Opinion ID: 1918473
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The court misconstrues the meaning of Andersen.

Text: While the court cites to Application of Andersen; Rolvagg v. Donovan, 264 Minn. 257, 261-62, 119 N.W.2d 1, 5 (1962), as part of the justification for its decision, Andersen, in fact, does not support that decision. Nor does it support the court's narrow construction of Minn.Stat. § 204C.39. To the contrary, Andersen supports the proposition that election laws are to be liberally construed and that county canvassing boards have the authority to correct obvious errors such as the ones alleged here. And, Andersen provides no support at all for the proposition that this court can reject the statutory scheme in favor of its own scheme for counting improperly rejected absentee ballotsa scheme, which, by its nature, ensures that some number of validly cast ballots will be excluded when the election results are certified. Further, to the extent that the court relies on the statement in Andersen that the parties agreed that the election results were erroneous, I note that the parties in Andersen, while agreeing that there were errors, disagreed over what the errors were and the process to be used to correct them. Andersen, 264 Minn. at 258-59, 119 N.W.2d at 3; see also Ronald F. Stinnett & Charles H. Backstrom, Recount 66-83 (Nat'l Document Publishers, Inc.1964). Reminiscent of what has taken place in this case, at least one of the parties in Andersen argued that errors should be corrected when the correction inured to his benefit while at the same time attempting to preclude corrections that adversely affected him. 264 Minn. at 269, 119 N.W.2d at 9-10. It appears that the action in Andersen was brought for that very reason. To the extent that the court relies on the fact that the parties in Andersen objected to the State Canvassing Board counting amended results submitted by county canvassing boards because of technical irregularities in arriving at the result rather than on a claim that the results are not right, id. at 272-73, 119 N.W.2d at 11, the court takes the Andersen reference to technical irregularities out of context. The Andersen court permitted county canvassing boards to correct obvious errors and submit amended returns to the Secretary of State. Id. It then concluded that the State Canvassing Board could accept the amended county returns. Id. at 273, 119 N.W.2d at 12. The Andersen court placed the burden on the party attacking the amended returns to show that the corrections did not reflect the true vote. Id. at 272, 119 N.W.2d at 11. Thus, it was in this context that the Andersen court concluded that the attacking party only objected based on technical irregularities and not on claims that the results were inaccurate. See id. Therefore, the court permitted the amended returns to be counted in Andersen. Here, as in Andersen, both parties agree that some absentee ballots were rejected in error. And, as in Andersen, even though the Coleman and Franken parties cannot agree on which specific ballots were improperly rejected or on the proper process to correct those errors, all validly cast ballots should be counted. But instead of ensuring that the final election results are accurate, the court's decision will result in some improperly rejected ballots not being counted because the parties cannot agree. Finally, to the extent that the court relies on Andersen for the proposition that the phrase obvious error in counting, as set forth in sections 204C.38 and .39, is limited to errors in the computation and reporting of numbers, it is not at all clear that the errors before the Andersen court were only errors of that type. It is clear, however, that the Andersen court did not limit the type of errors it permitted to be corrected to, as this court suggests, the compilation and reporting of numbers contained in the precinct summary statements. The Andersen court explained that Minn.Stat. § 204.30 (1961), [f]or the first time, provided that county canvassing board[s] could, if necessary, inspect the ballots in order to correct obvious errors. Id. at 263, 119 N.W.2d at 6. And county canvassing boards did just that. In Blue Earth, Douglas, Le Sueur, Morrison, Watonwan, and Stevens counties, the Andersen court expressly stated that the counting errors were confirmed upon examination of the ballots. Id. at 259-61, 119 N.W.2d at 3-6 (emphasis added). Obviously, examination of ballots involves more than computation and reporting of numbers. In Grant County, the court allowed the inclusion of 31 absentee ballots that had not been counted in the original returns. Id. at 260, 119 N.W.2d at 4. Thus, while the court chooses selective phrases from Andersen to justify its decision, a complete reading of Andersen supports the conclusion that the correction of obvious errors as alleged here is permitted under Minn.Stat. §§ 204C.38 and .39. In the end, the Andersen court permitted all identified errors to be corrected and rejected the attempt of one of the parties to distinguish between the types of errors to be corrected. 264 Minn. at 270, 119 N.W.2d at 10.