Franken sues to have more votes counted

Democrat Al
Franken has asked a state court to order 27 wrongly rejected absentee ballots
it says were mistakenly included among those disqualified in his race to unseat
Sen. Norm Coleman (R) in Minnesota.

{mosads}Franken filed a
lawsuit in a Minnesota district court Tuesday seeking to force a county to
tally 27 previously disqualified absentee ballots that had not been counted.
The ballots, which were judged to be acceptable by the county, were mistakenly
placed among the disqualified absentee ballots the Franken campaign has sought
to have counted in separate actions.

“These ballots
belong to Minnesotans who took the proper steps to ensure their voices were
heard and, in fact, the county accepted the ballots,” Franken campaign
spokesman Andy Barr said. “They remain uncounted only because of an
administrative error that can and should be fixed. We continue to maintain that
all lawful votes should be counted, and urge the court to enforce that
principle today.”

The hearing
foreshadows the Minnesota Supreme Court’s hearing of a challenge by the Coleman
campaign to contest a decision by the state’s Board of Canvassers that
recommends that Minnesota’s 87 counties open and count absentee ballots
disqualified by local officials for no stated, legal reason.

Coleman
officially leads by 251 votes according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune’s recount tally. That tally takes into
account just over 100 challenged ballots from both campaigns reviewed by the
board starting today. Independent reviews of those challenged ballots by The
Associated Press and the Star-Tribune
have suggested that Franken will pull even or take the lead once the challenged
ballots are resolved.