Four judges and Secretary of State Mark Ritchie will make up Minnesota's 2008 General Election Canvassing Board. They are the people whose scrutiny of ballots could determine who wins the race between Republican U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman and Democrat AL Franken.
Ritche announced the names this afternoon. They are:
Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Eric J. Magnuson, Supreme Court Assoc. Justice G. Barry Anderson, Ramsey County District Court Chief Judge Kathleen Gearin, Ramsey County Assistant Chief Judge Edward J. Cleary and Ritchie.
Politically, the panel is diverse. Magnuson and Anderson are appointees of Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty. Gearin was elected in a non-partisan race in 1986 and declined to say what party, if any, she considers herself. Cleary was appointed by Independence Party Gov. Jess Ventura. Ritchie was elected as a Democrat.
That diversity is pleasing to Larry Jacobs, Director Center for Study of Politics and Governance at the University's Humphrey Institute.
"These are some of our very best judges," Jacobs said. "I look at that and say, 'This is going to be fair.'"
The panel will meet Nov. 18 to certify the election, which at last unofficial tally had Coleman leading by 206 votes. Then the panel will declare an automatic recount commence because the leaders are within a half a percentage point of each other.
Then they'll do nothing while city and county election officials throughout the state spend days — possibly weeks — hand-counting each of the 2.92 million ballots cast. Officials with each campaign will watch the recount and challenge certain decisions made by local election officials.
Some time in December, all the ballots and the tallies will be sent to the Secretary of State, which will check the math and pass them along to the state canvassing board. That panel will decide — by vote if necessary — how to count each ballot challenged by the campaign, based on how the voter intended to vote.
In other words, the panel will have the final call on every ballot the campaigns disagree on.
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