Turns out those secrecy envelopes may not be so secret after all.
An Anoka County elections manager testified this morning at the U.S. Senate recount trial that her staffers often told election judges to open secrecy envelopes -- designed to contain absentee ballots while shielding the identity of the voter -- to search for voter registration materials when they were missing.
Joe Friedberg, an attorney for Republican Norm Coleman, questioned Rachel Smith about ballots actually cast, and about the way her office dealt with absentee ballots where getting at the proper registration forms could compromise the voter's privacy.
After the Supreme Court ordered the counties to review rejected absentee ballots for votes that may have been validly cast, Smith said that Anoka County officials opened fewer than 10 secrecy envelopes and found the registration application in 4 or 5 of them.
Smith said Friday that they had a choice: either reject a ballot that might have been validly cast, or open the secrecy envelopes to find out for sure. They decided to give the benefit to the voters, she said.
Smith said they were careful to keep the ballots private. When they were removed from the secrecy envelope, Smith said, they weren't looked at until the ballots were separated from the materials identifying the voter.
Coleman is challenging in court the 225-vote lead held by Democrat Al Franken in the recount results certified last month by the state Canvassing Board.
The three-judge panel hearing the case has agreed to consider about 4,800 absentee ballots that Coleman believes may have been improperly rejected and therefore should be counted.
Smith has testified not just about absentee ballots, but about three missing ballots she said she recently found that hadn't been included in the recount. Coleman, who was at the trial Thursday, said he guessed those votes were for him since his election night tally in that precinct was three votes higher than his recount total.
Friedberg this week has questioned election chiefs in Washington and Pine counties as well as Anoka, introducing copies of hundreds of disputed ballots as exhibits in the trial.
Smith is continuing on the witness stand this afternoon.
Kevin Duchschere • 651-292-0164
