Even as challenged ballots took center stage in the U.S. Senate race, three of Minnesota's biggest counties continued to grapple with absentee ballots, the other outstanding issue that could finally settle the contest between Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken.
In Hennepin and St. Louis counties, officials are waiting for guidance from the state Supreme Court before they go ahead with the counting of hundreds of improperly rejected absentee ballots.
Meanwhile, Olmsted County officials were taken to court Tuesday by Franken's campaign for not counting on election night a number of absentee ballots that the campaign says weren't actually rejected. The campaign asked a district court judge to order the county to count 27 absentee ballots accepted by elections officials but mistakenly not tallied because of what the campaign called an "administrative error."
Olmsted County officials did not return a call requesting comment.
Central ground
With the race so incredibly tight, improperly rejected absentee ballots have become a central battlefront for the two campaigns.
Members of the state Canvassing Board last week recommended that county election officials count ballots that were mistakenly set aside, estimated to total as many as 1,600. But the board stopped short of saying whether those votes would be included in the final totals.
The Coleman campaign promptly asked the state Supreme Court to require that statewide standards be set for evaluating and counting the votes. A hearing on that request is scheduled for this afternoon.
