Polinaut: December 8, 2008 Archive

The Daily Digest: 12-8-08

Posted at 8:17 AM on December 8, 2008 by Tom Scheck
Filed under: Daily Digest

Local elections officials in some counties will begin sorting rejected absentee ballots today (sans Houston County where officials say they found two that could have been wrongly rejected). The State Canvassing Board is awaiting a legal opinion to determine whether it can direct any wrongly rejected absentee ballots to be opened.

The Pi Press says there will be many phases to the recount.

GOP Sen. Norm Coleman keeps the edge as the recount wraps up (nearly).

AP says the recount brings back memories of New Hampshire's recount in 1974.

Survey USA polls folks on the recount. A majority thinks it's been a fair process.

The Star Tribune says the next senator will play a pivotal role no matter which candidate wins.

Gov. Pawlenty weighs in on the recount leaving some to wonder why he isn't focused on other problems like....

State Budget

Gov. Pawlenty made a surprise visit to the House DFL caucus meeting on Saturday to talk about the budget. Hearings will start this week to examine how they get out of the $5.28 Billion hole.

The Star Tribune has a look at the daunting task facing Gov. Pawlenty and state lawmakers.

DFL Rep. Mindy Greiling tells nonprofits that they should change their strategy from "Don't cut us" to "Give us more."

WCCO says sports games could be on the table.

Economy

There has been some progress on the Big 3 bailout plan.

MPR takes you on a tour or vacant homes and the officials that make sure they stay vacant.

3M is cutting 1,800 jobs.

President-elect Obama says the economy is going to get worse before it gets better.

State Government

MPR says MnDOT has improved its minority hiring record.

Gov. Pawlenty is headed to Israel later this week for a trade mission.

The New York Times says setting renewable energy goals are the easy part for states.

Congress

DFL Sen. Amy Klobuchar is headed to Poland later this week to discuss climate change.

Obama

President-elect Barack Obama appoints Eric Shinseki as his head of Veterans Affairs.

The Star Tribune picks up on an earlier New York Times report that says gun owners are buying guns at a rapid clip in anticipation of tighter gun rules under Obama.

2012

The Boston Globe says Mitt Romney is already running for president. Did he ever stop?

Midday focuses on state budget

Posted at 8:28 AM on December 8, 2008 by Tom Scheck (1 Comments)

DFL House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher and DFL Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller will be on MPR's Midday today at 11.

Comment on this post

Recount write-thru

Posted at 1:05 PM on December 8, 2008 by Tom Scheck

A spokesman for the city of Minneapolis says they are ending their search for the 133 missing ballots. Spokesman Matt Laible issued this statement:

The City has turned over its election night results and recount results for this precinct to the Office of the Secretary of State, and the topic is on the agenda of the State Canvassing Board for its meeting on Friday, December 12th.

Meanwhile, Franken's attorney Marc Elias said today that he's withdrawing another 425 challenged ballots. That means this Franken campaign has withdrawn 1058 challenges. Coleman's campaign has withdrawn 650 challenges to date.

Minneapolis calls off search for ballots

Posted at 2:57 PM on December 8, 2008 by Tom Scheck

The search is over for 133 missing ballots in Minneapolis. A spokesman says city officials are giving up their search after failing to find the ballots in a warehouse where Minneapolis keeps its voting machines. In a statement, the spokesman said elections officials turned over the election night results and recount results for the precinct where the ballots are missing to the Secretary of State's office. Secretary of State Mark Ritchie said he's disappointed that the missing votes couldn't be found but said the state canvassing board has options to make sure the votes are counted.

"It will be my job at the State Canvassing Board to take their report and make sure that we can fulfill this process. There are simple solutions to this. It would have been best to have found it but if it cannot be found then there are simple solutions to the problem created when one packet gets lost."

Ritchie said the canvassing board has used the vote totals recorded on Election Day when similar mistakes have been made. The manual recount will be completed once the Secretary of State's office receives the result from the precinct in question.