Free Republic

- - Former GOP MN secretary of state says absentee ballots should not have been included in recount Former Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer is now criticizing the handling of the U.S. Senate election recount in the race between Democrat Al Franken and Republican Norm Coleman that ended with Franken on top. Kiffmeyer, R-Big Lake, now a freshman state representative from District 16B, did not speak publicly about the recount while it was ongoing, but is willing to talk about it now that the results are certified and the dispute has moved into the courts. Kiffmeyer, who from 1999 to...

Ballots submitted by the following 1,555 King County voters weren't counted during the initial vote count and the machine recount because of apparent signature problems. In some cases, voters failed to sign envelopes enclosing absentee or provisional ballots, those signatures didn't match their signatures on file or — in the case of 573 (formerly 561) voters — their signatures hadn't been entered into the election computer system. This list includes the 573 ballots that were improperly rejected. For a specific list of those voters . . . .