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2009-06-02 Home Front: Politix

Battle Over Unfilled U.S. Senate Seat Goes Before Minnesota Supreme Court

Republican Norm Coleman asked the Minnesota Supreme Court on Monday to throw out a lower-court ruling that handed Democrat Al Franken a win in the state's U.S. Senate race. Coleman attorney Joe Friedberg argued that counties were inconsistent in the way they decided whether absentee ballots were filled out properly and should be counted. "Twelve thousand citizens who made good-faith efforts to vote were disenfranchised, with a variety of reasons," Friedberg said.

Franken attorney Marc Elias argued that Coleman's team has failed to show specific voters were disenfranchised, but only broad categories of mistakes that might have left some voters behind. "This isn't evidence, this is an argument," Elias said.

Coleman, whose term in the Senate expired in January, trailed Franken by 312 votes after a recount and his lawsuit challenging the results of that recount. He wants the justices to instruct the trial court to open more rejected absentee ballots.

Franken hopes the court sweeps aside the appeal and orders that he immediately receive the election certificate required to take office. Franken is the potential 60th vote for Democrats in the Senate, though two of those are independents. It wasn't clear how quickly the court would rule.

Several of the five justices immediately grilled Friedberg with skeptical questions. Justice Christopher Dietzen said he saw "no evidence or fraud or misconduct."

"It seems like you're offering little more than an opening statement in this case," Dietzen said. "Coleman's theory of the case, but no concrete evidence to back it up."

Posted by Steve White 2009-06-02 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11134 views ] Top

#1 Al Franken? You elected Al Franken? You state is full of nothing but idiots.

Posted by newc">newc 2009-06-02 04:11|| 2009-06-02 04:11|| Front Page Top

#2 Knock Franken all you want, but Coleman did not lose by 225 as per the State Canvassing Board or 312 as per the Election Contest Court, but by .... 63,209.
That's right - more than 63,000 McCain supporters did not want Coleman to get a second term. It was evident by the silence during Coleman's acceptance speech at the MN-GOP convention that the Republicans weren't happy with him. Coleman would have had a better chance if he would have appeared at any of the McCain rallies ... all it would have taken was to "rally" a few hundred people and he would have won.

Posted by Minnesota Central">Minnesota Central 2009-06-02 09:00|| http://www.minnesotacentral.blogspot.com]">[http://www.minnesotacentral.blogspot.com] 2009-06-02 09:00|| Front Page Top

#3 To the MN voters supporting Franken, I believe this posting from yesterday must certainly apply.

Posted by Besoeker 2009-06-02 09:28|| 2009-06-02 09:28|| Front Page Top

#4 There is something in the water in Minnesota. This is the same state that also elected Jesse Ventura as Governor.

Posted by Jack is Back!">Jack is Back! 2009-06-02 09:46|| 2009-06-02 09:46|| Front Page Top

#5 Of course there is no "evidence". The absentee ballots in question are SEALED. The whole point is that Coleman is asking to look them over so that he can present exactly the evidence that the court is asking for. The court is making a really dumb, circular and self-serving argument.

There are wide discrepancies between how absentee ballots were counted in the various counties. To no one's surprise, the Franklinstein leaning counties applied much looser rules. Coleman is asking that all counties count using the same standards. Franklinstein opposes this because he'd certainly lose such a count.

Also, I strongly suspect that a large percentage of the ballots Franklinstein doesn't want to count come from people serving in the military.

Posted by Iblis 2009-06-02 13:07|| 2009-06-02 13:07|| Front Page Top

#6 Two words: cage match.

Two men enter, one man leaves.

Posted by mojo 2009-06-02 14:29|| 2009-06-02 14:29|| Front Page Top

#7 Mojo - better that neither leave - Coleman lost because he's self-serving and corrupt. This is the guy who was SDS as a kid, ran for office as a democrat and then switched to GOP when he saw a chance to move up the political daisychain. The best thing for MN is if the case isn't settled until after the next election.

Posted by Snineting Bonaparte8748 2009-06-02 15:09|| 2009-06-02 15:09|| Front Page Top

#8 Snineting Bonaparte8748:

This is not Coleman in a vacuum. This is Coleman vs Al Frankin. Nuff said.

But I'll say more anyway: 60 seats.

Posted by Iblis 2009-06-02 15:36|| 2009-06-02 15:36|| Front Page Top

#9 As far as I can tell Coleman and Franken are typical of the modern American politician. A truly sad commentary on us all.

Posted by Glenmore 2009-06-02 18:52|| 2009-06-02 18:52|| Front Page Top

14:09 Grom the Affective
14:04 Super Hose
14:02 Super Hose
13:37 Procopius2k
13:35 Grom the Affective
13:34 Procopius2k
13:27 Grom the Affective
13:21 NN2N1
13:18 Grom the Affective
12:50 Remoteman
12:45 Secret Master
12:24 Matt
12:07 Abu Uluque
12:03 Grom the Affective
11:59 Grom the Affective
11:35 Super Hose
11:33 Super Hose
11:29 Besoeker
11:28 Besoeker
11:28 Super Hose
11:27 Besoeker
11:23 Besoeker
11:22 Grom the Affective
11:20 Super Hose