Chris Steller

Hi ho, Nate Silver! If recount’s ballot challenges rise exponentially, they’ll hit 2,500

Simple math tells us that if the Al Franken forces and the Norm Coleman camp keep ramping up the ballot challenges, they’ll reach a combined total of 1,732 challenged ballots by the end of Minnesota’s U.S. Senate recount. That’s if each campaign continues to increase its number of challenges in the neighborhood of 140 per [...]

Challenged ballots on pace to top 1,700 after Day Two of recount

Two days into Minnesota’s statewide election recount, Al Franken and Sen. Norm Coleman are challenging ballots at a pace that could end up sending more than 1,700 disputed votes to the state’s Canvassing Board to sort out: Coleman’s crowd has challenged 374 so far, Franken’s 360. As that number grows, the margin between the rival candidates has shrunk, with 42.33 percent of ballots already recounted. New figures from the Minnesota Secretary of State’s office indicate that Coleman’s lead now stands at 129. It’s only a snapshot in a process that hasn’t yet reached the halfway mark, but it’s a snapshot in which the vaunted Coleman “victory” appears to be fading fast.

Rybak likes idea of White House urban policy czar — enough to be it?

Mayor R.T. Rybak of Minneapolis did an excellent job today on Minnesota Public Radio of extolling the virtues of the proposed urban policy officein President-elect Barack Obama’s White House. He did a fairly miserable job of professing a lack of interest in whether Obama might offer him the job running it.
It’s a red-tape-cutting position that [...]

Franken picks up votes in GOP areas

The campaign of Democrat Al Franken today trumpeted net gains during the first day of Minnesota’s U.S. Senate election recount even in Republican-leaning parts of the state. “We have reason to be optimistic,” recount attorney Marc Elias told reporters at an afternoon press conference. “We are picking up votes across the state.” The candidate himself — seldom seen locally since recount gears began turning — shared that view, according to communications director Andy Barr. “Al is cautiously optimistic,” Barr said.

Second time’s the charm for rejected absentee voter

Paula Guerra, the St. Paul woman who tried to vote absentee from New York State where she’s caring for an ailing parent, phoned the Ramsey County Elections office Wednesday afternoon to check on her ballot. As the Minnesota Independent reported yesterday, the county had rejected her first absentee ballot due to improper witnessing and she wanted to know whether her second attempt had arrived on time and passed muster. “I thought I would have to live with never knowing,” she said.

Franken’s deficit dips below 200 on Day One of Minnesota’s U.S. Senate recount

Al Franken closed his vote count gap with incumbent Norm Coleman to 172 on Wednesday, the first day of Minnesota’s statewide U.S. Senate election recount. Both candidates lost votes as officials recounted by hand slightly more than 15 percent of 2.9 million ballots cast — but Coleman lost 70 and Franken only 27. According to [...]

MnIndy video: Franken’s forces cheer judge’s ruling on rejected absentee ballots

At a Wednesday press conference, Al Franken for Senate attorney Marc Elias cheered today’s Ramsey County District Court ruling that the county must provide the campaign with information about whose absentees ballots were rejected in the election earlier this month. Brief video highlight clip after the jump.

MnIndy video: Coleman’s staff ejects reporter from press conference

U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman’s campaign staff ejected a Minnesota Independent reporter from a press conference at campaign headquarters Wednesday afternoon. The MnIndy reporter made it as far as the inside of a small press conference room at a drab office park in St. Paul when a staffer asked who he represented and on that basis said the reporter would have to leave. In response to protests that MnIndy is a news outlet like others in the room, the staffer replied, “Right, and it’s funded by George Soros,” and escorted the reporter out. It’s the fourth time the senator’s campaign has denied access to local independent media at a media availability. Video (think “Blair Witch Project,” set in a boring office interior) after the jump. Spoiler alert: Norm’s door is extremely squeaky.

Voter’s saga shows the perils of absentee balloting

You’ve probably heard and read a lot about Minnesota voters whose absentee ballots got rejected and how those non-votes might affect the incredibly close U.S. Senate race between Norm Coleman and Al Franken. But have you heard even one word yet from those voters?

“Oh, crap.”

Well, now you’ve heard two words.

Can’t tell who you’re insulting at the AG’s office without a program

Al Franken’s lawyers take a lashing from Politics in Minnesota (PIM) — mostly on style points — for their impolitic memorandum in response to an opinion from the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office that the State Canvassing Board needn’t take up the issue of improperly rejected absentee ballots:
And smart lawyers never impugn the integrity of the [...]