A quick update for those following the Minnesota Senate recount:
–So far, 171 Minneapolis absentee ballots may have been rejected erroneously. The Secretary of State’s ordered every precinct to sort through their stack of rejected absentee ballots to determine how many may have been rejected by accident after the Canvassing Board refused to rule on whether or not they should be counted. The Franken campaign has argued that as many as 1,000 such ballots were rejected erroneously, and the issue is likely to end up in court.
— Next Tuesday, the Canvassing board is set to begin its review ballots challenged by both campaigns during the recount, but the law is unclear on how that process should be conducted.
— Minneapolis has given up on searching for 133 “mystery” ballots.The Franken campaign argues that they should be counted as they were on Election Day, giving them a net gain of 46 votes. But the Coleman camp disputes that there are missing ballots in the first place.
–Meanwhile, the Pioneer Press is reporting that the FBI is investigating whether a close Norm Coleman friend Nasser Kazeminy tried to funnel money to him through Coleman’s wife’s business, an issue that is also the subject of two lawsuits.
–Currently, Coleman leads the Senate race by 192 votes.