Minnesota Judges Give Coleman Election Challenge a Lift

[Cash_thatswhatiwant]

A three-judge panel considering Norm Coleman’s election challenge in Minnesota handed the former Republican senator a partial victory on Tuesday, allowing the inclusion of roughly 4,800 rejected absentee ballots during the recount trial.

Mr. Coleman’s legal team was seeking the reconsideration of some 11,000 ballots, but even the smaller number could tip the balance of the contest once the trial, now in its second week, comes to an end.

At the conclusion of the statewide recount in January,Mr. Coleman trailed his Democratic challenger Al Franken by more than 200 votes. Mr. Coleman went to court to challenge the results.

Ben Ginsberg, a lawyer for the Coleman campaign, called Tuesday’s decision a victory.

“We’ve continually called for every valid vote to be counted, and counted only once,” he said in a statement. “This is a strong step in the right direction, and we applaud the decision of the court today.”

Lawyers for Mr. Franken wanted the court cap the number of ballots eligible for reconsideration to about 600, but Marc Elias, a Franken lawyer told the Minneapolis Star Tribune he did not view the decision of the panel as “a loss for either side or a win for either side.”


http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/03/minnesota-judges-gives-coleman-election-challenge-a-boost/

[cooolandrew]

1. Still the end result of all this surely has to be a more cleaner process. It's arduous but it >

probably benefits us in the long term. Whoever the victor so keep it going Coleman win lose or draw you have put the focus on clean elections. So ironically thank you. Fair and clean elections have mostly favored Democrats, so yeah whatever, we can live with it.

[riqster]

2. Minnesota election law is focused on getting it right

...instead of just 'right now'. Good on them.

[jacksonian]

3. one of the comments below the article

Again the media drops the ball. Later that same day, that same court denied Coleman’s motion to summarily open all those 4500 ballots at once. They ruled that the burden of proof for these ballots will be much higher than usual. The judges affirmed that absentee voting is a PRIVILEGE, not a right. Basically they are considered properly rejected until Coleman proves otherwise and to do so he must argue them ONE BY ONE. It is obvious here that Coleman has no interest in the people’s will (he was against opening all these ballots before he realized they might be his only ticket back to Washington), but his aim is rather to keep Franken tied up in court and off the Hill, probably on orders from McConnell. Coleman’s career is over. He lost to wrestler, beat a dead guy, and tied a comedian. Plus he’s skeezy. What a loser.

[nsd]

4. Ben Ginsberg is one of Coleman's lawyers?

He was also one of the main Bush-Cheney lawyers in Florida in 2000. Now he cares whether every vote is counted?!!! Fuck. That is all.