|
||||||||||||
|
|
Frivolous challenges dominate recount drama; Coleman regrets post-election comments
Frivolity may be encouraged at parties and festivals, but it's not allowed in the recount arena. Attempts at "automatic" or "frivolous" ballot challenges are not only frowned upon, but normally overruled by local election judges on the spot. And yet, on Friday, both the Franken and Coleman camps reported a bumper crop of what they see as clearly frivolous challenges by opposition recount observers. "There is nothing about this ballot that would lead you to question what the voter's intent is," Democrat Al Franken's recount attorney Marc Elias told reporters as he held up a photocopy of a ballot challenged by Senator Norm Coleman's campaign. It was one of many examples of cases where the voter clearly darkened the Al Franken oval, but also voted for Republican John McCain in the presidential race. It was enough for Elias to suspect at least the hint of a blanket policy. "Lo and behold they voted for John McCain and Al Franken," Elias declared as he held up another challenged ballot, "Thus, what does the Coleman campaign do? They must challenge it, because you couldn't have voted for John McCain and Al Franken!" On the back of the ballot, the challenge form stated the ballot was questioned over "voter intent." The Franken campaign had several other "voter intent" challenges on McCain-only ballots, where the voter left all the other races blank. "They're questioning voter intent here based on the assumption that nobody would vote for John McCain without also intending to vote for Norm Coleman," Elias said, "Now that's just silly!" He called on the Coleman campaign to spend the weekend taking a second look at its challenges and consider withdrawing the groundless variety. Elias said Franken's ground operation would do the same thing. The Secretary of State's tally showed a sharp increase in the number of disputed ballots in the past day, with more than 700 now awaiting a judgment call by the State Canvassing Board in December. Frivolous cuts both ways An hour later the Coleman campaign shot back with a wall full of frankly frivolous Franken challenges to pro-Coleman ballots. "The level of frivolousness had gone way beyond what is necessary," Coleman campaign manager Cullen Sheehan told a group of political reporters. Sheehan accused the Franken campaign of intentionally ramping up challenges to create the impression of a tighter margin. Those challenged ballots aren't reflected in the nightly totals posted by the Secretary of State. "The reality is the only way the Franken campaign can continue to show the public through the media that they're catching up is to be challenging more Coleman votes." When asked why public perception on just how tight the race really is, now that voters have already spoken, Sheehan said it's just important to have the news coverage reflect "reality" in the tally. Coleman regrets morning after remarks As for Senator Coleman himself, he told reporters he's not sweating the details of the daily recount drama. "I'm not really concerned about the recount," he said during a stop at Xcel Energy's Monticello nuclear power plant, "It's going to happen, it's going to get done!" Coleman conceded he now regrets calling on Al Franken to waive the recount and concede defeat on the morning after the election. Click here to see what Coleman said Nov 5 That day he said he would "step back" if he were in the same spot as Franken that morning trailing by 700 votes out of 2.9 million cast. "Clearly 750 votes seemed like a big margin, but we've learned a lot since then," Coleman said in response to questions about his remarks November 5th. "But I'll ascribe that to not having slept for 36 hours," he said, "I wouldn't have made the same statement today."
|
 MORE HEADLINES |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
