recount120608.shiffer
On the homepage
Crimefighting
Out There
Mental health
Health care
Home | Politically Connected | National Politics | U.S. Senate
Search for missing Minneapolis ballots finds some -- but not those ones
Print this story
E-mail this story
Save to del.icio.us
Share on Facebook
Share on Digg
The search party looking for 133 missing ballots in the Minneapolis elections warehouse found some ballots all right, but not the ones they wanted.
This morning, 12 unsealed but apparently uncounted absentee ballots were found in a box filled with stacks of plastic-wrapped unused ballots. Minneapolis elections director Cindy Reichert speculated they were put there by a confused elections judge on Election Day and undiscovered until now, the final day of the historic U.S. Senate recount.
It's not clear whether the ballots will be counted, and their fate may be tied to the wrangling over whether to count rejected absentee ballots.
Still eluding the searchers was their main object -- the 133 ballots cast in a Dinkytown church, placed in an envelope, shipped to the warehouse and subsequently AWOL.
Elections officials thought the envelope was hiding somewhere among the voting machines, collapsible stands, shelving and boxes in the warehouse on Harding Street NE. Minneapolis election officials, joined by Deputy Secretary of State Jim Gelbmann, clean-election advocates and others, rolled the voting machines one by one across the floor, hoping to find an envelope underneath.
As usual, workers for the campaigns of Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken stood by as witnesses, on what was supposed to be the final day of their two-week vigil in the warehouse.
Speaking to Minnesota Public Radio this morning, Secretary of State Mark Ritchie compared the search to the needle in the haystack. He said that, in a careful way, officials are "dismantling the entire haystack."
"We really want to get our hands on those physical ballots," he said.
But the search was called off about 2 p.m. today, said one of the searchers, Mark Halvorson, director of Citizens for Election Integrity Minnesota.
"I think we searched as thoroughly as we possibly could have," Halvorson said. That included an election official climbing on the 8-foot stacks of folded voting stations and peering in the cracks for the missing envelope. Halvorson said the head election judge recalls delivering all five envelopes to the warehouse. His car has been searched, but officials have not yet combed through University Lutheran Church of Hope, the precinct itself, he said. "I had hoped we would find it," Halvorson said. "We could speculate till the cows come home, I just don't know. I'm mystified."
Recent U.S. Senate stories
Ventura tells Coleman: Quit, you hypocrite - December 5, 2008
Ventura tells Coleman: Quit, you hypocrite - Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura told the nation that Norm Coleman is a hypocrite who has lost the election for U.S. senator and should give up his fight against Al Franken for a second term. More
The Whistleblower blog has moved
The Star Tribune is still blowing the whistle, but our look and location have changed. Click here to get to the new blog. If you want the actual URL, it’s www.startribune.com/blogs/whistleblower.html. Our blog posts will now be easier to search on the web site, but you’ll need to register to post a comment. In the [...]
Recent posts
  Open positions!A new career awaits. Look through thousands of listings to find your new job. Start now! No resume? No problem!Create a skills profile in minutes, let a recruiter match you to an open position. Click here to get started. |
Win tickets to see The Hidden Cameras with Gentlemen Reg at 7th Street Entry.Vita.mn presents The Hidden Cameras with Gentlemen Reg at 7th Street Entry on Dec. 2. |
Comment on this story | Read all 84 comments | Hide reader comments