Counties, Dayton and Ritchie file documents refuting Emmer’s claims

Ramsey, Anoka and Hennepin counties as well as Mark Dayton’s legal team and Secretary of State Mark Ritchie have filed paperwork arguing against the Republican Party of Minnesota’s Supreme Court challenge alleging phantom votes and asking for a reconciliation of voter sign-ins with ballots in all 4,130 precincts in the state. All parties argue that precincts followed procedures that have been in place since 1982.

Election judges count the number of voter receipts and compare them to the number of ballots to ensure that no ballots have counted twice. The Emmer team wants all precincts in the state to go back and count precinct rosters where voters sign in on election day and compare those to the number of ballots instead. But, elections officials say that they’ve followed a modern interpretation of the law.

“Although Minnesota Statutes section 204C.20, subdivision 1, continues to refer to voter’s certificates that are no longer in use, Rule 8700.9300, subpart 10, allows election judges to determine the number of ballots to be counted by reference to either the number of voter’s receipts or signatures on the polling place roster,” wrote Ritchie in a filing with the court. “Furthermore, Petitioner’s supporting affidavits do not substantiate any claim that the reported election results are inaccurate. In fact, the petition does not suggest any reason why the use of voter receipts is more likely to generate errors than using the (now obsolete) certificates, or roster signatures.”

Hennepin County argued that the current manner of reconciling ballots is more accurate than the manner the Emmer team is arguing for.

“There is no requirement to compare the ballot total from the summary statement to a count of the number of signatures on the polling place rosters,” read the Hennepin County brief. “In 1982, a Minnesota Rule was added that authorized elections officials to use either the number of names om the polling place roster or the number of voter’s receipts when determining the number of ballots to be counted.”

The brief continued, “Voter’s receipts are a more accurate method for counting the number of voters than having election judges counting thousands of signatures from polling place rosters at the end of election night.”

Hennepin County also said that Emmer’s line of attack would disenfranchise voters.

“Any additional reconciliation lacks any factual support and would serve only to add confusion, delay, and uncertainty in the service of an exceedingly suspect goal of randomly removing properly cast ballots of fully eligible voters.”

Cynthia Reichert, elections manager for Anoka County, said her county only had one more ballot than receipt that couldn’t be explained by human or machine error, according to court documents. The county argued that tossing out that one vote, or many votes, would disenfranchise voters.

“There can be no reasonably based allegation that that ballot was not cast by a legal voter,” Anoka County wrote in the brief. “And any attempt to nullify that vote would only act to disenfranchise an Anoka County voter.”

Ramsey County said Emmer’s argument is flawed.

“The petitioners’ argument is fundamentally flawed because they rely on a statute that uses obsolete language that is inconsistent with modern election day practices,” according to a filing with the court.

Dayton’s campaign echoed those sentiments. “Relying on flawed arguments that could and should have been raised well in advance of the election, Candidate Tom Emmer now petitions this Court in an eleventh-hour effort to disrupt and delay the Canvassing Board certification process through the unwarranted disenfranchisement of voters,” Dayton’s legal team wrote. “This effort should be denied.”

Dayton’s team also had strong words for Emmer in a press release on Friday. “By bringing this up now, they’re acting like a four-year-old who just lost playing Candyland — they want to change the rules when they find out they lost. That’s not how elections work in Minnesota,” said Dayton recount director Ken Martin. “We play by the rules.”

The Minnesota Supreme Court is expected to take the issue up on Monday.