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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 auditing procedures within the precinct are pretty tight. You have to request an absentee ballot, you get one and only one (so if you lose it or ruin it, tough luck Charlie), it's tracked and identified by name, and the envelope is only opened after the polls are closed and it's confirmed that you did not vote in person at that precinct.
That's where the system breaks down. There's no cross-checking across precinct lines, so you get things like college students voting once by absentee ballot from their home town and a second time in person on campus, or retirees voting once by absentee ballot here and a second time from their condo address down south.
As I've said so many times: Republicans have to work twice as hard because Democrats get to vote twice as often.
Posted by Stultis to deport
On News/Activism ^ 10/26/2002 7:20 PM CDT #42 of 42 ^
Absentee ballots that have been mailed prior to the preparation of official supplemental ballots shall be counted in the same manner as if the vacancy had not occurred. Official supplemental ballots shall not be mailed to absent voters to whom ballots were mailed before the official supplemental ballots were prepared.
Here is where the big fight could be if the election is close:
Absentee ballots.
So, the Democrat party does have the right to substitute a candidate under these circustances, up to four days before the election. Supplemental ballots are created for the race with the substitution, but, per legislation, nothing is done about absentee ballots (which I assume for the moment have all been mailed). The absentees are counted "as if the vacancy had not occurred," which seems to mean that Coleman votes therein will count for a valid candidate, but that Wellstone votes will count for Wellstone, i.e. not for any candidate still in the race.
Prediction: If the election turns out to be close, the Dems will insist "it's only fair"TM to ignore the law and count absentee Wellstone votes as votes for the substitute candidate. If it should turn out to be pivotal, there will be a huge stink about this.
"It's Only Fair" is a trademark of the Democratic National Committee and is NOT licensed for use by the Republican Party. Such use is expressly forbiden to it and all its agents, associates, candidates or supporters thereof.
An amazing number of Minnesota Republicans I know say, "I didn't leave the DFL. The DFL left me."
Yes, we were discussing this already on the 25th.
"Absentee ballots that have been mailed prior to the preparation of official supplemental ballots shall be counted in the same manner as if the vacancy had not occurred. Official supplemental ballots shall not be mailed to absent voters to whom ballots were mailed before the official supplemental ballots were prepared."
The state law looks solid. No matter what other passages they might cite regarding spoiled ballots and such, the above passage is crystal clear and is designed to *specifically* address the exact situation we are in. They can't claim it is too vague this time.
On the other hand, there are possible federal issues or constitutional issues, but I doubt they are winning ones. The state law looks like a reasonable attempt to deal with a difficult situation.
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.
One good thing about the Supreme Courts non-intervention in NJ: If the MN Supreme Court upholds the MN law as written, and the Dems take it to SCOTUS, it'll be real easy for them not to take it.
demRATs never stopped.
Ah, that's beautifully Reaganesque.
ROFLMAO. For a lot of RATS the gebhardts are IN their dassholes.
If one has no moral compass, one's hipocrasiy knows no bounds. This is why the 'pubs are always at such a disadvantage, especially vis the modern leftists. The only thing that will work is MASSIVE 'pub voter turnout. Drive a stake...
The Democratic Farmer-Laborer Party. What a cute name. I had to search for it.
DUMB F!%KING LIBS???
Can some explain to me that with a week left to the election, why all of the absentee ballots haven't been sent out by now? They should have been mailed weeks ago.
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