In order to change their vote from Wellstone to Mondale, voters will have to revote, otherwise it doesn't count :) Ruling of MN Supreme Court. 100,000 have to get new ballots before Tuesday. That is the law, the law is very clear--Andrew Napolitano.

-- Anonymous, October 31, 2002

Answers

Supreme Court orders new absentee ballots for those who ask Associated Press Published Nov. 1, 2002

Minnesota's Supreme Court on Thursday ordered local election officials to send out new absentee and supplemental Senate ballots to people who ask to change their Senate vote in the wake of Sen. Paul Wellstone's death. Acting just hours after hearing arguments in the case, the court's seven justices didn't detail their reasoning. But the order requires election officials to fulfill requests for new ballots and count the most recent one they receive.

Democratic Party lawyer Alan Weinblatt had urged the court to either invalidate all Senate votes on absentee ballots, deliver new ballots to anyone who previously applied for one or make a new one available at a voter's request.

Even with the court's quick ruling, there's no guarantee voters will get a new ballot in time to return it before polls close on Tuesday. There are only five days left to Tuesday's election, in which former Vice President Walter Mondale has replaced Wellstone as the Democrats' candidate against Republican Norm Coleman.

Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer said after the hearing that county auditors would be ready to quickly process requests for new ballots. The order, handed down by the court as a whole, requires county auditors to include instructions that state clearly that the second ballot would replace the first one they mailed in. Voters who sent in their ballots and don't want to make a change can do nothing and their vote will count, the order states.

Republicans opposed a blanket re-mailing, but their lawyer told the court the party was willing to accept an order that new ballots be sent to anyone who requests them, which was the Democrats' second choice.

Weinblatt wanted justices to rule that existing absentee ballots should be considered ``spoiled'' if voters who cast them want to change their vote.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of DFL Party Chairman Mike Erlandson and two voters who will be out of the state on Election Day. It alleges that a process outlined by Kiffmeyer, a Republican, and Attorney General Mike Hatch, a Democrat, could disenfranchise people who voted absentee for Wellstone.

Their guidelines had left people with unreturned absentee ballots to either write in Mondale's name or vote in person at their local election office on or before Election Day. People who had already submitted theirs were told to go their election office and request a new ballot.

Weinblatt had asked the court to make replacement absentee ballots available by any means - Web site, fax, even e-mail. But the court order authorized auditors only to use traditional mail.

Kiffmeyer said she would notify auditors as soon as possible. Two county auditors told of the court's decision recommended that people pick up the new absentee ballots in person if they could, saying they doubted voters would have time to get the new ballots returned if they relied on mail.

Pam Heeren, the auditor in Hubbard County, said she ordered ballots Thursday morning in the event that the court ordered new ones. She expected to get them Friday afternoon and have them mailed Saturday to people who ask for them.

``If people call, we will mail them Saturday, which means they will probably go out Monday morning. Is there time to get to where they need to go and back? I doubt it. I understand what they are trying to do, but there's so little time.''

Wellstone was killed last week, along with seven others, in a northern Minnesota plane crash while in a re-election fight against Coleman.

Even before Thursday's ruling, some counties were disregarding the state instructions and mailing new absentee ballots to anyone asking for them. An attorney for Hennepin County, Patrick Diamond, told the court that the county believes voters are entitled to new ballots without regard to why they are requested. Hennepin, which includes Minneapolis and accounts for one-fourth of the state's population, is already doing so.

Hatch said the counties shouldn't be doing it, but had no plans to intervene, saying voters shouldn't be punished for a county's mistake.

Almost 4.5 percent of Minnesotans voting cast absentee ballots in 1998, the last non-presidential election year. Officials expect this year's absentee vote to be from 5 to 8 percent of all ballots cast.

Apart from the legal dispute over absentee ballots, state elections officials have said race results will be delayed by hours on election night. They said there's not enough time to reprogram and test optical scanners to make sure they can properly read a supplemental ballot for the Mondale-Coleman race, meaning they must be hand-counted.

Most of Minnesota's 87 counties, however, are not doing that. In those counties, absentee voters can correct a ballot submitted for Wellstone only by appearing in person at polling places or election offices.

All 4 million ballots originally printed in Minnesota this year bore Wellstone's name, although they have a write-in line for someone else for the U.S. Senate. Printing of supplemental ballots bearing the name of Mondale began shortly after his nomination was certified to Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer at 8:05 a.m. Thursday.

While state officials have suggested that absentee voters for Wellstone -- but not those who have marked other Senate candidates -- would be "out of luck" if they can't cast another ballot, University of Minnesota School of Law Prof. Guy-Uriel Charles said discarding all Senate votes on the old ballots could restore equality in the case.

"They would all be out of luck equally," he said Wednesday.

Charles added that absentee voters are being treated differently based on the county in which live, adding to the problem of unequal protection.

In Sibley County, for example, officials will not send new absentee ballots to voters who already submitted ones, said Karen Ruehling, the county auditor's administrative assistant. She said the auditor decided that state law didn't authorize replacement of absentee ballots already cast.

But in at least 10 counties, officials have concluded that state law allows people who already voted for Wellstone to consider their absentee ballots "spoiled" and to obtain new ones.

According to a survey by the Associated Press, which got responses from 49 of 59 counties it polled on Wednesday, Chippewa, Carlton, Blue Earth, Chisago and Yellow Medicine counties also are sending out replacement ballots.

Hatch argued in court papers that those counties are wrong about the law, but added that new ballots cast by absentee voters should count.

"The state is unable to find a basis for treating absentee ballots as spoiled when there is no finding that the voters acted inappropriately," Hatch said.

Nonetheless, he added, "the voter should not be penalized for the error of the county, and, whenever possible, the intent of the voter should be honored."

Hatch spokeswoman Leslie Sandberg said the attorney general is not issuing advisories or orders for counties to stop distributing replacement ballots.

"We've put out what we believe the law to be," she said. "We're looking for the court to clarify it."

-- Anonymous, October 31, 2002

At least no one is fighting in court to have Wellstone votes count for Mondale.

Or is that for tomorrow's news?

-- Anonymous, November 01, 2002