Judges reverse ruling tossing Minn. Senate witness

[struggle4progress]

Source: Associated Press

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Republican Norm Coleman caught a break Thursday in his Minnesota Senate election trial when the three judges in the case reversed their ruling from a day earlier that had excluded a poll worker's testimony.

Pamela Howell had testified to having direct knowledge of Minneapolis election errors that could have led to some votes getting counted twice. Her testimony was struck Wednesday after it was discovered that she supplied written materials that Coleman's lawyers received but attorneys for Democrat Al Franken did not.

The judges had said the mistake was grounds to toss out Howell's testimony entirely, but they reversed themselves in an order Thursday, saying the "inadvertent" error wasn't in bad faith and shouldn't cost Howell the right to testify.

Howell's testimony was focused on an important element of Coleman's case. He said Franken benefited from more than 100 votes from people who had two ballots counted. Coleman's lawyers want the court to subtract the votes from Franken's tally and reduce the 225-vote lead Franken had after the recount ...

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gMpTm...

[maddezmom]

1. duplicate topic

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...