Ramsey County

With the margin between votes for Al Franken and for Norm Coleman running anywhere from 50 to 340 (according to the Franken campaign and the Star Tribune, respectively) in favor of Coleman to 4,108 in favor of Franken (via the Secretary of State’s “incomplete and unofficial” tally, which showed 93.75 percent of precincts recounted as [...]

The campaign of Democrat Al Franken today trumpeted net gains during the first day of Minnesota’s U.S. Senate election recount even in Republican-leaning parts of the state. “We have reason to be optimistic,” recount attorney Marc Elias told reporters at an afternoon press conference. “We are picking up votes across the state.” The candidate himself — seldom seen locally since recount gears began turning — shared that view, according to communications director Andy Barr. “Al is cautiously optimistic,” Barr said.

At a Wednesday press conference, Al Franken for Senate attorney Marc Elias cheered today’s Ramsey County District Court ruling that the county must provide the campaign with information about whose absentees ballots were rejected in the election earlier this month. Brief video highlight clip after the jump.

You’ve probably heard and read a lot about Minnesota voters whose absentee ballots got rejected and how those non-votes might affect the incredibly close U.S. Senate race between Norm Coleman and Al Franken. But have you heard even one word yet from those voters?

“Oh, crap.”

Well, now you’ve heard two words.

As Pat Lopez reports in the Strib, the Al Franken campaign has filed suit against Ramsey County to compel disclosure of the names and addresses of voters whose absentee ballots were rejected.

Legally and politically, it’s a perfectly legitimate move to ensure that every vote is counted, but Team Franken stepped into a PR nightmare by embellishing the news of their lawsuit with the high-pathos anecdotal case of an 84-year-old Beltrami County woman whose ballot was rejected because a stroke had altered her signature.

The Al Franken for Senate campaign announced today it is suing Ramsey County in hopes that a favorable court ruling will compel all Minnesota counties to release the names of voters whose absentee ballots were rejected in last week’s election. Attorney Marc Elias said the campaign may present cases of wrongly rejected absentee ballots to the newly-formed canvassing board that will oversee the recount in the U.S. Senate race between Franken and U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman.

Video and more after the jump.

Inspired by a new Pioneer Press article and Minnesota GOP chair Ron Carey’s mastery of basic math, I decided to try again to understand why Ramsey County officials consider their oversupply of election judges remarkable. Wouldn’t they expect to have more willing judges than they need after they cut the number of available positions in half?
Here’s MPR’s [...]

MnIndy RNC reporter Jeff Severns Guntzel is at the Minneapolis Food Not Bombs house, which was raided by police this morning. Facts are still coming in, but Guntzel says that at 8 a.m. neighbors near the home, located at 2301 23rd Avenue South, reported hearing a loud bang followed by yelling. A single police squad car was parked out front. When Gunztel arrived he saw eight or nine officers enter the house in what he says is apparently a joint operation between officers of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s department and Minneapolis police. According to one witness, the action is related to last night’s raid on the RNC Welcoming Committee’s “convergence space.”

Look for updates after the jump.

Looking for a way to cut expenses, Ramsey County is no longer footing the gas bill for officers with take-home cars, as of June 1. The nearly 100 cops who commute to work in department-provided vehicles are now expected to fork over 33 cents for every mile they drive outside the county (60 of the [...]

In case you’ve been busy, here are a few quick stories from the past week.

Minnesota troops and families were fed and linked up across the world.

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