Read the e-mail after the jump.

Dear Minnesota Voters:

You likely know that the recount in the Minnesota senate race is ongoing. Our own
Al Franken is trailing by a very few votes. And, as we have learned, many absentee
ballots are being disqualified.

In order to ensure that all overseas Democratic votes are counted, we urge those of
you who have reason to believe that your ballot was not counted to call your local
election office. Ask if your absentee ballot (state or FWAB) is being counted and
if not, why not. Remember how too many of you ran into the self-certifying issue
when you sent in your ballot for the Nov. 4 election! If you are sure that your
ballot was counted, do not call (we don’t want to inundate or rile local officials
with unnecessary calls). But if have any doubt at all, do call.

Ask to speak with the person in charge of overseas voting. Be sure to get the name
of the person you are speaking to. Be polite but firm. You have a right to know if
your ballot will be counted. Please do not identify yourself as a Democrat. You
are a voter, period!

If you learn that your ballot will not be counted, send an email immediately to
[email obscured] with all the details of your conversation including
your voting address and full contact information (phone and email).

Go to http://www.votesmart.org/voter_county_election_offices.php where you can get the phone number of your local (county) election office.

Please do it NOW.

“My vote was counted,” Guerra said, triumphantly. “They got it November 3. It makes me feel a whole lot better. I thought I would have to live with never knowing. It’s an important election.”

Guerra’s experience has left her husband, Chris Farley, of the opinion that it’s “onerous” to require that out-of-state absentee ballots carry the signature of a registered Minnesota voter as witness, or the signature and seal of a notary public.

[M]y wife spent part of the afternoon on the Saturday before the election trying to get a notary. She told me she went to a local bank (where you can always find a notary). They asked if she was a customer. Nope, she was not. So they told her they would not notarize anything at any price. … After she called to tell me this, I remembered that my mother, who also lives in Utica, NY, is a notary public … Phew! Finding a notary public is a somewhat obscure skill. I bet the vast majority of young voters, who’ve never needed to have anything notarized in their lives, have no clue where to go for this service. It’s pretty obvious that this requirement suppresses absentee voter participation.

Only 12 other states have witness/notary requirements on par with Minnesota’s. A few others require a second signature if the voter has received assistance in completing the ballots, but most have no such requirement at all.

“It’s just weird considering Minnesota’s otherwise liberal voting laws,” comments Farley.

Elias told a news conference this morning of the case in Beltrami County (where officials have already provided the names Franken seeks) in which an elderly woman’s absentee ballot was rejected because her current stroke-impaired signature didn’t match the signature on file.

Pressed for more examples, Elias and campaign spokesman Andy Barr declined, refusing even to enumerate how many such cases it had learned of, responding that learning about more such cases was the point of the lawsuit.

Another reason counties reject absentee ballots is improper witnessing, Elias noted — a point confirmed by Beth Fraser, director of government affairs at the Minnesota Secretary of State’s office, who also said in an interview with the Minnesota Independent that late-arriving absentee ballots get rejected.

UPDATE: Barr tells Minnesota Public Radio that the Franken campaign had gotten the Beltrami County story wrong and the unnamed woman’s absentee ballot had been rejected for improper witnessing, not a signature mismatch.

Only about a dozen counties have so far complied with the Franken campaign’s data requests, Elias said. Among the counties denying Franken the names are Minnesota’s largest, Hennepin and Ramsey in the Twin Cities. Elias said the campaign had learned from officials at unspecified counties that the Coleman campaign was also seeking the data, and he invited Coleman to join the suit. If the counties don’t comply, Elias said further legal action could follow.

Here’s video from today’s press conference at Franken campaign headquarters in St. Paul. It begins with spokesman Barr summing up a series of debunked reports about the vote count, followed by attorney Elias’ description of an improperly rejected absentee ballot and the campaign’s lawsuit to learn whose absentee ballots were rejected.