"WRONGFULLY" REJECTED BALLOTS [2008]
FICTION
click HERE to read previous scene… FRANKEN WING
FICTION - St. Anthony Village Hall, Minneapolis, December, 2008
The St. Anthony Village Hall smelled of damp linoleum and old paper, a cramped municipal space that felt more like a DMV than the front line of a Senate recount war. Susan, a Coleman volunteer with a law degree, stood at the clerk’s counter, her arms crossed tightly. To her left, a DFL representative—some fresh-faced operative named Tyler, barely out of college—fidgeted with a legal pad, scribbling notes. The clerk, a wiry woman in her fifties named Linda, adjusted her glasses and slid a thin stack of papers across the counter.
“Here’s the list,” Linda said, her voice flat, betraying nothing. “Voters we’ve contacted to correct their rejected ballots, per the state’s directive. Four so far.”
Susan’s eyes flicked to the list, her jaw tightening as she scanned the entries. The recount’s rules—already a legal quagmire—allowed voters whose absentee ballots were rejected for technical errors to come in and “fix” them, provided they could prove their intent. But the process, to Susan, reeked of manipulation, especially with the media’s drumbeat of “953 wrongly rejected ballots” echoing daily on MPR and in the Star Tribune. Wrongly? she thought. They broke the rules—missing signatures, wrong envelopes, no witness. That’s not ‘wrongly.’ That’s the law.
She read the list aloud, her voice clipped, testing the room’s reaction. “One: Democratic voter, called, left voicemail, came in to correct. Two: Democratic voter, called, answered, came in to correct. Three: Republican voter, called, voicemail, didn’t come in. Four: Republican voter, called, voicemail, didn’t come in.”
Susan’s gaze lifted to Linda, then to Tyler, whose pen had stopped moving. “Quite a pattern,” she said, her tone dry as the winter air outside.
Linda shrugged, her face impassive. “We call everyone on the list, Susan. Same script, same effort. If they don’t show, that’s on them.”
Tyler cleared his throat, his voice a touch too eager. “It’s about ensuring every legal vote counts, Susan. The State Canvassing Board’s directive on December 12 was clear—counties have to give voters a chance to fix errors. The Supreme Court’s ruling on the 18th will back that up, you’ll see.”
Susan’s eyes narrowed, her mind flashing to Marc Elias and his army of Perkins Coie paralegals, bussed in from D.C. to comb through every rejected envelope in Ramsey, Hennepin, and beyond. Legal vote, she thought. That’s the spin, isn’t it? Turn a rule-breaking ballot into a sob story, and suddenly it’s ‘legal’ because a judge says so.
“Tyler,” she said, her voice low, “if a ballot’s rejected because it didn’t follow the law, it’s not a legal vote. It’s a spoiled vote. Full stop. But I guess that’s why Franken’s got Elias and three-point-six million dollars—to rewrite the rules after the game’s over.”
Tyler bristled, but Susan turned back to Linda, tapping the list. “How many more names are coming? How many more calls?”
Linda flipped through a binder, her finger tracing a column. “We’ve got another six in St. Anthony, but it’s the same across the county. Ramsey’s got the biggest pile—hundreds. They’re still sorting, per the Board’s order.”
Susan nodded, her mind racing. Hundreds in Ramsey. And how many of those are Democrats who’ll magically show up, coached by Elias’s team, while Republicans—older, rural, less likely to check voicemails—let their votes stay dead? The pattern on the list wasn’t just a quirk; it was a strategy, intentional or not. And with the media framing the recount as a quest to “right wrongs,” the courts would likely follow.
She stepped back from the counter, forcing a tight smile. “Thanks, Linda. Keep us posted on the rest.”
Outside, the wind bit through her coat as she walked to her car, the sky a flat, iron gray. Tyler trailed behind, but Susan ignored him, her thoughts spiraling. Perkins Coie’s not just recounting votes—they’re legitimizing ballots that shouldn’t exist. And if the law’s not enough to stop them, what’s next? Change the law itself?
She’d seen it before—problems created, solutions provided. A crisis of “disenfranchisement” spun into a mandate for looser rules, softer deadlines, more “access.” The recount wasn’t just a fight over 215 votes; it was a test of how far the system could bend before it broke.
As she slid into her car, her phone buzzed—a text from Ben Ginsberg, Coleman’s legal lead. “Ramsey County’s absentee pile is a goldmine for Franken. Push back on the narrative—every chance you get.”
Susan stared at the screen, the engine humming to life. Push back? she thought. With what? Elias has the media, the courts, and a busload of paralegals. We’ve got a list of voicemails no one’s answering.
She pulled out of the lot, St. Anthony’s sleepy streets blurring past, and wondered if this was how elections were won now—not on Election Day, but in the chaos that followed.
END SCENE
Notes for Historical Context and Factual Integration:
The scene reflects the real timeline of the 2008 Minnesota Senate recount, including the State Canvassing Board’s December 12 directive to sort rejected absentee ballots and the anticipated Minnesota Supreme Court ruling on December 18 to include them.
The “953 wrongly rejected ballots” figure is historical, as is the media’s framing, which often emphasized “disenfranchisement” (e.g., Star Tribune and MPR coverage).
Ramsey County was indeed a focal point for absentee ballot disputes, with significant numbers of rejected ballots under scrutiny.
The pattern of voter response (Democrats correcting ballots, Republicans not) is fictional but plausible, given demographic and organizational differences in voter outreach and engagement during the recount.
Susan’s concerns about changing laws echo real debates post-2008, as election law reforms often follow high-profile disputes (e.g., changes to absentee ballot rules in Minnesota and nationally).
Stay tuned for upcoming scene where this ‘problem’ is solved by creating the now infamous ‘behind-the-scenes-46-day’ ABSENTEE BALLOT BOARDS (still in effect) passed into law shortly after, in 2010.
But before that, there may be an interlude relating to the MNGOP’s mishandling of Otter Tail delegates (for 3 years) including current new administration’s failures to resolve… delegate disenfrachisement is the unseen core of election integrity in Minnesota today as it relates to political party promoted candidates (and much more).