:42 AM PST by rhema
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To: rhema

Question 1: “I thought Franken was supposed to win, wasn’t he?”


2 posted on 12/06/2008 5:50:09 AM PST by unspun (PRAY & WORK FOR FREEDOM - investigatingobama.blogspot.com)
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To: rhema
The marxists will continue "recounting" until Franken wins if we let them.

Coleman needs to continue to hold his ground and plant his heels and we need to help him however we can to do that He won the election and he has now won the official recount.

If the dems ever get an edge on one of these "appeals", you watch, all official action will end at that point and Franken will be announced the winner.

IT'S TIME FOR A RETURN TO THE OLD SCHOOL

EVERYONE WRITE YOUR GOP SENATORS TODAY!

3 posted on 12/06/2008 5:51:41 AM PST by Jeff Head (Freedom is not free...never has been, never will be. (www.dragonsfuryseries.com))
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To: rhema

Someone had better keep a close watch on that “model of the missing envelope” or it will turn up with 133 votes for Franken in it.


4 posted on 12/06/2008 5:55:32 AM PST by Straight8
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To: rhema

The whole Minnissota process is a disgrace to America...it makes us look like just another Banana Republic, but with an idiot like Frankin involved, who is really surprised??


5 posted on 12/06/2008 5:55:58 AM PST by GoldenPup
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To: rhema

The election “should” have gone to a runoff instead of this stupid extended recount in a race that had a number of contenders.

But that model would not benefit the Democrats.


6 posted on 12/06/2008 5:59:55 AM PST by weegee (Sec. of State Clinton. What kind of change is it to keep the Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton Oligarchy?)
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To: GoldenPup
Well come on now - Minnesota ??That banana republic did vote for a wrestler for Governor, right ?
7 posted on 12/06/2008 6:06:34 AM PST by reefdiver (How do you keep the Conservative a Conservative, in Washington DC ?)
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To: MplsSteve
By noon, one discovery had been made, amid a pile of sealed, unused ballots: a Ziploc-style plastic bag containing "less than 20" never-counted overseas absentee ballots. "It's not unusual when you go through precinct materials to find stuff, although it would have been better if we didn't find that," [Minneapolis elections director Cindy] Reichert said.

But of course. They might be military ballots, and we all know for whom our country's defenders usually vote.

8 posted on 12/06/2008 6:06:36 AM PST by rhema ("Break the conventions; keep the commandments." -- G. K. Chesterton)
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To: Straight8
Someone had better keep a close watch on that “model of the missing envelope” or it will turn up with 133 votes for Franken in it.

There's a Minneapolis elections official somewhere whose car trunk may yet yield that treasure trove of Franken votes.

9 posted on 12/06/2008 6:08:19 AM PST by rhema ("Break the conventions; keep the commandments." -- G. K. Chesterton)
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To: Jeff Head
The marxists will continue "recounting" until Franken wins if we let them.

There will be one...and *only* one...more recount and it will be conducted by the Senate and will be *personally* supervised by the Anything-But-Honorable Gentleman from Nevada.And when it's complete Frankenstein,*just* like a guy from Indiana named McCloskey (in 1984),will find that he won the recount by four...count 'em...FOUR...votes.And he will be sworn in.

10 posted on 12/06/2008 6:09:09 AM PST by Gay State Conservative (Obama:"Ich bin ein beginner")
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To: rhema

I was unloading groceries from the trunk of my car here in San Antonio and found some Franken ballots. Do I need to send those in?


11 posted on 12/06/2008 6:11:19 AM PST by TexasNative2000
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To: TexasNative2000

Nah, just call in the vote totals. Mark Ritchie will take your word for it.


12 posted on 12/06/2008 6:13:40 AM PST by rhema ("Break the conventions; keep the commandments." -- G. K. Chesterton)
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To: rhema
>>”What's the name of the patron saint of lost causes?” he asked.

“St. Jude,” a Franken representative deadpanned back.<<

There is no freaking way anyone associated with the Franken campaign wold know any of the Saints or be religious in any way. No freaking way. It is most likely this reported exchange is made up, and I know it is a shocker that the MSM would make things up.

13 posted on 12/06/2008 6:20:28 AM PST by Hulka
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To: rhema
Good grief! The Three Stooges and the Marx Borthers could have handled the election process in Minnesota with more accurate and believable results, even using the Keystone Cops as security!

What the heck is a "mistakenly rejected" ballot? Why are ballots ever placed anywhere other than where they are officially supposed to be, or carried anywhere by any other means than a secured vehicle?

Once a ballot has been cast at a polling place, or received by the county through the mail, it should not be allowed to be moved all over the state. There needs to be a designated, secure area at each polling place where ballots must stay during the election, and if they need to be moved to a central location at the end of the election, they should only be packaged in a single secure container and transported straight to that location under proper supervision, with no stops along the way! No stopping at some poll workers house. No stopping at a convenience store along the way. No leaving them in somebody's car over night. Nothing. Period.

14 posted on 12/06/2008 6:23:17 AM PST by Pablo64 (Political Correctness is a DISEASE. <==> TRUTH is the CURE.)
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To: Pablo64

Sigh. How wonderful it would be to live in a red state, where these kinds of election-safeguarding procedures were actually followed.


15 posted on 12/06/2008 6:28:24 AM PST by rhema ("Break the conventions; keep the commandments." -- G. K. Chesterton)
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To: Hulka
There is no freaking way anyone associated with the Franken campaign wold know any of the Saints or be religious in any way.

There might be a way they'd be aware of saints' existence. Pornographer-"satirist" Al has probably ridiculed a saint or two in his salacious "satires."

16 posted on 12/06/2008 6:31:24 AM PST by rhema ("Break the conventions; keep the commandments." -- G. K. Chesterton)
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To: rhema

The sad part is that we used to have a sense of honor and honesty in this country, where measures like those wouldn’t have needed to be put in place because they would already be doing it just out of common sense! Now it needs to be done because we have to combat voter fraud.


17 posted on 12/06/2008 6:36:58 AM PST by Pablo64 (Political Correctness is a DISEASE. <==> TRUTH is the CURE.)
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To: rhema

Seems these articles have a hard time getting around to mentioning Coleman still leads.


18 posted on 12/06/2008 6:41:42 AM PST by Williams (It's The Policies, Stupid.)
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To: rhema; unspun; Jeff Head; Straight8; GoldenPup; weegee; reefdiver; Gay State Conservative; ...
weegee- The election “should” have gone to a runoff instead of this stupid extended recount in a race that had a number of contenders. But that model would not benefit the Democrats.

ORLY? You think the majority of 437,000 truthers etc who voted Ventura/Barkley "reform" instead of the Republican candidate would switch over to Coleman in a runoff? Fat chance!!!

To Franken's credit, if Barkley wasn't running, Coleman would've easily lost this election.

Don't get mad at the Minn Election system, get mad at the freaks we have for voters in America today.

Nominee Norm Coleman Al Franken Dean Barkley
Party Republican DFL Independence
Popular vote 1,211,590 1,211,375 437,404
Percentage 41.988% 41.981% 15.158%

In a June 2007 interview with Minnesota Monitor, Barkley confirmed that he had been approached by Democrats in Minnesota's 6th congressional district about a possible challenge to Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann. Barkley indicated he would consider running if the DFL would support him as an independent candidate.[8]

Both Barkley and Ventura considered challenging Norm Coleman for reelection to the U.S. Senate seat that Barkley previously held.[7][9] On July 14, 2008, Ventura announced that he would not seek election to the seat, prompting Barkley to announce his candidacy. Ventura has supported Barkley and donated $500 to the campaign.[10]

Despite entering the race at a late date Barkley was polling as high as 19% by October 1st.[11] The campaign has also produced two statewide radio ads, featuring Barkley and former Gov. Jesse Ventura.[12] Barkley, unlike many third party and independent candidates, has been included in public debates with the major party nominees the first of five three-way debates took place October 5th.[13] Barkley has received the endorsement of former U.S. Representative Tim Penny. [Dem/Farm/Labor][14] Numerous polls have shown that Barkley will have an impact on the outcome of the race.[15] Recent reports show Bar kley having raised $56,763 for his campaign.[16]

19 posted on 12/06/2008 6:42:56 AM PST by sam_paine (X .................................)
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To: unspun

That’s a 13 percent mistake rate.

But its still just TWO.


20 posted on 12/06/2008 6:52:06 AM PST by Adder (typical basicly decent bitter white person)
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