Bob CollinsThe Minnesota Court of Appeals has a nice sense of timing.
On primary election day, the Court of Appeals today rejected KSTP’s request that rejected absentee ballots in the Al Franken-Norm Coleman recount be made public.
“The plain language provides that when absentee ballots are sealed and have not been opened by an election judge, they are nonpublic or private. The rejected absentee ballots in possession of Ramsey County are indisputably sealed and have not been opened by an election judge. Under the unambiguous language of section 13.37, subdivision 2, the absentee ballots therefore are either nonpublic or private,” the court wrote in its decision today (See pdf of opinion).
A lower court had previously ruled that KSTP could have access to the ballots to determine if their inclusion would’ve changed the outcome of the Senate race.
