Coleman Camp Still Denying There Are Missing Ballots

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Coleman Campaign Still Denying There Are Missing Ballots
By Eric Kleefeld - December 9, 2008, 9:35AM



The never-ending Minnesota recount has taken a turn into the truly surreal: The Coleman campaign is still denying that those 133 missing ballots exist at all, even though city officials have pinpointed the exact envelope the ballots were in!

"The decision by a senior member of the secretary of state's office, as well as the secretary of state himself, to insist there are missing ballots when there are any number of other plausible scenarios is disappointing," Coleman spokesman Luke Friedrich told the Star Tribune, adding that officials should not be "just accepting the political spin of the Franken campaign."

Actually, we do know that the ballots exist -- Minneapolis officials have explained that this precinct placed their votes in envelopes numbered "1 of 5," "2 of 5," etc., but the "1" envelope is gone and the city officials have given up on finding it after an exhaustive search. The rub here is that if the loss of the envelope is not somehow compensated for in this deep-blue precinct, Al Franken would lose a net 46 votes -- quite possibly enough to flip the result to Coleman.

This latest legal mess is only just beginning. As we reported on Friday, the state has the option of defaulting bak to the Election Night count for this particular precinct, effectively undoing the loss. The Coleman campaign seems to be gearing up to oppose such a move, and the state should probably be preparing for a lawsuit over this issue no matter which call they mak