MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (CNN) - Democrat Al Franken's campaign made yet another attempt Monday to have certain rejected absentee ballots thrown into the mix when the recount officially commences Wednesday. They've now taken their argument straight to Secretary of State Mark Ritchie's canvassing board.
Last week, Franken attorney Mark Elias said the campaign filed a lawsuit with Ramsey County asking for data on rejected ballots. However, the county has set this Wednesday to hear the case - in other words, too late for their decision to make a difference since the statewide hand recount will have begun that morning.
When first laid out last Thursday, Elias gave the example of an elderly woman who's absentee ballot was rejected because, according to the Franken campaign, her signature did not match the one on file merely because she had had a stroke. It was the only example given to reporters after numerous prodding.
That story turned out to be inaccurate, and its taken the campaign four days to offer any other reasons as to why, in their minds, a rejected ballot should ever be counted.
Asked what the campaign plans to do if at their Tuesday meeting the canvassing board decides they will continue with current plan and not count rejected ballots, Franken spokeswoman Colleen Murray said they're taking it one step at a time but added that they have not ruled out anything, specifically, asking for a postponement of the recount.
The Coleman campaign fired back with a press release saying the Franken campaign "intends to stop recount vote."
“The Franken campaign’s decision to demand that the State Canvassing Board accept rejected absentee ballots was a blatant admission they do not have the votes to overturn the re-election of Norm Coleman,” Knaak said. “However, their public statement that – failing to succeed in this desperate and unprecedented act tomorrow – they will ask the State Canvassing Board to stop the recount is breathtaking in its far-reaching scope that could leave Minnesotans without a senator in January. Minnesotans will not stand for this obvious effort to win through a legal system what the Franken campaign could not win through the ballot box.”