Minnesota News

US Senate Race - Questions and Answers

January 10, 2009

By Rachel E. Stassen-Berger, Pioneer Press
rstassen-berger@pioneerpress.com

Minnesotans cannot be blamed for double-checking their calendars.

Yes, it is January 2009. Yes, the 2008 U.S. Senate race isn't settled. And yes, although it seems we have been reliving Election Day over and over again, the contest won't be done by Groundhog Day.

And why doesn't Minnesota have the final verdict on whether Democrat Al Franken or Republican Norm Coleman received the most votes Nov. 4, 2008? Well, it's complicated.

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Editorial: Court review is key in Senate recount. Canvassing Board lacked authority to settle key disputes.

January 6, 2009

Star Tribune Opinion

The State Canvassing Board has spoken. Based on a meticulous hand count of every ballot in its lawful reach, the board certified Monday that DFLer Al Franken got more votes than Republican Norm Coleman in the Nov. 4 U.S. Senate election.

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Twice-rejected Minn. voters could miss out in end

December 31, 2008

by Brian Bakst, Associated Press
This article appeared on the Minnesota Public Radio website - see link below

In theory, Minnesotans whose absentee ballots were rejected, reconsidered, then rejected again have a last chance to get their voice heard before the end of the state's U.S. Senate recount. In practice, they're probably out of luck.

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Up next in Senate recount: Which ballots to count

December 27, 2008

All must agree on absentee votes; result could tip scales.

By PAT DOYLE, Star Tribune

Beginning a critical new stage in Minnesota's U.S. Senate recount, the campaigns of Sen. Norm Coleman and Al Franken are expected to spend today and Sunday identifying absentee ballots that they believe were improperly rejected and should now be counted.

Because Franken has an unofficial lead of 46 votes over Coleman at this stage, the rejected absentee ballots have the potential to tip the scales.

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Court orders rejected absentees into Senate count

December 19, 2008

by Elizabeth Stawicki, Minnesota Public Radio

St. Paul, Minn. — The Minnesota Supreme Court has ruled that the estimated 1,600 wrongly rejected absentee ballots must be counted in the U.S. Senate recount, but only after the Secretary of State, local elections officials and the Coleman and Franken campaigns agree on a process to identify them.

Democrat Al Franken's campaign had argued that the ballots should be included in the recount. Imcumbent Republican Sen. Norm Coleman's campaign went to the court to stop the count until clear standards could be established.

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Editorial: Recount reveals an election weak spot. Changes needed to reduce absentee ballot error rate.

December 16, 2008

Minneapolis Star Tribune

With each passing day, it's increasingly clear that more is at stake in the Norm Coleman-Al Franken recount than who will represent Minnesota in the 2009 U.S. Senate. The recount is also a test of the state's electoral process. Its integrity, efficiency, reliability and accountability are all on the line.

That test moves into a critical phase today, when the state Canvassing Board begins determining the fate of ballots whose marks produced disagreement between election judges and campaign agents over voter intent.

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Your guide to the rest of the recount. What is known and what is yet unknowable in Coleman-Franken race

December 14, 2008

By Rachel E. Stassen-Berger, Pioneer Press
rstassen-berger@pioneerpress.com

When the results of Minnesota's U.S. Senate election on Nov. 4 were so close that the winner wasn't clear, state law clearly dictated what to do — head into an automatic hand recount of all 2.9 million ballots.

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In Senate recount, wrongly rejected votes seem more numerous than first thought

December 11, 2008

By Rachel E. Stassen-Berger and Jason Hoppin

At least 358 Minnesotans did everything right on their absentee ballots — they sent them in on time, signed them where they should have and were properly registered — but their votes were not counted.

Those voters live in just 12 of the state's 87 counties and their ranks will undoubtedly grow. Counties and the state have just begun figuring out how many mistakenly or improperly rejected absentee ballots there are.

The fate of those ballots is hotly contested but unclear.

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Disputed ballots: Judge for yourself You can join in the puzzling over scribbles and ovals and arrows.

November 29, 2008

By BOB VON STERNBERG and GLENN HOWATT, Star Tribune staff writers

There are scribbles. There are check-offs and cross-outs. There are self-drawn ovals. There are ballots left completely blank. There are arrows sketched in by voters who apparently miss an older form of ballot. And, occasionally, there is commentary, like the voter who scrawled "GOD!!!" above the names of Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and his Democratic challenger, Al Franken.

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