Coleman wants 700 ballots recounted

Sen. Norm Coleman’s (R-Minn.) campaign on Monday suggested that an additional 650 to 700 ballots should be counted in the state’s contested Senate race.

Coleman’s campaign wants the 650 to 700 ballots, which were not previously identified as wrongfully disqualified, to be counted in addition to as many as 1,350 other disputed ballots.

{mosads}Coleman’s campaign announced earlier Monday it would seek to expand the number of previously rejected ballots that should be reconsidered in his race against Democrat Al Franken. The Associated Press reported that the new ballots identified by Coleman’s campaign skew toward areas where Coleman performed the best.

Franken currently leads Coleman by 46 votes in the contest, according to a running tally compiled by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Coleman led in the running tally on November 5 and continued to remain ahead in the increasingly bitter fight until last week.

Democrats hold 48 seats in the Senate, and would only need a single Republican vote to block a Senate filibuster if Coleman falls to Franken.

The Franken campaign said it may agree to include the 650 ballots, should Minnesota’s counties independently verify that the new ballots were, in fact, wrongly disqualified. However, an attorney for the Franken campaign criticized the incumbent for switching his argument, noting the Coleman campaign initially argued that improperly rejected absentee ballots should not be counted.

“Today, the Coleman campaign, which has since day one objected to the counting of improperly rejected absentee ballots, made clear they have little interest in participating in the process set forth by the Supreme Court to ensure that Minnesotans are not improperly disenfranchised,” said Franken attorney David Lilliehaug.

Franken’s campaign had asked that counties across Minnesota simply count 1,346 ballots identified by counties as wrongly disqualified, and accused Coleman’s campaign of intentionally dragging out the process by not agreeing to count all of those ballots.

Coleman’s campaign agreed to count roughly 600 of the 1,346 ballots, according to a source present for the meeting this afternoon.

Coleman spokesman Mark Drake condemned what he characterized as the Franken campaign’s unwillingness to count the additional votes Coleman’s campaign now wants to count.

“It’s clear the Franken campaign’s mantra about wanting to county every vote was just empty rhetoric,” Drake said. “We intend to ensure that any Minnesotan who cast a valid vote has that vote counted.”