Posted: January 12, 2009

MN Senate race - talk of reviewing even more ballots

Not much has changed in the story of the election contest.  The 3-judge panel has not been announced and no new documents have been filed in the suit.  The Star Tribune had a weekend story, however, about the Coleman campaign's effort to review more ballots than have so far been contemplated.  The campaigns have requested thousands of documents from the counties to aid their determination of what else should be considered in this contest.  Some counties took another look at all or some of the 654 absentee ballots that Coleman claims should have been reconsidered for inclusion.  So far, only one of these, from Mower County, is now being considered for inclusion because officials believe the signatures on the application and the ballot do in fact match.  The St. Paul Legal Ledger spoke with ex-Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer who believes absentee ballots should not have been included at all in the recount.  She also suggested that wrongly accepted absentee ballots should have been reviewed in addition to wrongly rejected ones but acknowledged that would require a huge effort by officials.  The campaigns did not raise the issue of wrongly accepted absentee ballots during the recount.  The Minnesota Independent has a story about the cost to a voter to challenge the rejection of their ballot.  One Minnesota lawyer estimates it to be $3,000-5,000.