During the U.S. Senate recount between Al Franken and Norm Coleman, the pile of absentee ballots wrongly rejected by local precincts often seemed higher than the boo-boo pile in places that used absentee ballot boards.

That didn't escape the notice of the Legislature, which this year passed a law requiring jurisdictions across the state that handle absentee ballots -- typically, counties or cities -- to establish ballot boards of their own.

The Hennepin County Board in committee did just that Tuesday, in time for the June 25 start of absentee voting for the state primary election on Aug. 10. It approved a slate of five board members, who will be paid $14.47 an hour and compensated for parking during meetings.

Anoka County established its board last month, said elections manager Cindy Reichert.

The boards will consist mostly of election judges charged with ensuring that absentee ballots are accepted and counted in a consistent fashion.

Part of the problem with the Senate recount in 2008-09 was that the procedures and measures for handling absentee ballots often varied from precinct to precinct, raising fairness questions.

"They want to have some uniformity within the county, in terms of accepting and rejecting absentee ballots," said Gary Poser, the state's elections director.

Another reason for the boards, he said, is to take absentee ballot work from election judges who already have enough to do at the polls.

At least two members of the absentee ballot boards, from different political parties, will inspect applications and ballots to make sure they match (to prove their validity).

The board members can make a duplicate ballot to feed into the vote-counting machine if the original ballot is flawed. And they can feed legitimate votes into the automatic counters, although they must wait until polls are closed to tally results.

About 80,000 absentee ballots were cast in Hennepin County in 2008. Most were handled by larger cities, such as Minneapolis and Bloomington, that already had absentee ballot boards.

The county processed about 4,000 absentee ballots in 2008 from smaller jurisdictions and expects to process about 5,500 this year, Smith said.

Absentee ballot handling will be even more centralized in Anoka County. The Anoka absentee ballot board will have offshoots in six cities -- Centerville, Coon Rapids, Fridley, Ham Lake, Lino Lakes and Ramsey -- where residents can pick up and return ballots, Reichert said.

Will voters notice changes? No, said Rachel Smith, who heads Hennepin County's elections division. But they will be better assured that absentee ballots will be properly counted.

"If there's an issue with an absentee ballot, we are required to notify the voter within a certain time," Smith said. "If it is rejected, we have to issue a new ballot [if five days remain before the election] or notify the voter that it won't be counted."

Kevin Duchschere • 612-673-4455