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Home | Politically Connected | National Politics | U.S. Senate

Coleman asks court to intervene in rejected absentee ballot count

By MARK BRUNSWICK, Star Tribune

Last update: December 13, 2008 - 5:15 PM

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I assume we all agree that state law should be followed in dealing with the rejected absentee ballots.

So what does state law say? I believe the relevant state statutes are the ones that deal with cases where "the election judges have made … read more an obvious error." Now if the precinct election judges have received an absentee ballot that meets all requirements for being accepted, yet the judges have rejected that ballot and not counted it, we would all, I hope, consider that to be an obvious error. The Minnesota statutes that deal with such errors are 204C.38 and 204C.39 with the latter being the one that would likely come into play here. It begins with the statement, "A county canvassing board may determine by majority vote that the election judges have made an obvious error in counting or recording the votes for an office," and then goes on in detail to state how such errors are to be corrected. It further states that a candidate who believes such an error has been made may take his case to the county courts despite a lack of action by the canvassing board. You can read the statute at http://tinyurl.com/6p44fp. Note that no statute gives the state canvassing board authority to take action to correct the errors of election judges. This is the reason the state board asked the counties to sort out the rejected ballots, rather than ordering them to do so. The responsibility for correcting such mistakes rests with the county canvassing boards and the county courts. The state board's motivation is presumably to have the matter dealt with as soon as possible, rather than to wait until Franken rightly and legally takes the matter to each county court, if the boards do not take action themselves. Finally we have the question of Coleman's action to the state Supreme Court. If the court quickly and firmly takes action to lay down guidelines, I imagine no one will object. However, since there are already clear guidelines in state law for how counties should handle this, my guess is the court will decline to take action. Yes, there may be differences in exactly how each precinct and county interprets the law, but that is the case for every aspect of the election, like it or not. Our elections are run at the county level, not the state level. It is perhaps ironic in this case that it's the conservatives who are asking the high courts step in and take action where existing law already lays out a clear path to follow.

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Lawyers for Republican Norm Coleman on Saturday asked the state Supreme Court to intervene in how rejected absentee ballots will be counted in the protracted U.S. Senate race with DFL opponent Al Franken, saying the process in place now is “internally inconsistent, contrary to applicable law and confusing.”

The Coleman campaign wants the court to order county elections officials to stop sorting or counting the rejected ballots until a court can rule on their legitimacy.

As many as 1,600 absentee ballots may have been wrongfully rejected in the election, a number that could prove pivotal in the razor-thin recount. The Franken campaign contends the proper standards already exist.

The Coleman campaign failed to file its petition by close of business Friday with the Supreme Court’s clerk of court’s office, but Cullen Sheehan, campaign manager for Coleman, confirmed the campaign provided the paperwork Saturday morning to a waiting court official. A spokesman for the court said it will likely be officially filed early Monday.

Fearing what they called “a Florida situation” and citing the landmark Bush vs. Gore, attorneys for Coleman argue that the court should intervene in the absence of uniform criteria for how counties should reject Election Day absentee ballots. There are four legal reasons for rejecting an absentee ballot and counties have been asked by the Minnesota secretary of state’s office to separate their rejected ballots into a pile for each legal reason and in a fifth pile, designated for rejected ballots that do not fit into any other legal category.

The petition -- which names Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, the state Canvassing Board and local election officials -- says Ritchie’s office and the state Canvassing Board have provided “conflicting and unclear guidance” that will result in 87 different counties applying 87 different standards to the ballots.

For example, according to the petition, Isanti County didn’t place any ballots in its fifth pile for lacking a city designation in the witness address line; while Dakota County placed numerous ballots in the pile for the same infraction.

“Just as mistakes may have been made in rejecting absentee ballot envelopes on election night, mistakes will inevitably be made in second-guessing these initial rejections,’ the petition argues.

It asks that the court order county elections officials to take no further action related to the rejected ballots until the court approves, that any questions about the rejected ballots should be addressed by the courts, and that all rejected absentee ballots be preserved as if they will be evidence in a future court action. In the alternative, the petition says representatives from each campaign should be permitted to challenge the absentee ballots.

Franken campaign accused the Coleman campaign of desperation tactics. Franken spokesman Andy Barr said the paperwork filed differs dramatically from what Coleman’s attorneys on Friday claimed they would be seeking: clarity in the standards. It is actually asking for the count to be stopped, Barr said.

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Coleman asks court to intervene in rejected absentee ballot count

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I assume we all agree that state law should be followed in dealing with the rejected absentee ballots.

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