Court agrees to review 11,000 ballots

[struggle4progress]

Source: MN Daily

BY Michael Langseth & Alex Robinson & Karlee Weinmann
PUBLISHED: 01/28/2009

The Senate trial resumed Wednesday morning with a key decision that set the tone for Democrat Al Franken ’s counsel’s court strategy.

The three-judge panel ruled admissible Republican Norm Coleman’ s previous stances on rejected absentee ballots and duplicate ballots.

In light of the ruling, during the cross-examination of deputy Secretary of State Jim Gelbmann , who has been on the stand since Tuesday afternoon , Franken’s counsel reviewed correspondence that showed Coleman’s history of varying stances.

Also Wednesday, Coleman’s attorneys settled on 11,000 rejected absentee ballots to subpoena for court review, a number that had fluctuated from about 5,000 to about 12,000 during the first two days of the trial ...



Read more: http://www.mndaily.com/2009/01/27/court-agrees-review-1...

[No Elephants]

1. "Legally untenable," yet these judges are allowing

Coleman to get away with it.

Donate to Al, even $10. https://secure.alfranken.com/page/contribute

Remember the story here about Home Depot's donating to Coleman and urging other business owners to do the same?

Donate to Al. https://secure.alfranken.com/page/contribute

[Reeta77]

9. Done.

[No Elephants]

19. Good on you! It will be an encouragement to his volunteers, too. They must be getting battle

fatigued by now.

[mac56]

2. Kind of a misleading headline.

It doesn't say that the court agreed to review 11,000 ballots. Only that Normy's lawyers settled on 11,000 as a number.

[struggle4progress]

3. You may be right: it seems yesterday ended somewhat as follows

Election official's testimony to continue in recount trial
by Elizabeth Stawicki, Minnesota Public Radio
January 29, 2009

... Initially, the Coleman campaign asked that 654 absentee ballots be reviewed, but more recently that number has grown to 11,000 and then changed to about 4,500. The Franken campaign has argued that Coleman should stay with its original request and that anything more is a fishing expedition in hopes of erasing Franken's 225-vote lead.

Lillehaug brought up an email from Coleman's attorney, Tony Trimble, to Gelbmann and the secretary of state's office originally asking for 654 ballots.

"Do you remember any discussion that day or any correspondence that day, verbal or written from the Coleman campaign talking about counting 11,000 absentee ballots?" asked Lillehaug.

"No," Gelbmann said ...

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/01/28...

[mac56]

6. Remember Calvin and Hobbes?

A poster at startribune.com has it right. Normy is playing Calvinball: trying to make up the rules as he goes along, and change them if they don't work in his favor.

[struggle4progress]

7. .

[mwb970]

4. How long is this ass going to keep this up?

Republicans are the sorest, whiniest losers in the world. Normy. Go away.

[depakid]

13. Republicans fight even 'til the bitter end

Think how different America would be if the Democrats had even 1/4 of that resolve....

[starroute]

16. It may be more about money than about resolve

Republicans have very deep pockets when it comes to gaming the system -- Democrats don't. I recall someone raising the question last week of just who is paying for Coleman's endless lawsuit, but I don't recall seeing any answers.

[CatholicEdHead]

17. For the next 6 years if possible

[Optical.Catalyst]

5. The lying, thieving Republicans are still trying to steal this election

Republicans and Norm Coleman need to face the facts:


FRANKEN WON

COLEMAN LOST

GET OVER IT

[liberal N proud]

8. Keep manipulating the system until the outcome is in their favor

[struggle4progress]

10. Coleman lawyers probe reasons for rejecting ballots

Franken lawyers elicited testimony that the GOP focused on rejected ballots after Coleman fell behind.
By PAT DOYLE and MIKE KASZUBA, Star Tribune staff writers
Last update: January 28, 2009 - 11:23 PM

After he lost the unofficial lead in Minnesota's U.S. Senate recount, Republican Norm Coleman called for an exhaustive review of rejected absentee ballots to see whether they should be counted. But a state elections official testified Wednesday that Coleman pursued a different strategy when he was leading.

Deputy Secretary of State Jim Gelbmann said that in December the Coleman camp wouldn't accept 1,346 absentee ballots that county elections officials said were wrongly rejected. Gelbmann testified that even when he said there was "little doubt" that 93 of the ballots were valid, Coleman's lawyers said "they needed time to look over the list" ...

Before Wednesday's testimony, the three-judge panel hearing the suit denied Coleman's motion to prevent Franken's lawyers from detailing the Republican's earlier resistance to admitting improperly rejected absentee ballots ...

W3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUsA" target="_blank">http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senate/385...

[Unca Jim]

11. Umm...

Misleading headline. The court agreed to consider reviewing this group of ballots.

[bobd0]

12. The thought strikes me that this is what Gore and Kerry should have done to Bush. nt

[WyldRogue]

14. Sure, that's what they should have done...

... if they had a spine to stand up for themselves and for what is right but instead, they chose the 'don't want to upset or seem bitter' stance just like the Dems in Congress have been doing for 14+ years now.

The Repugs are the minority even more so after the '08 elections but they still are owning the Dems because the Dems want to play *nice nice*.

Obama is making a huge mistake and going to cause his Administration extra aggravation with their incessant 'reach across the aisle' BS when the Repugs are using it to play fickle games, thereby making Obama and Dems cater to them...

How can they continuously allow the Repugs to STILL call the shots and cause turmoil?? Oh yeah, the promise of UNITY and BIPARTISANSHIP, of which the Repugs are holding it (unity=bipartisanship) in front of the Dems tied to a string on a stick to lead them where THEY want them to go, you know, that old carrot tied to the end of a stick trick??

March will tell many of us if the Dems have the fortitude to stand up against the Repugs...

[bobd0]

18. I agree with you but the Republicans are also making themselves look like

the reactionary, divisive, obstructionist assholes they truly are.

I hope the American people can separate the hype in the media from that irrefutable reality.

[Freddie Stubbs]

20. Gore took it to the highest court in the land

[bdamomma]

15. norm coleman portraying himself as an ass.