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Al Franken’s campaign is “disappointed” that as many as
12,000 absentee ballots will not be counted in Minnesota’s hotly contested
Senate race but will not appeal the decision. On Wednesday the state Board of Canvassers unanimously
rejected Franken’s (D) request to count those ballots.
In a conference call with reporters following the
decision, Franken recount attorney Marc Elias said the campaign was
“disappointed” in the decision. But he added: “We are not going to appeal.”
Elias noted the board “has indicated they will consider
this further next week” at another meeting and said the campaign “will no doubt
have more to say” at that point.
He also expressed confidence that, in the end, “these
votes will be counted.”
He put off any questions about future possible legal
action until after the board meets next week. “I’m not going to take anything
off the table,” Elias said. “We’re going to take this one step at a time and
see what the canvassing board has to say.”
The bipartisan canvassing board voted 5-0 against a brief
by the Franken campaign arguing that some portion of absentee ballots were
improperly disqualified under Minnesota election law.
Those 12,000 votes represent between 4 percent and 5
percent of all absentee ballots cast in the election.
At the start of the recount Franken trailed Sen. Norm
Coleman (R-Minn.) by 215 votes out of the 2.9 million ballots cast. About 80
percent have been recounted and Coleman has maintained a slim lead.
But between the two campaigns there are about 3,600 votes
being challenged.
Coleman’s campaign ridiculed Franken’s challenge as a
"discovery" process for an eventual legal challenge to the results
and argued the board didn’t have authority to revisit those ballots.
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