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COLEMAN FOR U.S. SENATE PRESS RELEASE: “SECRETARY OF STATE’S OFFICE ACTIONS WILL DISENFRANCHISE THOUSANDS OF MINNESOTA VOTERS”

By Michael B. Brodkorb | December 29, 2008

St. Paul – The following statement was released by Coleman for Senate lead Counsel, Fritz Knaak, this evening, in response to an email from Deputy Secretary of State Jim Gelbmann that unilaterally ensures that no rejected absentee ballots will be reviewed and counted in the Senate recount:

“In one fell swoop, the Deputy Secretary of State intends to disenfranchise thousands of Minnesota voters whose absentee ballots may have been improperly rejected. It is stunning that a senior representative of the Secretary of State’s Office would take the position that, because the Franken campaign was unwilling to offer a credible proposal to review rejected absentee ballots, the net result is that no rejected absentee ballots should be reviewed.  His interpretation is simply wrong, and is tantamount to disenfranchisement by decree – and we will have no part of it.  We urge the Secretary of State, and the Franken campaign, to seriously review our proposal that will ensure that more than 1,400 rejected absentee ballots will be reviewed for inclusion in the recount.  To do anything less would be for the Secretary of State’s Office and the Franken campaign to take the position that a lack of agreement on the part of the two campaigns should result in no rejected absentee ballots being reviewed.”

If Gelbmann’s email and position are to be taken literally, local election official who are to begin gathering tomorrow will be prohibited from sorting any rejected absentee ballots because the two campaigns could not reach an agreement.  Furthermore, Gelbmann himself rejected efforts by the Coleman campaign to have a proposed list provided to county officials to pull for review of rejected absentee ballots.

“The Deputy Secretary of State actively interfered in our ability to provide a proposed list of rejected absentee ballots to be pulled by local election officials for review,” Knaak added.  “And, then, after standing in the way of this effort, he sent an email out late today basing his decision on his claim that the Coleman and Franken campaigns didn’t meet a deadline.  It is incomprehensible that the Deputy Secretary of State would take this position when in fact he himself is now creating a clear crisis in this process by ensuring that no rejected absentee ballots will be allowed to be sorted by local election officials. We hope that he and the Franken campaign will re-evaluate their position and accept our offer to ensure that more than 1,400 rejected absentee ballots are reviewed for counting.”

Text of Gelbmann’s email is as follows:

From: Jim Gelbmann
Sent: Monday, December 29, 2008 4:48 PM
To: ‘fknaak@klaw.us’; ‘Tony Trimble’; ‘Lillehaug,David’; ‘K Hamilton’
Subject: Additions To Wrongfully Rejected Ballots

Gentlemen:

It would appear as if Rule 15 that we adopted last week would preclude the addition of any additional wrongfully rejected ballots unless both candidates agree.  That list would have had to have been forwarded to the counties by 3:00 p.m. today.

I assume the rule now prevents any additions to the approximately 1350 ballots that the counties have identified as being wrongfully rejected.

Rule 15 states, in pertinent part:

15.  By 3:00 p.m. on Monday, December 29th, the candidates’ representatives will forward to the local election officials a list of all additional rejected absentee ballots for which both candidates’ representatives now agree were wrongfully rejected.

To my knowledge, no such list was forwarded to the counties by the 3:00 p.m. deadline.

My best regards.

Sincerely,

Jim

Jim Gelbmann
Deputy Secretary of State
180 State Office Building
Saint Paul, Minnesota  55155
(651) 201-xxxx (office)
(651) 334-xxxx (cell)

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