State Canvassing Board gets a "Bert Alert"

Photo by Bill Klotz

I have
worked around state government more than 20 years now. One of the most
interesting — and gratifying — phenomena I’ve observed is that more
often than not, partisan people who become state or legislative
employees tend to, over time, do their jobs in a manner that’s better
for the process than it is for their party.

This week’s shining example is Bert Black, who is currently legal counsel to DFL Secretary of State Mark Ritchie. Bert has worked in the SOS office under three Secretaries: Ritchie, GOPer Mary Kiffmeyer and DFLer Joan Growe.
Those who know Bert know that he is a die hard Democrat. [I've
encountered Bert at many a DFL convention over the years where he is
usually outfitted with the DFL campaign buttons du jour.]

In
the State Canvassing Board challenged-ballot-evaluation proceedings
this week, there was one ballot that came from overseas. It was a
generic federal ballot marked for Norm Coleman that the local
election judge had accepted even though it also contained a passport
number. That number, of course, would seem to disqualify the ballot
under one of the four exceptions as a personal identification.

The
State Canvassing Board was about to disqualify the ballot when Bert
piped up with a "not so fast." He pointed out Minnesota Administrative
Rules 8210.0800,
which specifies that part of a "form of affidavit of eligibility"
requires a "military identification (SSN) [Social Secuirty Number] or passport number." Bert
pointed out that the voter in question seemed to be merely trying to
comply with a state law / regulation drafted pre-Internet.
The ballot was received by the voter electronically (but submitted hard
copy as required) and that the voter was trying to best accommodate the
military ID or passport number requirement in an electronic age (with
no envelope).

After reviewing "Bert’s alert," the Canvassing Board unanimously ruled the ballot as legitimately cast for Coleman.

Obviously,
making the Board aware of the rule was not something Bert had to do,
and it was certainly against the best interest of his fellow DFLer, Al Franken.

However,
Bert did it anyway, because it was the right thing to do. For
long-time staffers like Bert, the process becomes more important over
the long haul than any particular moment of a race in question.

Bert Black is one of the reasons the Minnesota elections process has greater integrity than those of other states.

Bert gets a gold star from PIM. And, sorry Bert, that award comes without a gold statue or monetary compensation.

16 Responses to “State Canvassing Board gets a "Bert Alert"”

1. kevinfahey Says:
   December 20th, 2008 at 4:41 am

   I happened to have watched the mentioned moment on a live stream. As usual, my old buddy Bert made me proud. Although I am as much of a partisan DFLer as Bert, the difference between Florida 2000 and Minnesota is that we have public servants such as he. Kevin Fahey

2. jhalverson Says:
   January 4th, 2009 at 12:16 pm

   Though I salute Bert for his integrity and knowledge of election law in this instance (why wouldn’t members of the Canvassing Board already know this statute?!), it would be a more powerful and selfless “alert” if his preferred DFL candidate was behind by a few votes versus ahean by >200 votes at the very end of the process. More than few DFLers are now going out of their way to pat themselves on the back for honoring “the integrity of the process”…easier to do when your candidate has an apparent lead at the end of the process. Please provide illustrations of selflessness and integrity from the Canvassing Board and others highly engaged in the process (e.g. arguing against a vote that would benefit their political party) when their candidate of choice is behind in the count. THAT would give all of us more confidence that partisanship is not playing a role in the decision making…

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