Tensions mount as counties certify Senate race votes

As Minnesota's 87 counties spent Monday tallying and certifying final results from last week's election, Sen. Norm Coleman's lead over his Democratic challenger Al Franken shrunk to a razor-thin 206 votes.

In Hennepin County, where the canvassing board certified results Monday afternoon, there was a last-minute appeal by Franken's lawyer to reconsider 461 absentee ballots.

"We understand that, as of today, there are 461 people who submitted absentee ballots, whose ballots were rejected," said attorney David Lillehaug.

Lillehaug told the canvassing board the ballots were thrown out over concerns about voter signatures or whether some voters had registered officially.  But he said there was reason to believe some of those ballots had been cast properly.

The board rejected Lillehaug's request. 

A lawyer for the Minnesota Republican Party said Lillehaug's request to reinstate those 461 ballots came as a surprise, but he suggested requests like that are part of the process.

"Things are moving very quickly in an election, people are learning things, and lawyers are moving as they move," said GOP attorney Matt Haapoja.  "I think both sides are doing their best to notify each other, but we are surprised they did not notify us in advance."

In the end, Franken appeared to net 13 new votes in Hennepin County since results were last tabulated on Friday. 

The canvassing board said, in the days since the election, it approved an additional 1,600 absentee ballots.  Elections manager Michelle DesJardin said those were ballots that should have been scanned on Election Night but were missed by election judges.

"The clerks, as they're going through the supplies, are finding those (ballots), and they're sending in the new tallies per precinct, and that's kind of why the numbers fluctuate," she said.

In Ramsey County, Franken gained one vote, and Coleman lost one, in a routine audit of ballots before they were certified.

And in Anoka County, a ballot watcher with Norm Coleman's campaign was stationed outside a secured storage area housing that county's ballots.

The woman said she did not want to be interviewed on camera.  Off camera, she said she was concerned about tampering and groups like ACORN, which has been accused of filling out voter registration cards with questionable information.

"I can't comment," she said, gathering her belongings and leaving when the camera was turned on.  "Sorry."

Coleman's campaign said it has a mix of paid staffers and volunteers working as ballot watchers in several of Minnesota's 87 counties.
 
In Anoka, the sealed ballots are locked inside a room that's inside another locked room, and elections officials say it would be very difficult to reach, let alone tamper with, the ballots.

"You'd not only need to get access to one secure place, you'd need to get into the second room, which there's only two keys for right now," said elections manager Rachel Smith.
Smith said a part-time employee has been assigned to watch the ballot watcher, just to make sure nothing happens.  She said the woman with the Coleman campaign was spending most of her time outside the secure ballot room reading.
By all indications, the posturing was just beginning Monday.

As counties submitted their official vote totals to the secretary of state's office, which will certify statewide election results next Tuesday, the Coleman campaign sent out a statement once again claiming victory over Franken.

The campaign also said it is concerned about "discrepancies" causing Coleman's lead over Franken to evaporate.

Franken spokeswoman Colleen Murray said she had "every confidence this will be a clean election with a clear winner" by the time the automatic recount, which is mandated by state law, is completed.

That recount is scheduled to start a week from Wednesday, one day after the statewide vote totals are made official.

Click here for updated results.

By Scott Goldberg, KARE 11 News Read Scott's Blog

Check out our KARE family of Web sites:
	takeKARE		Metromix
	Moms Like Me		Minnesota Bound
	Showcase Minnesota