Minnesota Ballot High-Jinks: One Man's Story
By Eric Kleefeld - January 15, 2009, 11:27AM
Meet Dennis Peterson, a retired engineering consultant from the Democratic stronghold of St. Louis County, Minnesota, whose absentee ballot was rejected through an apparent clerical error. He voted for Al Franken, and he's now a plaintiff in the new class-action lawsuit from 64 Minnesotans who are seeking to get their votes counted.
Peterson lives in a Democratic bastion, he's donated to Dem state legislative candidates, and he's attended the local Democratic caucuses. It turns out the Coleman campaign vetoed the inclusion of his ballot, under the state Supreme Court's controversial decision to give both campaigns this power over wrongly-rejected ballot envelopes.
"St. Louis County was heavily Democratic. They probably tried to reject every ballot they could," Peterson told Election Central, as he's worked to figure out his situation. "And they had two months to research this thing, so they could probably figure out who was a Democrat."
And likewise, Team Franken had an obvious incentive to track him down and help him.
In late October, Peterson drove 50 miles from his rural home to the courthouse. He submitted an absentee ballot application, then on the spot was given an absentee ballot that he then filled in and handed right back. "Part of the reason I did that was to make sure I did it right," Peterson explained to us.
But this past weekend, Peterson says, he was contacted by the Franken campaign and informed that his vote was never counted, and they invited him to join in as a plaintiff on the class-action lawsuit. "I didn't bother to ask them how they knew I probably voted for them," said Peterson, "though I did tell them off the bat that I did."
The county later told Peterson that the rejection of his ballot had been a clerical error. When the Coleman campaign vetoed Peterson's ballot, their stated reason was that they didn't think his signature was genuine. Peterson finds this baffling: "I had my signature signed in front of the deputy registrar, and I had just showed her my driver's license. This was not a reasonable objection."
So let's ponder this: When the wrongly-rejected absentees ballots were being sorted through, how much did the Coleman and Franken camps know about the votes that they were shooting down? How many problems did the state Supreme Court create by giving the campaigns this power?
And looking further ahead, Coleman also has a list of about 650 rejected envelopes that he wants to be put into the count, and which the local officials around the state still insist should be kept out. Just how much info does he have about those people? And what does the Franken camp know about their own list of rejected ballots, which they're prepared to fight for if it comes to this?
We often say that every vote counts. But this race teaches us that when an election happens in which every vote truly does count, we're all in trouble
charac2
, I'm just glad to be back among the living. hope everyone is well. The time is FLYING, I can't believe it's a matter of days before Obama is sworn in. I certainly don't expect him to be perfect, I am just so relieved that a regime-change is about to take place.
....I am in the middle of the great sneaker hunt right now...(I have looked for the last 90 minutes for my son's sneakers, to no avail!!!)...but I am periodically checking in, so I am out here...even if my responding time is slow.
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