Minnesota To Review Rejected Absentee Ballots

December 3, 2008 11:12 a.m. EST

St. Paul, MN (AHN) - Democratic-Farmer-Labor candidate Al Franken on Tuesday praised Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie for asking election officials to examine previously-rejected absentee ballots. Franken has been fighting for a review of rejected absentee ballots, citing cases when some were wrongly excluded from the tallying.

A statewide, manual recount of the nearly 3 million votes cast for Franken and Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) is underway in Minnesota.

Franken is fighting for every ballot to be counted, having only trailed Coleman by 215 votes when election results were certified. State law requires a recount if the margin between the top two candidates for federal, state, or judicial posts is less than one-half of one percent in a general election.

Election officials have estimated that about 12,000 absentee ballots were rejected in the initial tallying. Franken has said that up to 1,000 of these were legally-cast and wrongly excluded.

Deputy Secretary of State Jim Gelbmann instructed election officials on Tuesday to sort rejected absentee ballots into five categories: ballots excluded because the voter's name and address on the return envelope doesn't match the one on the application; ballots with a fake voter's signature; voter was not registered and eligible to vote in the precinct or has not included a properly completed voter registration application; voter had already voted at the election, either in person or by absentee ballot.

The fifth category will have ballots were not rejected for the four legal reasons specified.

In a statement, Franken spokesman Andy Barr said, "We appreciate the Secretary of State's guidance and the hard work of the local elections officials who have done such great work throughout the election process. That process is not complete until every vote is counted. And today's directive is an important step in ensuring that happens."

The decision by Ritchie to examine rejected absentee ballots comes the same day as 171 "new" ballots were found in Ramsey County. The Franken campaign says the ballots were found in Maplewood's Precinct 6. Reports say the Democrat got 37 votes out of the new ballots. Ramsey county election manager Joe Mansky has told KARE-11 the 171 ballots were not counted on election day because a problem with the scanning machines.

Election officials have so far recounted 92.69 percent of all votes as of Tuesday night, according to Ritchie's office. They are expected to be finish on Friday. The review of rejected absentee ballots begin next Monday. Challenged ballots will be examined Dec. 16.