171 uncounted ballots turn up; gain for Franken

[sabra]

Source: Star Tribune

The final day of recounting in Ramsey County in the U.S. Senate race kicked up controversy today when 171 uncounted ballots from Maplewood turned up. The ballots apparently had been uncounted because of a ballot-counting-machine malfunction on Election Day.

Democrat Al Franken made a net gain of 37 votes from the ballots, as he got 91 of the total, to 54 for Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and 26 for other candidates, including Dean Barkley of the Independence Party.

Once those were counted, election officials found that there appeared to be 31 more ballots cast than the number of voters who signed in or voted by absentee ballot at Maplewood's Sixth Precinct, at the Hazelwood Fire Station. Shortly after, they said the explanation was that registration cards accompanying absentee ballots hadn't been recorded, as they should have been; when they were recorded, the number of voters and ballots matched.

The ballot counter malfunctioned after 171 ballots had been feed into the machine, said Ramsey County elections manager Joe Mansky said. When the machinery was replaced, the ballots were in the ballot box but went uncounted until today's recount.

Read more: http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/35382149.html...

[AmyCamus]

1. Al + 37!

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. So Franken is within 20 votes of winning?

Last I heard he was only 50 votes behind.

[ksimons]

3. sound like it is going that way

plus there was this:

Secretary of State Mark Ritchie has sent out a letter to local election officials telling them to separate out the rejected absentee ballots according to what reasons were used to discard them. This could be a sign that his office is taking seriously the Franken camp's contention that roughly 1,000 absentee ballots may have been wrongly thrown out by clerical errors, and should be re-admitted -- or he's just diligently preparing for the inevitable litigation over this matter.

[ksimons]

4. picture of that nasty old machine who screwed this thing up!

lawyers are no doubt lining up to sue the machine LOL

[derby378]

5. Made by Diebold aka Premier, I'm guessing???

It figures...

[SE_Ohio_Dem]

6. Of all the machines, we probably like this one the best, eh?

At least this guy leaves a paper trail, as in the whole darn ballot, for us to look at after the fact and appropriately check the machine's accuracy. There are others with no paper trail that should be taken out to the back 40 and shot. Imagine if MN had those...we'd be listening to Al back on Air America making jokes about the Senator Coleman.

[Ozma]

13. This machine counts PAPER BALLOTS.

It is technically NOT a "voting machine"!

Sorry.

It leaves a very real hard paper ballot to be re-counted by hand.

[FraDon]

15. Gee whiz! • I didn't know Rubbermaid made a paper shredder.

These appeared this election, here in our little Vermont town.

[riqster]

7. This is why paper ballots are ESSENTIAL

Not optional. Essential.

Had MN used DRE's, these votes would have never been found.

[ksimons]

8. papertrail-less machines should be mandated as destroyed

I like the name of this one 'Accu-Vote'
NOT

[proud progressive]

9. lord knows, the senate could use a little honesty.

how refreshing it is to think that franken, a man who has yet to learn how to lie, may well join 99 other very accomplished story tellers.

[Stinky The Clown]

10. So ..... where is the count right now?

[ksimons]

14. current status appears to be...

If you incorporate the 37 votes into the 50 vote margin that the Franken campaign estimated, that would put them just 13 votes behind with about 8 percent of the state's votes still left uncounted. According to the Franken campaign's methodology, the race will effectively be tied heading toward the challenge stage... comin' up next.

[cynthia]

16. check the secretary of state website

it is updated every night around 8 pm

Minnesota Secretary of State

[RavensChick]

11. Down the stretch he comes!!!!!!!!

I'll be so glad when this is over! I have more fun watching paint dry.

[FriendlyReminder]

12. GO GO GO GO GO GO GO!!!!!!

[goclark]

17. Is this the count ? If so......

Precincts Recounted: 95.30% (3936 of 4130) Last update was: 12/2/2008 8:00:01 PM


Statewide Recount Results for US Senate Totals
Nov. 4 Ballots Cast for Norm Coleman 1122217
Nov. 4 Ballots Cast for Al Franken 1124840

[bsiebs]

18. That was the original count...look lower at the actual current count...

Recounted Data Totals Percent
RECOUNT Number of Ballots for Coleman (as recounted) 1119878 41.38
RECOUNT Number of Ballots for Franken (as recounted) 1122413 41.47
RECOUNT Number of All Other Ballots (as recounted) 458290 16.93

RECOUNT COLEMAN and Other Ballots Challenged By FRANKEN 2910 0.11
RECOUNT FRANKEN and Other Ballots Challenged By COLEMAN 3093 0.11

[Endangered Specie]

19. Basically, the challenged ballots are going to decide the election...

whose in charge of ruling on the challenged ballots?

[goclark]

20. Come on Franken ~ this is a real horse race nt

[marshall]

21. I hope all the poll workers are double checking the trunks of their cars!

Now is the time to round up ALL the ballots.