Coleman asks MN Supreme Court to step into recount (Updated)

[Wretched Excess]

Sen. Norm Coleman’s (R) campaign on Monday asked the Minnesota Supreme Court to stay a decision by the Board of Canvassers that could significantly sway the razor-thin margin in the state’s Senate race.

The board recommended that Minnesota’s 87 counties open and count absentee ballots that were disqualified for no stated, legal reason. The Coleman campaign announced that it asked the state’s highest court to put a halt to that count until the court had a chance to lay out uniform standards for counting the ballots, estimated to number more than 1,000.

“The Supreme Court ought to direct the local officials to step back, take a breath and allow the court to set a uniform standard,” Coleman campaign attorney Fritz Knaak said on a conference call.

Knaak told reporters that he expected the court to act quickly in deciding whether or not to reconsider the standards by which disqualified absentee ballots will be counted in Coleman’s still-contested Senate race against Democrat Al Franken.

The seven-member Supreme Court has five Republican-appointed justices, one Independent justice, and another who was elected to the court without party identification.

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[Ralph Wiggum]

Wretch, I need a spork warning whenever you post a dorky pic of Franken.

(and pretty much any pic of Franken is classified as a dorky one)

[Wretched Excess]

Wretch, I need a spork warning whenever you post a dorky pic of Franken.

really, now.  are there any non-dorky pics of the big weenie?

on edit : playing dueling edits.

[Ralph Wiggum]

really, now.  are there any non-dorky pics of the big weenie?

on edit : playing dueling edits.

 

[Wretched Excess]

I didn't realize that the MN supreme court was appointed substantially by republicans.

[Wretched Excess]

sorry, stuart.  by definition, the recount was over last week;  you are trying to toss previously invalidated votes into the count because you can't make a living at being funny (other than in a clinical sense) any more.

Franken camp: Coleman is desperate, trying to halt recount

In a conference call with reporters, Franken's chief counsel, Marc Elias, argued that the Minnesota Republican was going through incredible and "desperate" measures in order to stop the counting of ballots that had been deemed lawfully cast.

"They are suing because they are behind," he said, noting that the Associated Press did an analysis this weekend in which they determined that Franken would likely win the election after all the challenged ballots were fettered out. "The numbers are what they are. And as I said Friday, desperate times call for desperate measures. What we see is a cynical and desperate attempt by the Coleman campaign to stop this train from moving."

"In plain English what they asked the court was 'stop the counting'," said Elias, somewhat animated. "Let's call this what it is, the Coleman camp went to the highest court in the state to stop the counting."

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[Tess Anderson]

Looks like they're going to, WE from this Associated Pravda article:

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) The Minnesota Supreme Court is getting involved in the state's unsettled U.S. Senate race.

The court said Monday it will weigh whether to stop the sorting and counting of wrongly rejected absentee ballots until clear instructions are handed down.

http://www.kxmb.com/News/309313.asp

It goes on to say written statements are going to be submitted tomorrow, arguments start on Wednesday. I pretty well stopped reading at "wrongly rejected absentee ballots". 

[Wretched Excess]

Looks like they're going to, WE from this Associated Pravda article:

http://www.kxmb.com/News/309313.asp

It goes on to say written statements are going to be submitted tomorrow, arguments start on Wednesday. I pretty well stopped reading at "wrongly rejected absentee ballots". 

great.  just.freaking.great.   I am beginning to think they should toss a coin.

[JohnnyReb]

great.  just.freaking.great.   I am beginning to think they should toss a coin.

WHAT?????.....and give Coleman a 50/50 chance of winning?

[Chris_]

WHAT?????.....and give Coleman a 50/50 chance of winning?

...heads they win, tails we lose.   

[JohnnyReb]

...heads they win, tails we lose.   

Stupid me.....for thinking they'd do an honest flip.

[Chris_]

Stupid me.....for thinking they'd do an honest flip.

Their flip is normally followed by a flop. 

[Wretched Excess]

Board review of challenged ballots starts today

High noon -- that's when another phase begins today in the overtime election battle between incumbent U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman and Democratic rival Al Franken.

Minnesota's Canvassing Board convenes this afternoon to begin reviewing the two campaigns' challenges of ballots cast Nov. 4, when the results were too thin to determine a winner. That narrow margin prompted this mandatory recount.

The board meets in Room 10 of the State Office Building at 100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in St. Paul.

Combined, the five-member board could have fewer than 1,500 ballots to review for "voter intent." Coleman holds a 188-vote lead going into the board's review of the challenged ballots.

Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, chairman of the Canvassing Board, wants total challenges cut to fewer than 1,000 so the board can complete the review by Friday. He postponed the start of today's meeting from 9 a.m. until noon to give the Republican more time to withdraw challenges.

Also still to be settled by the board are hundreds of absentee ballots that the Franken camp contends were wrongly rejected by election officials.

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[Tess Anderson]

And the drama continues - in other words, Franken continues to make a bigger ass out of himself than should be possible:

The state Canvassing Board began sifting through the first of 1,500 challenged ballots in the disputed U.S. Senate race this afternoon, providing a tedious - but sometimes eye-opening - lesson in democracy under the gaze of reporters and lawyers for the campaigns of Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and DFLer Al Franken.

The process, at the outset anyway, was grindingly slow. In the first two hours, the board had ruled on 46 votes challenged by Franken. Of those, the board awarded 26 votes to Coleman, 7 to Franken and 13 to the pile for ballots where intend couldn't be determined or were disqualified because of marks that might identify the voter.

Almost two hours ago -  link:HERE

Well, it looks like Coleman is winning round one, hope he continues to ward off Stuart Smalley's election fraud attempts.

[Chris]

And the drama continues - in other words, Franken continues to make a bigger ass out of himself than should be possible:

He's good enough, he's smart enough, and dog gone it, people like him.

Never underestimate the power of positive thinking.

[Wretched Excess]

this thing is losing a lot of definition.

Meanwhile, Olmsted County officials were taken to court Tuesday by Franken's campaign for not counting on election night a number of absentee ballots that the campaign says weren't actually rejected. The campaign asked a district court judge to order the county to count 27 absentee ballots accepted by elections officials but mistakenly not tallied because of what the campaign called an "administrative error."

Link

where they accepted in error, or were they not tallied in error? 

[Tess Anderson]

Well, I don't know, doesn't look like it will be settled until at least Monday, but he's cheated enough lately to be "leading" Franken by 66 votes. "Notably".

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Democrat Al Franken edged ahead of Republican incumbent Norm Coleman on Friday for the first time in Minnesota's long-running U.S. Senate recount.

Franken opened up a slight lead on the fourth day of a state Canvassing Board meeting to decide the fate of hundreds of disputed ballots.

The change was notable because Coleman led Franken in election night returns and also held a 188-vote lead before the board took up challenged ballots. But its significance was limited, with the possibility the lead could change again before the long recount ends.

The board had several hundred remaining challenges to resolve, with a goal of doing so by Friday. Both Coleman and Franken are also waiting to see how much they gain from some 5,000 challenges that they withdrew, and the board won't allocate those until Monday.

Of course, the GOP are just sitting around *hoping* Coleman wins.

[Airwolf]

They said on the local radio station today that this is going to go on till sometime next year.