Recount trial analysis: Which absentee voters matter to Coleman?
By Emily Kaiser in Franken vs. Coleman
Monday, Feb. 9 2009 @ 9:40AM
Norm Coleman's campaign is pushing hard on one issue during their recount trial: Count every legally cast vote. But what votes matter most? Those on GOP turf, says the Pioneer Press.
Check out the analysis below.
The Pioneer Press looked at all of the ballots that Coleman's campaign brought to trial to have counted in the final tally.
Their analysis shows some serious cherry picking by the campaign: "A Pioneer Press analysis of the counties and cities the ballots come from shows those areas overwhelmingly favor Coleman."
More from the PiPress:
Of the 4,739 ballots Coleman wants the court to consider, 3,015 come from areas that voted for him over Franken in the Nov. 4 election. About a third of the ballots are from areas that gave Coleman more than 55 percent of their votes.
Carver County, which gave Coleman nearly 67 percent of the vote and a more lopsided victory than any other county, contributed 370 of those ballots.
Even in Hennepin County, whose already tabulated votes went nearly 60 percent to Franken, most of the absentee ballots Coleman wants reconsidered come from cities that voted for the Republican.In defense of Coleman and Franken:
Coleman's lawyers say they were not cherry picking and simply brought the ballots they thought had the best chance of being counted. The judges decided to only consider those they brought to trial. And they say their list helps to even out the disproportionate favoring of Franken during the recount.
Franken's campaign is also presenting 700 ballots they would like to have considered and those ballots heavily favor Franken strongholds.
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