Friday, November 07, 2008
While counties double-check their vote totals, there's a call by the Somali community to throw out hundreds of votes that they claim are fraudulent.
A formal complaint was filed Friday with the Hennepin County Attorney's Office.
Secretary of State Mark Ritchie wants to "hold off" on counting any ballots cast at the Brian Coyle Community Center in Minneapolis after a Somali leader claims workers from both Sen. Norm Coleman and Al Franken’s campaigns tried to illegally influence voters.
Jamal said they all urged voters to mark their ballots for Franken, even if they wanted to cast a vote for Coleman.
In some cases, the interpreters not only pressured people to vote for Franken, but also filled out ballots for voters, according to Jamal.
He told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that he believes this may have happened over 500 times.
"They were telling people if you vote for Obama and you don't vote for Al Franken, your vote would not be counted. If you vote for Obama, you have to vote for Al Franken," Jamal explained.
He said that after people started complaining about Franken supporters, calls were made to the Coleman campaign. At which time a Coleman campaign worker allegedly showed up at the polling place.
5 EYEWITNESS NEWS called both camps, and both Franken and Coleman’s representatives said their investigating the claims.