ballots

Former U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman said the judges hearing his contest of Minnesota’s statewide recount are “going to have to reflect on” whether a do-over election is needed. Meanwhile, Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele accused Al Franken of “stealing Norm Coleman’s U.S. Senate seat,” and Franken’s lawyers began to make their case in court, with witnesses whose signature mismatches were straight out of a Sherlock Holmes story.

Left to right: Kiffmeyer, Day, Ritchie

Voters who have trouble filling in an oval on a ballot get no sympathy from state Sen. Dick Day and state Rep. Mary Kiffmeyer, leaving Kiffmeyer’s successor as Secretary of State, Mark Ritchie, to preach love, constitutional protection and enfranchisement for tremorous or otherwise-impaired citizens. For all three the [...]

Minnesotans whose political preferences can’t be expressed within the outlines of a tiny oval aren’t likely to get relief this year from ballot reforms proposed at the state Legislature. That’s the message state Sen. Ann Rest and state Rep. Laura Brod had for the breed of voters whose enigmatically marked ballots were on display during the recent Senate recount.

Al Franken’s campaign dismissed as mere theory U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman’s contention that duplicate ballots resulted in more than 100 votes being counted twice in Minnesota’s Senate recount. The Minnesota Supreme Court took a pass on the charges, despite the Coleman camp’s claim that including the contested ballots in a statewide tally would dilute the [...]

After taking a Thanksgiving break, the Minnesota recount is back, with about 14 counties to go and 10 percent of ballots still to be counted. With Friday’s final-count deadline looming, here’s a recap of recent news: Tough math for Franken, Palin v. Ludicris, and another 599 looks at screwy ballots.

A few government-issue desks or folding tables. Stacks of paper. Bleary-eyed officials peering at the umpteenth ink-smudged ballot. This week’s statewide recount has offered little in the way of fodder for photojournalists looking for compelling imagery. Here’s a look at the best and the worst, plus a word on the topic from Twin Cities photographers Alec Soth and Paul Shambroom, a former photojournalist whose fine art work has included a project focusing on government meetings.

MPR’s “Challenged Ballots: You be the judge” post has got to be the site’s top traffic generator ever. I’ve seen it linked locally and nationally, on buttoned-up news sites and Comedy Central’s Indecision ‘08. That last one, which references the infamous contested write-in vote for “Lizard People” (destined to be our “Hanging Chad of Aught Eight”), ends with a few salient questions.