Colman In Sharp Disagreement With Election Officials On Which Ballots To Count

Decisions about which rejected absentee ballots should be counted could very well determine who the Minnesota's next Senator will be.  Those decisions will be made in 13 different locations across the state on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.  

According to the Star Tribune, the Coleman campaign has indicated it is in sharp disagreement with county officials on which ballots should be counted.  The counties have identified about 1,350 absentee ballots that were improperly rejected.  This weekend the Franken campaign said it was OK with counting all of them.  Today the Coleman campaign indicated it only wants to count 136 of them and wants to count several hundred more that the counties have not identified as being rejected in error.

Franken leads in the recount by an estimated 47 votes.  That total may change tomorrow when the State Canvassing Board officially adds in all of the votes that were on withdrawn challenged ballots.  The UpTake is the official video media pool for that meeting and will start streaming live at 9 am.

Minnesota's Supreme Court has ordered rejected absentee ballots can only be counted if local election officials and the campaigns agree they were rejected improperly.  They have until January 4th to come to an agreeement.

The UpTake has obtained the times and places that the local election officials and the campaigns will meet to publicly discuss which ballots should be counted.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 30TH

County Board Room
Saint Louis County Courthouse
100 North Fifth Avenue
Duluth, MN
9:00 a.m.

County Board Room
Beltrami County
Bemidji, MN
10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Council Board Chambers and
   Conference Room 1
Olmsted County
Rochester, Minnesota
1:00 p.m.

Kandiyohi Government Center
Kandiyohi County
2200 23rd Street NE
Willmar, MN
1:30 p.m.

County Board Room
Sherburne County
Sherburne County Government Center
Highway 10
Elk River, MN
8:30 a.m.

Room 710
Anoka County
Anoka County Government Center
Anoka, MN
9:00 a.m.

County Board Room
Dakota County
1590 Highway 55
Hastings, MN
1:00 p.m.


WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 31ST

County Board Room
Dakota County
1590 Highway 55
Hastings, MN
9:00 a.m. (Continued From Tuesday)

Location To Be Determined
Wright County
Buffalo, MN
9:00 a.m.

First Floor Auditorium
Blue Earth County Government Center
410 South Fifth Street
Mankato, MN
10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Multiple Rooms
Otter Tail County Government Service Center
500 Fir Avenue West
Fergus Falls, Minnesota
9:00 a.m.

Meeting Rooms 1 and 2
Crow Wing County
Land Services Building
322 Laurel Street
Brainerd, MN
10:00 a.m.

Room To Be Determined
Polk County
612 North Broadway, Suite 207
Crookston, MN
10:00 a.m.


FRIDAY, JANUARY 2nd

County Board Room
Beltrami County
Bemidji, MN
10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
  (Second Meeting)

180 State Office Building
Secretary of State's Office
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Saint Paul, MN
10:00 a.m.