Campaign Diaries

Last week, the panel of three judges entrusted with Norm Coleman’s election contest issued a major ruling allowing the Republican to contest the exclusion of up to 4,800 rejected absentee ballots. But the court added that Coleman had to introduce evidence that these ballots had been improperly rejected; a daunting task that suggested an agonizingly long process in which the two campaigns argued over ballots on a one-by-one basis.

Thankfully, there will be a bit more order in the process. Last night, the judges issued an order that will help push the trial towards a speedier (and more clear) resolution. They outlined 19 different categories of rejected absentee ballots and instructed the Coleman and Franken camps to be ready to argue on Thursday whether each category of ballot should be counted or rejected.

Once the judges hear from both sides and issue a ruling on which category of ballots to count and to reject, it will become much easier to  figure out what to do which the 4,800 rejected absentee ballots based on the reason of each ballot’s exclusion! This will get us much closer to a resolution: These rejected absentee ballots are Coleman’s main hope of victory. While he is pursuing other alleys (especially allegations of double-counting), he cannot close the gap without making up a significant amount of ground among absentee votes. (I explained the math in early January.)

Here are the 19 categories of absentee ballots, based on the PDF of the judges’ order. (You will see that many of them are very technical, but this is a fascinating illustration of just how confusing this entire process has been!)

Should the absentee ballot be rejected if:

(reasons relating to a voter’s not being registered; note that non-registered citizens can send in voter registration forms with their ballot)

• the voter is not registered to vote anywhere
• the voter is not registered but was not issued voter registration materials due to an election official’s error
• the voter is not registered and failed to sign his voter registration materials
• the voter is not registered, failed to sign the voter certification box but did sign the absentee ballot elsewhere

(reasons relating to voting in the wrong precinct)

• the voter is not registered in his precinct of residence
• the voter sent a ballot to the wrong precinct
• the voter sent a ballot to the wrong precinct due the an election official’s error

(reasons relating to discrepancies between the application and the ballot itself)

• the absentee ballot application and the ballot itself have different signatures
• the absentee ballot application and the ballot itself have different addresses
• there is no evidence that the voter filed an absentee ballot application
• there is no evidence that an overseas voter filed an absentee ballot application

(reasons relating to lateness of delivery)

• the ballot was delivered in person by a proper agent on Election Day but after the statutory deadline
• the ballot was delivered in person by the voter on Election Day but after the statutory deadline
• the ballot sent by an overseas voter arrived late

(reasons relating to signature)

• the absentee ballot application has not been signed
• the absentee ballot has not been signed but the instructions for signing were obstructed by the address sticker

(reasons relating to failures in witness certification)

• the voter has used a notary public as a witness but the notarial stamp is missing
• the witness has failed to check the proof of residence box on a non-registered voter’s absentee ballot envelope
• the witness has failed to provide his street address

The Coleman campaign’s argument will not necessarily be that ballots in a certain category deserve to be counted; rather, they will use a uniform standard argument to argue that all ballots belonging to a category should be included if some ballots that fall into that category have already been counted. (Because the count is done county by county, there are some discrepancies across the state as to what ballots that have been included and rejected - and this is something Coleman’s lawyers have been working to demonstrate.)

In another major decision linked to the proceedings above, the same panel of three judges ruled to include 23 new ballots in the count. Around 60 voters had signed affidavits saying that they had voted for Al Franken and protesting that their absentee ballot had been rejected; the judges ruled in favor of 23 of them, adding they did not have enough evidence about the others for now.

While this ruling is expected to boost Franken’s total by 23 votes (bringing it to 248), it is not upsetting the Coleman campaign. There are similar procedures undertaken by Republican voters, and, as far as GOP lawyers are concerned, the judges’ ruling vindicates their effort to expand the universe of valid ballots and opens the door to a Coleman comeback.

The reason the Minnesota recount has lasted so long is that most decisions taken by the Canvassing Board and by the judges were satisfying to both camps and heralded as victories by both parties.