Franken campaign wants state board to review rejected ballots in recount

When Minnesota's election canvassing board meets Tuesday, it will decide which Nov. 4 results can be certified, which races are too close to call, and it will listen to input from members of the public who have concerns about how those too-close-to-call races will move forward.

That last part could get interesting.

 On Monday, lawyers for Democrat Al Franken said they will ask the board not to certify results in the U.S. Senate race until the board reviews all absentee ballots that were rejected by local election officials on Election Day.

"We are not seeking that they halt the recount," Franken's attorney Marc Elias said Monday. "We are seeking that the canvass itself not be finalized until there is a determination of whether or not all these ballots have been cast."

 Franken is expected to enter Tuesday trailing incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman by 215 votes, a margin adjusted in the last few days as some counties conducted audits. The vote difference is well within half a percentage point, the margin that triggers an automatic recount under state law.

 The Franken campaign is asking the canvassing board to review all absentee ballots that were rejected by election officials and include in the recount the ballots that were rejected "improperly."

"If all the lawful ballots weren't counted, how could the Minnesota canvassing board say that the results are correct?" Elias said.

Franken's team says there could be "hundreds" of improperly rejected ballots out there.

 In affidavits filed Monday, lawyers offered four examples of ballots they say should have been counted, including a ballot rejected because a signature looked suspect, and another thrown out because a county official failed to sign an envelope.

The Coleman campaign pounced at a news conference and accused Franken of trying to undermine the election process.

"To say we're deeply disturbed by these developments is clearly an understatement," said Coleman's head recount lawyer Fritz Knaak. "Minnesotans will not stand for this kind of effort to win through the legal system what the Franken campaign could not win through the ballot box," he said.

Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, who sits on the canvassing board along with four judges, says the Franken request is one of many he expects to hear before the recount begins.

 "I don't see any of those things being something that's going to stop the state mandatory recount from going forward," he said. "A judge could certainly do that, but that would be a completely different question."

If a judge does not intervene, the statewide recount is expected to begin Wednesday morning.

The Franken campaign says it is taking everything "one step at a time" and wouldn't say if lawyers planned to file a lawsuit if the canvassing board rejects their request.

Click here for updated Senate race results.

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

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