In a letter pledging to withdraw all of their team's so-called "frivolous" challenges, the Dayton recount team told the canvassing board that "the Emmer campaign has embarked on a disruptive campaign of frivolous ballot challenges."
During this week of recounting, Republican Tom Emmer's team has disputed local officials' determination of ballot votes far more frequently than has Democrat Mark Dayton's team. The aggressive stance has left some local election officials withered and lengthened the time it has taken to count all 2.1 million ballots in the governor's race, officials have said.
During a Minnesota recount, campaigns are allowed to "challenge" ballots as they are counted if they disagree with officials call on how the ballots should be counted. New this year, local officials are permitted to declare those challenges "frivolous," which means the ballots are still counted but they are still set aside. Challenges not declared "frivolous" are removed from the count until the state canvassing board determines how to count them.
According to the Dayton team, Emmer representatives have asked election officials to set aside more than 2,500 ballots because the Republicans said they doubted local officials' determinations on the ballots, even though the local officials saw no reason to question the voters intent and deemed those challenges "frivolous."
The Dayton team said that all but 1.6 percent of all "frivolous" challenges came from the Emmer campaign.
"With respect to the 42 Dayton challenges that were designated as frivolous, on behalf of Mark Dayton and the Dayton Recount Team, I withdraw all 42 of the challenges made by their representatives and deemed frivolous by local campaign officials," Dayton lawyer Marc Elias said in a letter to the state's canvassing board Thursday.
Of the Emmer challenges, Elias wrote, "I urge this board to put an end to this unfortunate effort to disenfranchise Minnesota voters."
The state canvassing board will meet tomorrow at 2 p.m. to discuss frivolous challenges.
The Emmer campaign has yet to respond to the Dayton letter. If I get a response, I will post it.
In reaction, Republican Party chair Tony Sutton said their challenges of all stripes still only make up a "minuscule percentage" of the 2.1 million votes recounted.
"We not doing anything but exercising our right to make sure people are enfranchised, to make sure every vote counts," Sutton said. "I'm dismayed that Mr. Elias would want to keep every vote from counting. That's not Minnesota way."
Sutton said Emmer attorneys will withdraw challenges -- both those deemed frivolous and the regular kind -- before the state canvassing board meets to begin judging challenges next week.
He said they aren't ready to do that yet and would like some of the so-called frivolous challenges reexamined.
"We think there are some that are in there that need to be seen by the canvassing board," he said.
Here's the full Dayton letter:
Here are examples of what the Dayton team says are frivolous challenges from the Emmer team in one Minneapolis precinct:
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