Franken wants rejected Minn. ballots counted

Democrat Al Franken is asking each Minnesota county to reconsider a number of rejected absentee ballots while claiming a four-vote lead in the recount of the undecided Senate race.

The campaign alleges that the absentee ballots were improperly disqualified. Franken is in a tight with Sen. Norm Coleman (R) for the only Senate seat yet to be decided.

{mosads}”Today we are sending a letter to all 87 counties asking them that … the ballots for which there is no legal justification for them not being counted be opened and counted,” said Franken attorney Marc Elias in a conference call Friday.

The Minnesota Secretary of State’s office had ordered counties to sort rejected absentee ballots earlier this week, the fifth category of which includes ballots local officials deem to have been improperly disqualified.

“While we are pleased that we remain ahead in this recount, we want to give our thanks and appreciation for all Minnesota’s local election officials for their commitment to a fair, legal and transparent process,” said Coleman campaign manager Cullen Sheehan in a statement sent during the Franken call. “We are confident that when the Canvassing Board begins meeting on Dec. 16 and ultimately completes its work, that Norm Coleman will continue to be ahead, and will be re-elected to the United States Senate.”

With 99 percent of votes recounted, the Minneapolis Star Tribune said Coleman maintains a 251-vote lead over Franken.

But Franken’s campaign said Friday it leads Coleman by four votes, citing an internal tally that assumes all ballot challenges lodged by both campaigns will be rejected by the state’s Board of Canvassers,

The board will decide on the legitimacy of the challenges at a meeting Dec. 16.

A Rasmussen Reports poll of Minnesota voters released Friday showed that 37 percent of Minnesota voters said only absentee ballots rejected improperly should be counted, while 40 percent of voters say all rejected absentee ballots should be counted. Nineteen percent of Minnesotans said the votes should not be counted at all.

The Franken campaign reiterated its demand that 133 missing ballots, stuck somewhere in an envelope the Minnesota Secretary of State’s office said was marked “1/5,” be found before the recount is considered complete. The 133 votes, from Minneapolis’s Third Ward, are expected to favor Franken.

“I am more convinced than ever these ballots will be found,” Elias said. Yesterday, the Franken campaign had asked the state to conduct a “forensic search” for the ballots, leading the Coleman campaign to attack the Franken campaign for “raiding” polling places like churches in its search.

The Rasmussen survey showed 67 percent of voters in the state expect Coleman to win the recount, while 16 percent believe Franken will win.