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Minneopolis Star Tribune The projected number prompted the state Canvassing Board this morning to ask election officials in all 87 counties to count the improperly rejected ballots.
By PAUL WALSH and BOB VON STERNBERG, Star Tribune Staff Writers
Last update: December 12, 2008 - 1:15 PM
It is surprising if Minnesota election laws do not permit the Canvassing Board to count what apparently were mistakenly rejected absentee … read more ballots. If, however, that interpretation of the law is correct, the Board is proceeding in the right way by obtaining rulings from each of the local boards of how many such wrongly rejected absentee ballots exist.
Several hundred absentee ballots have been wrongfully rejected in the Nov. 4 election and that total could more than double by the time all Minnesota counties turn in their reviews, the secretary of state's office this morning told a panel charged with overseeing the recount in the overtime U.S. Senate contest between Republican incumbent Norm Coleman and Democratic rival Al Franken.
Moments later, the five-member state Canvassing Board voted unanimously to ask election officials in all 87 counties to count the improperly rejected ballots. However, the board members stressed that they only have the authority to make a recommendation.
In response, the Coleman campaign announced its intention to urge the state Supreme Court to order counties to follow a standard procedure in counting rejected absentee ballots. The campaign also said that counting these ballots should be halted until the court rules.
The board was told this morning that 49 counties have examined 4,823 rejected absentee ballots and 638 of those were determined by local officials to have been wrongfully rejected.
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