Coleman Lead Endangered by Franken Affidavits

NewsMax ^

[Chet 99]

Democrat Al Franken has launched a door-to-door campaign in Minnesota to gather affidavits from voters and use them to defeat GOP incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman.

Franken presented on Thursday 62 affidavits from Minnesota citizens who stated that their votes for Franken were improperly rejected. In past elections, such affidavits have all but forced election officials to count the votes in question.

Franken’s maneuver comes on the eve of a crucial meeting of the five-member Canvassing Board to decide the fate of absentee ballots. Local election officials throughout the state ruled that more than 12,000 absentee ballots were incorrectly filled out or otherwise were invalid.

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune characterized Franken’s affidavits as “the latest attempt by the campaign to increase the pressure on the board to count absentee ballots that were improperly rejected.”

The Franken push includes a six-minute YouTube video portraying emotional appeals by voters who say their absentee ballots were improperly disqualified. One of the voters in the video is bedridden, another is recovering from heart surgery, and a third is a newly naturalized citizen who says he feels disenfranchised.

Coleman characterized the video as “shameless exploitation” intended to manipulate the election’s outcome, and a “new low” in Minnesota politics.

[murron]

Don’t know. We lost a lot of restaurants after Katrina.