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Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer and Attorney General Mike Hatch are in charge of laying out the guidelines for ballot changes, in the wake of Sen. Paul Wellstone's death.
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Posted on 10/29/2002 12:35:00 PM PST by Timesink
October 29, 2002
The state DFL Party Tuesday filed a petition with the Minnesota Supreme Court asking it to intervene in the balloting confusion caused by Sen. Paul Wellstone's death last week.
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The petition asks the court to order the secretary of state to stop sending out absentee ballots until a replacement for Wellstone is named. The petition also argues that absentee ballots already returned and marked for Wellstone should be considered spoiled, thus allowing voters to request replacement ballots by mail. DFL attorney Alan Weinblatt says anything less will disenfranchise thousands of voters.
"Folks like that are being told you're out of luck," Weinblatt says. "It's just contrary to Minnesota law. And in addition to that, it's contrary to what Paul would have stood for, and it's contrary to what the citizens of Minnesota stand for."
Attorney General Mike Hatch, a Democrat, and Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer, a Republican, both say that county auditors must continue to distribute absentee ballots, even though they still bear the name of Sen. Wellstone. But votes for Wellstone won't count for his ballot successor, which the party will nominate on Wednesday.
Absentee votes already cast for Republican Norm Coleman will count toward his total.
It wasn't immediately clear how fast the court could deal with the lawsuit. Court officials received it just before noon and were deciding how to proceed, a spokesman said.
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"Folks ... are being told you're out of luck. It's just contrary to Minnesota law. And in addition to that, it's contrary to what Paul would have stood for."
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In 2000, legal wrangling over vote counting in Florida, including the handling of absentee ballots, kept the outcome of the presidential race up in the air until mid-December.
Almost 4½ percent of those voting cast absentee ballots in 1998, the last non-presidential election year.
Kiffmeyer and local election officials around Minnesota are still discussing how to count ballots next Tuesday.
The DFL lawsuit takes issue with vote-counting procedures already announced, including Kiffmeyer's plan to have all Senate votes counted by hand. A hand-count could delay results of the race until late Tuesday or early Wednesday.
The lawsuit argues that a supplemental ballot for all voters could be prepared for machine counts. It also argues that Kiffmeyer's office has issued misleading information to absentee voters about what their options are.
Weinblatt says he hopes the court will rule within the next day.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report)
The petition also argues that absentee ballots already returned and marked for Wellstone should be considered spoiled, thus allowing voters to request replacement ballots by mail. They want the whole absentee ballot disallowed. Sounds like they don't like the idea of the votes for Wellstone being voided while Coleman's votes are counted. A ruling allowing this would definitely be in their favor since more Republicans use absentee ballots than Democrats (ie military vote).
LOL! Are their gebhardts in the vicinity of their dassholes?
Wow, I just had a flash back to 2000 man.
Wheel of Justice. Plunk your money down and take a spin. Some judges are blatantly activist and into legislation by adjudication, most are honest and fair. However this case is decided, though, count on it being appealed, and appealed again, and then the ruling on the appeal will be appealed, and so on ad naseum. Unless there's an overwhelming voter turnout for one or the other, this game will be decided in overtime.
You are right. Despite my general disgust for MN politics, these two have proven themselves loyal to their oath of office. Thank God!
The absentee ballots are kept in individual sealed envelopes until after the polls close. At that time the election judges compare the absentee ballots to the voter sign-in book, and any absentee ballots submitted by people who later showed up to vote in person are discarded. *Then* the remaining envelopes are opened and the absentee ballots are counted.
My wife is an election judge, and we're looking forward to a long and pretty miserable night next Tuesday.
They are fun, but the business is dead
So that will be $300 if you lose? LOL!
Man, I bet this will be a miserable one. My prayers go out for you both.
The MN Supremes are pretty well respected up here by both sides. If the law is clear, they will generally follow it. Not like FL or NJ at all.
I have been generally impressed with the polls here and I view voting as a right that is as close to sacred as you can get in the civic arena. MN is a strange state--very liberal when it comes to government, yet also maintaining many conservative values. I swear I am in the twilight zone half the time! Anyway, thanks for your service and I pray we are victorious.
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