State Board of Canvassers unanimously rejected funny boy Franken’s request to count absentee ballots

Franken won’t appeal absentee ballot decision

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.