The campaign of incumbent Senator Norm Coleman called reporters and cameras to their Saint Paul Headquarters Saturday to stop just short of accusing Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie of possible collusion with the campaign of Coleman opponent Al Franken. Coleman Chief Recount Attorney Fritz Knaak admitted, "The supercharged environment that we're in leads us to suspect everything." At issue, as Minnesota prepares for a massive statewide recount in the U.S. Senate race between Coleman, Franken and Independence Party Candidate Dean Barkley, is whether or not the names of voters with rejected absentee ballots should be public. The Franken camp has argued that the information is public. The Coleman campaign disagrees. Knaak contends that statements by Chief Election Official Gary Poser cast doubt on the impartiality of the Secretary of State's office which is overseeing the recount. Poser told several counties that the voter information is public. Knaak focused on Poser's statements. "This to us, was a stunning revelation and suggests at the very least that the very neutrality of the Secretary of State's most senior election officials has been breached." Attorneys in Hennepin and Ramsey Counties have said such information should be private. The Coleman campaign has charged that there are reports that Franken workers have used the information to "harass" and "intimidate" voters in Beltrami County to try to get them to sign affidavits stating that they want their rejected absentee votes counted. Knaak indicated to reporters Saturday that Poser's comments and what he called "casual comments" by Secretary of State Mark Ritchie himself have called the integrity of the recount into question by a secret alliance with the Franken campaign. "We need to be reassured, Secretary Ritchie owes us that reassurance along with the reassurance to everybody else in the State of Minnesota that that didn't occur." A spokesperson for Ritchie, contacted by Kare11, rejected Knaak's suggestion of a pro- Franken bias. John Aiken said "There is no collusion. That's nonsense." He said Poser's comments on public data came in answer to questions from the counties involved and the opinion came from attorneys for the Secretary of State's office. Franken's campaign was quick to respond to the Coleman allegations. Communications Director Andy Barr spoke at Franken's Headquarters on University Avenue in Saint Paul. ""With respect to some issue of collusion, this is another one of their many allegations for which they have absolutely no evidence." Barr called Knaak's charges of Franken workers "harassing" voters and pressuring them to sign affidavits asking that their rejected absentee votes be counted "beneath the campaign of a sitting U.S. Senator." Barr rejected all of the Coleman allegations. "Look, this is what they like to do. They like to launch these baseless charges in the hopes that Minnesotans won't notice that the Coleman Campaign doesn't want all the votes to be counted." At last count, Coleman leads Franken by just 204 votes out of nearly 3 million cast. The recount is expected to take several weeks. Secretary of State Ritchie has indicated he hopes the entire recount process will be completed before the Christmas holidays.
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