Voting is important to Phyllis Jarvis of Hibbing. She cast her first election ballot after turning 21 -- legal voting age then -- and has voted regularly over the 47 years since. So she was upset when she learned that election officials didn't count the absentee ballot she completed for November's election.
"What's the use of voting if your vote isn't counted?" she asked today. "My dad would probably turn over in his grave when I can't vote and have my vote counted."
Jarvis is one of 64 voters named in a lawsuit filed Tuesday with the state Supreme Count that aims to get their votes counted. Their effort is supported by Al Franken's U.S. Senate campaign.
Franken and incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman are fighting for the Senate seat in court after a ballot recount showed Franken ahead by just 225 votes. Coleman has filed a lawsuit alleging voting irregularities. Franken has filed a lawsuit asking the Minnesota Supreme Court to order Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Secretary of State Mark Ritchie to sign an election certificate for him.
The latest lawsuit is by voters from 18 counties who cast absentee ballots in the general election that were not counted in the final election results certified by the State Canvassing Board on Jan. 5. The petitioners include five from St. Louis County and one each from Carlton, Lake and Pine counties.
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Jarvis and her husband moved between elections, but registered to vote together. They voted together, but while her husband's vote was counted, hers wasn't. Jarvis said election officials contacted her to say that she wasn't registered. When she disputed that, they said they would send her an affidavit to fill out, she said. But she never received it.
Jarvis is involved in the lawsuit because she wants her vote counted.
"I'm not going to vote if my vote is not counted," she said. "That's not right."
Brenda Rengo of Cloquet also joined the lawsuit to get her vote counted.
"I was very ill and couldn't even get out to vote," she said. "My husband was back and forth to the Carlton County Courthouse three times so I could cast my vote. That's my right. I want it counted."
Rengo, who voted for Franken, hopes that officials settle the election issue quickly.
"Time is a wasting and things need to get down," she said.
