ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - How close is close enough? That's a question ringing through the Minnesota Senate trial courtroom lately on the issue of voter signatures.

Here's why it matters. Some absentee ballots weren't counted because an election official determined the voter signatures on the application and outer envelope differed. The three judges in Republican Norm Coleman's election lawsuit will decide which ballots to add to the race that Democrat Al Franken leads by 225 votes.

There are hundreds of votes where mismatched signatures were an issue, but some involve rejected absentee ballots with other flaws that would still keep them out of the count.

The matching signature requirement is designed to guard against voter fraud, namely that the person casting the ballot was the one who requested it.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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