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After riding around in the car of a Minneapolis Election Director for days, 32 absentee ballots will now be counted:
A Ramsey County judge on Saturday denied a bid by lawyers representing U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman’s campaign to delay the opening of 32 absentee ballots from Minneapolis.
The request touched off a fresh war of words in a Senate race where 221 votes separate Republican Coleman and DFLer Al Franken in unofficial tallies.
The 32 Minneapolis ballots were part of the normal delivery of absentee ballots late in the polling day, according to Election Director Cindy Reichert.
She said they were retained when they couldn’t be delivered because some polling places had shut down for the day. She said the ballots were kept sealed until other election duties were completed and were being counted Saturday afternoon, with results to be delivered to the state on Monday.
However, the Coleman campaign contended that the integrity of the ballots “is in serious doubt.” Its argument for a temporary restraining order was dismissed on jurisdictional grounds by Kathleen Gearin, chief district court judge in Ramsey County.
You an help Norm Coleman in two ways:
You can donate to Sen. Coleman’s campaign here; or if you are in Minnesota, you can volunteer to assist the campaign in the recount process here.
November 9th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Can the integrity of these ballots be certified? Can it be determined if they have been tampered with in any way? Can it be verified that these ballots are honestly cast? Sounds a little suspicious to me when ballots some how “turn up” several days after the election.
November 9th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
Ballots like these “turned up” in the Washington 2004 governor race. For me, I have to take them at their word. It’s possible ballots like these are not legitimate ballots. They could be fake. They could be tampered with. But if a district court judge ruled they are legit, after both sides had a chance to argue for or against them, I’ll take the judge at her word and worry about the recount effort. Coleman needs to have a strong team to make sure every vote is accurately counted or discarded according to the law. If there is any question, he needs a team of lawyers and volunteers to run to the nearest judge.
November 9th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Ahh, the possibility of an illuminating moment.
Will Coleman continue to push to have the ballots disqualified if it turns out he gets 16 or more of those 32 votes?
November 9th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
except these recounts never lead to more GOP votes, ever
November 9th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Are you sure it wasn’t 222 ballots in her car?
Why are we just finding this out today?
November 9th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Ugh, this is the exact same kind of crap King County used to steal the 2004 WA governors race from Dino Rossi. Nine times, mysterious and suspicious ‘found ballots’ were added to the count.
November 9th, 2008 at 5:26 pm
I remember the 2004 WA recount well. One of the other sites I visit had a regular from the Seattle area who kept us up to speed. I think regurgitation was a fairly common response, iirc.
November 9th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
Never have seen a recount where a republican won…..
November 9th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
8: FL, 2000?
November 11th, 2008 at 2:31 pm