Republican Tom Emmer and the Minnesota Republicans have filed a petition with the state Supreme Court ahead of an expected recount to make sure that there was no “overvote” in the Minnesota governors race.
According to the Duluth News Tribune, Emmer said today that “there are pools of votes where there are irregularities,” and he asked that the court ensure a “reconciliation” of votes and voters, to make sure there are no extra votes in each of the state’s 4,000-plus precincts.
State GOP Chairman Tony Sutton said today “the most basic right of our election system is one vote per voter,” so he wants to make sure that this hasn’t been violated before the recount begins. “I’m not implying anything. We just want to follow state law,” he said, according to MinnPost.com.
Democrat Mark Dayton currently leads by less than 9,000 votes, around 0.42%, which is a small enough margin to allow a recount. To put this into context, in 2008 the Minnesota Senate race went through eight months of recounting and litigation, and only changed the margin between Al Franken and Norm Coleman by about 500 votes.
Jillian Rayfield
Jillian Rayfield is a Reporter/Blogger for TPM, and started as a News Intern in May 2009. She graduated from Cornell University in May 2008 with a degree in Film, and worked as a Research Assistant for a market research firm in London in between.
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