I have just received this “Current Status Report” from the “Franken Camp” (The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee) on the Coleman-Franken Senatorial race.
I don’t know how objective it is, but at first blush it looks quite comprehensive and interesting.
Since this is a “Moderate” site, I am sure that if someone has a “Status Report” from the “Coleman Camp,” it will be readily posted here.
Here it is.
Current Status
Every precinct in the state has completed its hand recount, and according to our tally, Al Franken (D) leads Norm Coleman (R) by 4 votes.
Key Questions
1. Why do the Minnesota Secretary of State and some media organizations report that Norm Coleman is leading?
The short answer is that the totals reported by the Secretary of State don’t include all the votes yet.
During the hand recount, thousands of ballots that were “challenged” by either side. This means that one or both campaigns disagree with the determination of how the ballot should be counted made by an impartial election judge during the recount process. All of these challenged ballots were set aside until the state canvassing board begins resolving challenges on Tuesday, December 16.
Because these disputes haven’t yet been settled and these ballots haven’t yet been recounted, they aren’t included in the daily totals released by the Secretary of State. Many media outlets report these daily numbers, which do indeed show that that Coleman holds a small lead.
However, the Secretary of State’s totals, as reported by the media, don’t include all the votes.
Using the raw daily totals assumes that every challenged ballot will be thrown out by the state canvassing board. In fact, experience shows that very, very few of these challenges will ultimately be upheld.
Franken leads by 4 votes when we assume that the original call by the impartial election judge will stand. So, if the judge called it for Franken during the hand recount, we say it’s a Franken ballot. Likewise, if the judge called it for Coleman, we treat it as a Coleman ballot – even if our side has challenged it.
We think this is the most accurate way to describe the current status of the ballot counting in Minnesota. And by this method, Al Franken has a 4 vote lead.
2. When will these challenged ballots be counted?
The state canvassing board will begin considering challenged ballots on Tuesday, December 16. They hope to have these challenges resolved and the votes counted within a few days, but it could take much longer than that – even into January.
We expect that in the vast majority of cases, the state canvassing board will agree with the determination made by the impartial election judge during the hand recount, even for those ballots that our campaign challenged.
3. I’ve read about 133 “missing ballots.” How will those affect the count?
It’s true that 133 votes from a Minneapolis precinct were counted properly on Election Day, but could not be found during the recount process. Election workers in that precinct found envelopes marked “2 of 5,” “3 of 5,” “4 of 5,” and “5 of 5,” but they were not able to find the envelope marked “1 of 5.”
Just last Friday, the state canvassing board unanimously decided to certify the original, canvassed, and audited election night totals in this precinct.
This is great news. The canvassing board resoundingly rejected efforts by the Coleman campaign and its allies to disenfranchise more than 100 Minnesotans – many of them first-time student voters and all of whom did everything right to have their vote counted – because of clerical error.
Our side’s position has always been that every lawful vote should be counted, and the canvassing board’s decision reinforces that fundamental principle of our democracy.
4. What about the controversy over absentee ballots? How will that affect the final count?
Approximately 12,000 absentee ballots cast this year were rejected by local election officials and never counted. Under Minnesota state law, there are four legal reasons why absentee ballots can be rejected. For example, if someone submits an absentee ballot but is not actually registered to vote, their ballot won’t count.
However, the Franken campaign has shown irrefutable proof that some small, but significant, portion of these absentee ballots were improperly rejected. In some cases, ballots from lawfully registered voters were improperly rejected as if that voter was not registered at all.
In other cases, absentee ballots were improperly rejected by simple human error. The reason listed for one improperly rejected ballot in Itasca County was “we [the local election authority] screwed up.” This is not a legitimate reason to reject an absentee ballot.
On Friday, Deputy Secretary of State Jim Gelbmann estimated that there could be more than 1,600 Minnesota voters who have not yet had their absentee ballots counted because their ballots were improperly rejected by local election officials. Whatever the number, it is almost certain to be greater than the margin currently separating the two candidates. It could be enough to swing this election.
Last Friday, the state canvassing board determined that, while they do not have the legal authority to order the state’s county election boards to count these ballots, they do believe that “every lawful vote should count.” The state canvassing board has therefore strongly urged every county to identify, open, and count absentee ballots that were wrongly rejected.
There are still many steps ahead of us, but this ruling is great news for all of us who believe these votes must be counted.
5. When will we know who won the Minnesota Senate seat?
None of us can say for sure. The state canvassing board will begin resolving challenged ballots on December 16, but it could take days or even weeks before that process is finished.
Additionally, it’s up to each county to count the improperly rejected absentee ballots. That process will take some time.
It’s taking a little longer than we all thought, but I know that Al Franken believes that no recount should be considered complete or accurate until all the ballots are counted. That includes challenged ballots, improperly rejected absentee ballots, and any missing ballots from around the state.
It’s easy to forget that every uncounted ballot represents a real person who did everything they were supposed to do to vote lawfully. Those people deserve to have their votes counted.
The Franken campaign made a video to tell the stories behind the Minnesota recount. Take a look
[The video can be seen at http://www.dscc.org/stateoftheraces?content_item_KEY=1579:]
