The Coleman camp is reacting to the discovery of only 89 “3-A” rejected ballots — absentee ballots that contained registration forms inside the inner secrecy envelope, rather than immediately within the outer envelope a – and insisting that the real number is much bigger.
The short version: In order to win, Coleman needs to expand the universe of countable ballots. But this expansion was much smaller than some expected, out of the 1,500 ballots that were searched. At his post-court press conference, Coleman legal spokesman Ginsberg boasted that the search “found between 100 and 150 that were wrongly rejected and should be put in. so that gives you an increasing idea that the universe of ballots with which we’re dealing continues to fluctuate.”
What Ginsberg is relying on is the addition of 72 more envelopes that had incomplete registration cards, and are unlikely to be included under the court’s strict standards for letting in new ballots –Â a point that the Coleman camp seems sure to appeal.
Two-thirds of the 89 came from pro-Coleman counties, but the sample of votes is by itself too small to provide much of a swing for him — and that’s assuming they do break for Coleman. It’s also likely that some of these envelopes will have other flaws with them, thus shrinking the pool even further.
So obviously, Ginsberg wants to be able to expand the universe of votes as much as possible, declaring: “89 plus 72 with –Â apparently have some deficiencies in them, whatever that may mean.”
(Ginsberg presser c/o The Uptake.)
