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Franken may seek Senate’s help to win race

By Michael O’Brien – (The Hill)

Al Franken’s (D) campaign may ask the Democratic-led Senate to intervene on his behalf to allow some disqualified absentee ballots to be counted in his quest to unseat Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.).

Franken attorney Marc Elias made the case to reporters Monday that as many as 1,000 absentee ballots were improperly disqualified and that the Senate or the courts may need to step in to resolve the issue.

“No recount can be considered accurate or complete until all the ballots cast by lawful voters are counted,” Elias said of the recount that became necessary when only about 200 votes separated the two candidates on Nov. 4.

Minnesota’s Board of Canvassers ruled last Wednesday that it would not revisit the improperly disqualified ballots. The bipartisan board ruled unanimously that it did not have the authority to order that the ballots be reviewed and counted.

Elias said that of the 12,000 disqualified absentee ballots in the race, “as many as 1,000” ballots were improperly excluded, and should be counted. He added that the campaign would appeal to the Board of Canvassers, courts or the U.S. Senate to ensure those ballots are counted. Last week, Elias had indicated that the campaign would not directly appeal the board’s ruling.

The U.S. Constitution allows each congressional chamber to be the “Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) called the Board of Canvassers’ decision to not count the absentee ballots “a cause for great concern” last week, fueling speculation that the Senate would explore the legality of the Minnesota recount’s results.

“If ultimately there is no remedy before the canvassing board or before the courts, then that is certainly an option,” Elias said of the Senate’s potential intervention in the election results.

“The Franken campaign has made it clear that the recounted votes and will of Minnesotans matter little to them, and that they intend to take their campaign to change the outcome of this election on to the United States Senate,” said Coleman campaign spokesman Mark Drake. “Al Franken should personally reject this strategy outright, and honor the right of Minnesotans to choose who their senator should be — and not allow lawsuits and the strong-arm tactics of the majority leader of the United States Senate to intervene in this process.”

According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune’s recount tally, Coleman leads Franken by 282 votes with 86 percent of the recount complete. In total, 5,623 ballots have been challenged, with the Franken campaign having challenged 67 more votes than Coleman’s campaign. The Franken campaign said it would announce withdrawn challenges later this week.

The Franken campaign maintained that Coleman only led by 73 votes, citing its tally, which includes determinations of a voter’s intent made by neutral observers. Those determinations are not final until certified by the Board of Canvassers, and are not included in the Secretary of State’s official tally.

Me: Well, now … nah:

Recount update: Norm’s margin rises to 344

By David Brauer – (Minn. Post)

Norm Coleman’s recount margin keeps growing in the late innings, but on Monday, he didn’t need challenge games to make it happen.

Coleman now has a 344-vote lead over Al Franken, according to the 8 p.m. update from the Secretary of State.

But unlike last week, when Coleman’s daily recount gain was less than his challenged-ballot advantage, his Monday lead grew by 52 votes even though he only challenged 35 more ballots.

In recent days, the pattern was different: Coleman would pick up, say, 66 votes because he challenged 77 more. That’s fueled Franken accusations that the Republicans were inflating their contested ballot count to give them a deceiving p.r. advantage before December’s State Canvass Board hearings.

Coleman remains the challenge champion; overall, he’s contested 3,067 ballots to Franken’s 2,876, a 191-challenge gap. But that only explains slightly more than half the Republican’s 344-vote lead.

Franken has to hope his campaign’s rhetoric about better-quality challenges is true, and that valid but uncounted absentees get added to the pile.

This afternoon, the Franken campaign pegged the “real” gap at 73 votes, but with 91.13 percent of the votes recounted, his time is running out in this phase.

Me: Remember that little “Extra Credit” super hard problem the trig teacher put on the back of the big exam … if you chose not to do it, it didn’t effect your final grade … if you did do it, it effected your final grade big time … pass or fail:

For Franken, a math problem –

Challenged ballots may offer the Senate challenger a path to overtaking Coleman, but numbers indicate it would be a tough route.

By PAT DOYLE and GLENN HOWATT (Star Tribune)

While a tiny margin separates the candidates in the Minnesota U.S. Senate race, it is wide enough that Democrat Al Franken faces a daunting task in challenging votes to erase Sen. Norm Coleman’s lead.

The two sides have disputed thousands of the other’s votes, but many of those challenges are regarded by experts as frivolous.

To win his case before the state Canvassing Board, Franken must prevail on more than 6 percent of his challenges of Coleman votes even if Coleman fails to succeed on any of his challenges, a Star Tribune analysis shows.

If the outcome of past election disputes provides a clue, Franken will have a hard time reversing enough votes to win, said one veteran elections official who has been involved in the Senate recount.

“Based upon the kinds of challenges I’ve been looking at in the last two weeks, I think that’s just not going to happen,” said Joe Mansky, Ramsey County elections manager.

Franken’s campaign said Friday that the gap between the candidates isn’t as wide as it appears and expressed confidence that his challenges would prove generally more meritorious than Coleman’s.

But Mansky said earlier that Franken has a better chance of winning by suing to force the counting of absentee ballots that the Democrat contends were mistakenly rejected.

“Franken’s best [and perhaps his only] chance will be in court, not with the recount,” Mansky said.

The Canvassing Board last week denied a Franken request that it reconsider all rejected absentee ballots, but left open the possibility of taking up some on a case-by-case basis. The board indicated that it expects the issue to wind up in court.

Franken’s campaign has indicated that it might sue or take its case to the U.S. Senate, which can decide such disputes and is led by Democrats.

(Top picture Kurt-Shop)