Comments on: Ballots that campaigns bumped could cost voters $1000s to get counted

By: Chris Steller

Chris Steller — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 17:06:48 +0000

Miro, I was wondering that too, but I believe the campaigns will present any and probably all ballots they want counted or not counted to the three-judge panel that will hear Coleman’s election contest lawsuit. So this really applies to any voters whose ballot one campaign rejected and the other campaign doesn’t take up. The campaigns may each argue on behalf of every ballot that the other side rejected … we just don’t know yet, but today’s the deadline for individuals to file their own suits to have their votes counted.

By: Miro

Miro — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 16:55:45 +0000

So does this mean that out of the pool of ballots rejected by candidates, now Coleman can turn around and pay the cost of the law suit for those ballots which he, Coleman, wants to be counted? Again if he can cherry pick 255 votes out of 400 can he buy his way back into office this way? Is there any other way for Franken to counter this except by doing the same?

By: Eric Ferguson

Eric Ferguson — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 05:02:17 +0000

I agree with lazercat. The supreme court screwed up. I don’t blame the campaigns for following the rules even if they were dumb, except that they could have chosen to accept local officials’ judgments and not vetoed. In a way I hoped Franken wouldn’t veto out of principle, but I also understood that if Coleman could veto everything from a DFL precinct and Franken didn’t veto any, he was conceding the election, and he did offer to mutually forgo the vetoes, which Coleman refused.

By: lazercat

lazercat — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 17:19:31 +0000

No matter what the outcome, all legal votes must be counted or the election is not valid.

By: Chris Steller

Chris Steller — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 10:00:03 +0000

Thanks for the comment, linda. Not the most elegant graphic, I admit. But it is taken from the envelope that an absentee voter puts his or her ballot into before mailing it back to his or her home county. So a filled-out version of this is what the campaigns were reviewing (and in some cases rejecting) in the last days of the recount.

By: linda

linda — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 00:55:50 +0000

Just out of curiosity, why is a graphic of a voter registration card with “Rejected by political candidate” included with this story? The candidates did not reject voter registration cards. They rejected ballots.