Al Franken's campaign is getting what it asked for - the names and addresses of voters whose absentee ballots were rejected. Ramsey County judge Dale Lindman ordered Ramsey County election officials to turn the information over to Franken's campaign, ruling that the names and addresses are public information. Also ruled public are written statements about why the ballots were rejected. Essentially, any information written on the outside of the sealed envelope that contains the absentee ballot has been ruled public information. The campaigns will not be able to see who people voted for. It's a ruling that could be key to the state canvassing board's upcoming decision about whether to allow previously rejected absentee ballots to count this time. "It opens up another potential avenue to allow us to assist voters and assist the process in determining whose vote was not counted that should have been," says Franken attorney Marc Elias. "I think that this is election challenge information that they are seeking right now... Right now, what we're about is focusing on the recount process. That's really where our efforts have been for the last week," says Coleman attorney Fritz Knaak "We didn't' really have a dog in this hunt so we were prepared to do whatever the judge thought was most appropriate, " says head of Ramsey County Elections Joe Mansky. Wednesday's decision applies only to Ramsey County, where there are about 300 rejected absentee ballots. Other counties are expected to follow suit. Coleman's campaign says it has also requested those names and addresses, but doesn't plan to do anything with the information.
(Copyright 2008 by KARE. All Rights Reserved.)
