After absentee ballot loss, Al Franken eyes options

Here’s the latest on SNL comedian Al Franken’s bid to the Senate. Should you toss in the towel? Comment below!

Minnesota’s U.S. Senate showdown is veering down a path toward the courts and possibly the Senate itself after a panel’s ruling on rejected absentee ballots dealt a blow to Democrat Al Franken’s chances.
For the first time, his campaign on Wednesday openly discussed mounting challenges after the hand recount involving Franken and Republican Sen. Norm Coleman concludes. That includes the possibility of drawing the Senate into the fracas.
The state Canvassing Board denied Franken’s request to factor absentee ballots rejected by poll workers into the recount. He sought to overturn the exclusions in cases where ballots were invalidated over signature problems or other voter errors. Coleman’s campaign maintained the board lacked power to revisit those ballots.
Franken entered the recount trailing Coleman by 215 votes out of 2.9 million ballots. As of Wednesday night, Coleman was up 292 votes, including results from Nov. 4 and recounted ones.
All told, 86 percent of the ballots have been recounted. However, about 4,740 ballots have been challenged by the two campaigns that could fall to the canvassing board to rule on. – from AP

The entire recount must be done by next Friday, Dec. 5. The State Canvassing Board then meets on December 16 to start reviewing challenged ballots. The board intends to declare either Norm Coleman or Al Franken the winner a few days later.

But even then, the election may not be settled. A court challenge is likely, and both sides are preparing for the possibility that the Senate itself could weigh in.

After saying for weeks that he was going to take the recount process one step at a time, Democrat Al Franken’s attorney now appears to be jumping ahead.

On Wednesday the State Canvassing Board rejected Franken’s appeal to review any rejected absentee ballots, but the board did leave open the chance that they could examine any rejected ballots that were discarded for errors outside the voter’s control. Afterwards Franken’s Attorney Marc Elias said he would continue to work to make sure that all legitimate votes are counted. – from MN

Al Franken’s campaign said Wednesday that it will not appeal a decision by Minnesota’s state canvassing board not to include absentee ballots that Franken’s campaign says were wrongfully rejected in the recount between the former Saturday Night Live comedian and Republican incumbent Norm Coleman.

But Marc Elias, Franken’s lead recount attorney, said in a conference call with reporters that the campaign may challenge the canvassing board’s decision in court if the panel, which is scheduled to meet again next week on the matter, upholds its decision.

“We are not going to appeal” the canvassing board’s ruling, Elias said. But “I’m not going to take anything off the table. We’re going to take this one step at a time and see what the canvassing board has to say.

“We are encouraged that the board is going to have further deliberations next week, preventing at least some of the absentee voters from being disenfranchised, including those rejected for obvious errors.” – from here