We just chatted with Michael Brodkorb of Minnesota Democrats Exposed, and he acknowledges he “tried to thread the needle a little bit” in his Data Practices Act request.

He said he was aware of the specific restrictions on opening absentee ballots but noted he’s not seeking any personal voter information; rather, he wants election judges to open the ballots and simply make public the tabulation of the votes for each candidate.

“I’m not trying to ascertain which person voted for which candidates.”
Brodkorb told MinnPost. “I’ll be curious what the municipalities and counties say.”

We will be, too.

There’s another issue. The ballots have been reviewed by both campaigns and elections officials. Many times. They were ruled to be illegally cast for a variety of reasons. Norm Coleman’s lawyers couldn’t get the three-judge election contest panel to include them in the count.

What does it matter what’s inside them?

Brodkorb says, “Clearly, clearly, there will have to be a big asterisk” on any vote totals that might emerge from his request.

But his point is this: Voters cast their ballots, and some were rejected. “At its simplest, at its lowest, I was simply trying to find out what were the number of people who cast their ballot” for either Franken or Coleman, he says.

If he’s successful in this initial round, he might seek out a liberal blogger to partner with and then seek ballots from all 87 counties, he told me.

On the other hand, if he’s denied his requests, Brodkorb said he would likely carry his campaign to the state’s Data Practices Act oversight agency, the Information Policy Analysis Division.

Beyond that — as for lawsuits — “I’m not ruling anything out,” he said.

And so we have now entered a new realm: recounting the recount.

By the way, Citizens for Election Integrity, an electoral watchdog group, conducted an audit of the 2008 election and the recount. Its view was that the election went smoothly.

For details, go here.