Minnesota Recount Officials Searching For 133 Missing Ballots

December 5, 2008 8:11 a.m. EST

St. Paul, MN (AHN) - Democratic-Farmer-Labor candidate Al Franken is asking the Minnesota secretary of state to "oversee an immediate and intensive search" of an envelope that is said to contain 133 ballots.

Minnesota hopes to finish a statewide, manual recount of the nearly 3 million votes cast for Franken and Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) on Friday. The first-term Republican senator led Franken by only 215 votes, or less than one-half of one percent, when election results were certified, requiring a recount.

The the number of recounted ballots in Minneapolis ward 3, precinct 1 are are fewer by 133 compared to the number of votes tallied during election night. Minneapolis elections director Cindy Reichert first said the discrepancy was the result of ballots being double-counted, but then told the Star Tribune that the ballots are missing.

"These ballots must be found," Franken lead recount attorney Marc Elias said in a statement. " The outcome of this election is at stake. But let me be clear: The integrity of this election is also at stake, as is the integrity of Minnesota's electoral process. We won't stand for the disenfranchisement of 133 Minnesota voters, and neither will the people of this state. Find the ballots."

Secretary of State Mark Ritchie has ordered the recount in precinct 1 remain open so election officials can search for the ballots. Ritchie has said that election officials have assured him that "they have already begun and will continue to search in every conceivable location for any ballots that are missing."

Coleman lead recount attorney Fritz Knaak has suggested that the "claim" of missing ballots may be a ploy.

"We do not know that there are any ballots missing, and it is premature and simply irresponsible to suggest that they are," he said in a statement. "As a matter of course, we expect that our campaign will be consulted fully on this matter, as apparently the Franken campaign and the Mayor of Minneapolis have been by election officials, including the Secretary of State's Office. It is critical that there be no effort to make this matter a partisan issue. We are quite concerned that we received no notice from the Secretary of State's Office that they intended to participate in a press conference with Democratic Mayor R.T. Rybak who supports the position of the Franken campaign that ballots are missing."