Pictured at right: MNGOP chair Tony Sutton (via Jemsweb on Flickr)

In their continuing efforts to make the 2010 recount as difficult as possible, the MNGOP has decided to bog down our election officials with document requests:

A Minneapolis law firm, Trimble & Associates, has been spraying out Data Practices Act requests on behalf of [Tom Emmer and the GOP], seeking a litany of election documents that may prove critical during the upcoming recount – and any court challenges.

What are they asking for? It appears to differ by county, but some requests target absentee ballot applications, absentee ballot envelopes, lists of absentee voters and the status of their ballots, voter lists, results tapes, Election Day incident logs, lists of voters who registered on Election Day, etc.

In other words, they want a bajillion tons of data. And they want it now!!! And if they don’t get it, then they’re going to scream. And by “scream,” I mean “sue county election officials.” Seriously.

Tom Emmer’s campaign and the Republican Party of Minnesota have filed lawsuits against St. Louis and Pine counties for not responding fast enough to document requests related to the recount.

Honestly, they’ve had a whole week already! That’s just “unacceptable foot dragging.” I mean, really, the GOP is hardly asking for that much:

In St. Louis County, the request seeks: tape results, tally sheets, any result revisions, polling rosters, same day registration sign-ins, the number of accepted and rejected absentee ballots, copies of all absentee ballot envelopes, copies of all voter registration applications and absentee ballot applications, any communication with the Dayton campaign, names of election judges, Election Day incident reports, names of all people who applied for absentee ballots.

Oh, and let’s not forget that the county officials’ first priority right now is updating their voter rolls, not responding to specious data requests. And some of the data will just have to wait.

Patricia Stolee, St. Louis County’s Director of Elections, was unaware of the suit but said some requested items cannot be made public until the rolls are updated. She has a three-person staff working on that.

Of course, Tony Sutton and the GOP don’t care about election officials’ efforts to keep our electoral system running; after all, they’re in the process of trying to tear it apart.

What a bunch of babies. Seriously. This sort of garbage is frivolous, it’s petty, and it’s un-Minnesotan. Mr. Sutton, stop attacking our hard-working election officials.