Comedian Al Franken enters Minnesota Senate race - Page 2 - Big Big Forums

Jolie Rouge · 12-04-2008, 02:06 PM

Minnesota Senate recount, update X
December 4, 2008[/i]

This morning Kathryn Lopez asked me to update NRO's Corner readers on the Minnesota Senate recount. This was my report.

Yesterday the Washington Post's Chris Cillizza updated the Minnesota Senate recount under the heading "Counting Chaos!" Yet the text of his update mostly belied the heading (and the exclamation mark).

Two weeks after election day, incumbent Republican Senator Norm Coleman was certified the winner of his race against Al Franken by 206 votes out of nearly 3 million cast on November 4, subject to a mandatory recount triggered by the closeness of the margin.

As Cillizza explains, the process by which the votes have been recounted is simple: independent election judges at locations throughout Minnesota's 87 counties have conducted a ballot by ballot examination (on a precinct by precinct basis) and determined the candidate voted for on each ballot. The Coleman and Franken campaigns each have an observer in place at the recount locations and the observers can challenge the ruling of the independent judge.

The mandatory recount has proceeded by hand throughout Minnesota on a precinct by precinct basis in a mostly orderly fashion for the past three weeks, with results reported each day to the Minnesota Secretary of State's office. The recount will come to an end tomorrow, with some 6,000 challenged ballots - roughly half challenged by each side -- to be considered by the five-member canvassing board called under state law to preside over the recount.

The canvassing board includes Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Eric Magnuson, Justice Barry Anderson, Ramsey County Judges Kathleen Gearin and Edward Cleary, and Secretary of State Mark Ritichie. Ritichie is the man from ACORN, but the canvassing board is otherwise a serious body. When they take up the challenged ballots tomorrow, they have their work cut out for them.

According to news organizations comparing the reported recount results to the originally certified tally, as of last night Coleman's margin over Franken had expanded to 316 votes (excluding the approximately 6,000 challenged ballots).

Cillizza predicates his claim of "chaos!" on the Franken campaign's claim to be ahead by 22 votes when the challenged ballots are finally ruled on by the canvassing board. My own sense from talking to election observers and others is that the Franken campaign is trying to introduce a sense of uncertainty to the probable outcome that is probably unwarranted.

A claim of "chaos!" predicated on the mysterious appearance and disappearance of ballots at various locations would have more substance. Franken, for example, picked up 37 votes from newly discovered ballots in a suburb of St. Paul earlier this week. And yesterday's recount in Minneapolis's first precinct showed 133 fewer votes than the election-day count, potentially costing Franken 46 votes. Today's Star Tribune reports that Franken attorney David Lillehaug asked that the recount in Minneapolis be kept open until the ballots are found. Citing 133 "disenfranchised voters in Minneapolis who are waiting for action," he wrote the Secretary of State, "the U.S. Senate race may hang in the balance."

Cillizza to the contrary notwithstanding, Franken isn't talking or acting like a winner. As I wrote on Power Line this week, I conclude that Franken anticipates losing the recount.

Franken has already resorted to litigation over rejected absentee ballots and threatened further litigation over the rejection of certain absentee ballots. He has met with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on the subject and won Reid's expression of concern implicitly raising the threat that the Senate Democratic majority may overturn the result reached in Minnesota if the rejected absentee ballots in issue aren't counted. Al Franken hasn't been funny in a very long time, but that is really unfunny.

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archive.../12/022225.php

Jolie Rouge · 12-04-2008, 02:06 PM

MN-Senate: Counting Chaos!

As the manual recount in the Minnesota Senate race between Republican Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken nears its conclusion, the identity of the winner is growing increasingly unclear.

Franken's campaign proclaimed Wednesday that by their own calculation they had gone up by 22 votes.

The secretary of State and Star Tribune put Coleman up 303 votes.

The Coleman campaign said (facetiously) they are leading by 2,200 votes in a release in response to Franken yesterday.

What gives?

After several conversations with people far smarter than us on both sides of the aisle, here's our best take on where things stand, the discrepancy in counts and where we go from here.

First, the facts.

By Friday, all 2.9 million (or so) of the votes cast in the race will have been manually recounted. As of today there are roughly 138,000 votes that have yet to be recounted.

The process by which the votes have been recounted is simple: an independent arbiter looks at each ballot (on a precinct by precinct basis) and rules on whether it is a vote for Coleman or Franken. Each campaign has an observer in place at the recount and that observer can challenge the ruling of the independent judge. By and large the voter intent is obvious and the ballot is not challenged but in some cases one side or the other makes a challenge -- typically on the basis that the voter's intent is not clear.

It is these challenged ballots, which number roughly 6,000, that are responsible for the confusion.

The secretary of State's office chooses not to count any of these ballots in its overall vote count -- meaning that when the recount ends on Friday there will be 6,000 or so fewer votes than there were on election day.

The Franken campaign, on the other hand, is counting all 6,000 votes -- using as its standard the judgment of the independent observer. So, if the independent analyst ruled a ballot as a vote for Coleman -- even if Franken is challenging it -- the Franken campaign counts it as a vote for Coleman.

In short: the secretary of State is counting none of the challenged ballots and the Franken campaign is counting all of the challenged ballots. It's that simple.

The fate of the race likely rests in the hands of how these 6,000 challenged ballots shake out. Once the recount ends, a five-person canvassing board is set to meet on Dec. 16 to make final rulings on the remaining challenged ballots.

Our take: This race is about as close to a tie as you can get. But, remember that in politics perception matters and both sides are, smartly, seeking to win the PR battle.

The Coleman campaign is emphasizing that he was ahead on election night and, according to the secretary of State he is ahead in the recount.

The Franken folks stand by their +22 number and believe -- publicly and privately -- that this is a race that will be decided by a few dozen votes.

Remember that the closest Senate race in history -- the 1974 New Hampshire contest between Republican Louis Wyman and Democrat John Durkin -- wound up being litigated by the Senate itself and, eventually, concluded in a re-vote in which Durkin emerged as the winner.

Could we be headed down that road again?

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the...aos_rules.html

Jolie Rouge · 12-04-2008, 02:21 PM

In every recount of the senate election from Minnesota, incumbent senator Norm Coleman has consistently been ahead of challenger Al Franken by hundreds of votes. At this point it looks like it will be impossible for Franken to exceed Coleman's total in the recount of the few ballots remaining. So what is the solution of New York Times guest op-ed columnist and associate professor of journalism at New York University, Charles Seife? Why just declare the election a "statistical tie" and flip a coin to determine the winner. Seife explains how he has come up with his laughable resolution for the election in which Coleman continues to lead:

Quote:

Before the recount began on Nov. 19, Mr. Coleman and Mr. Franken were within about 200 votes of each other. With a little under three million ballots cast in the election, that margin was unbelievably small: a few thousandths of a percent separated the two candidates. So, as Minnesota law requires, election officials began counting, by hand, every single ballot from the more than 4,000 precincts around the state.

... Even if all missing ballots are found and all the typos are corrected, the recount is still doomed. Just considering precincts where every ballot is accounted for — where Coleman and Franken observers are not challenging votes — there are mistakes.

How can we know this? Before the recount began, the state ran a post-election review to gauge the accuracy of the voting process. The review involved auditors going into select precincts and, like the recounters, counting by hand, doing the most careful job humanly possible. So in some precincts, we have not just a recount but a re-recount. Both auditors and recounters were hypervigilant to possible sources of error, and yet they disagree on their tallies by about 20 thousandths of a percent.

In an ordinary race, errors this tiny wouldn’t be a problem. But the Coleman-Franken race is so close that this error rate is more than double the margin between the two camps. And that’s just taking into account the precincts where there are no challenges. Throw in the weirdo ballots with lizard people, stray marks and indecipherable dots, and the error rate grows even more. Throw in the missing ballots, and the situation is hopeless. In truth, the counting errors dwarf the tiny numerical difference in votes between the two candidates. If, at the end of the recount, Mr. Coleman or Mr. Franken is ahead by a few dozen or a few hundred votes, that would be because of errors rather than voter preference.

Minnesota’s instruments for counting votes are simply too crude to determine the winner in a race this tight. This is not the state’s fault. In fact, Minnesota’s election laws, procedures and equipment are among the best in the country. The problem is that a voting system that is based on physically recounting chits of paper is inherently error-prone, and in a close election like this, the errors are too large for the process to determine a winner. Even though, at the end of the recount, it will seem as if one candidate has won by a hair, the outcome will really be a statistical tie.

Luckily, Minnesota’s electoral law has a provision for ties. After all the counting and recounting, if the vote is statistically tied, the state should invoke the section of the law that requires the victor to be chosen by lot. It’s hard to swallow, but the right way to end the senatorial race between Mr. Coleman and Mr. Franken will be to flip a coin.

There is only one "little" problem with Seife's analysis. The Minnesota senate election isn't a tie. Coleman remains ahead. Of course this could end up as the excuse for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to declare the election there a "statistical tie" and settle it via a coin toss despite Coleman's consistent lead. Heads I win, tails you lose.

And isn't it interesting that we never heard of a "statistical tie" defined as an actual tie to be determined by a coin toss in the past whenever a Democrat narrowly led in a recount election?

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/p-j-gla...ical-tie-flip-

Jolie Rouge · 12-12-2008, 05:21 PM

Al Franken gets boosts in Minnesota Senate recount
By BRIAN BAKST, Associated Press Writer
22 mins ago

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Democrat Al Franken won a pair of victories Friday before the state board overseeing the Senate recount, including a decision that as many as 1,500 incorrectly rejected absentee ballots should be included.

The board also opted to recommend use of election night results in a Franken-leaning Minneapolis precinct where 133 ballots went missing, a decision that could have cost him 46 votes if it had gone the other way.

"It was a great day for democracy," Franken attorney Marc Elias said after a hearing that drew protesters urging use of rejected absentee votes.

Franken had fought especially hard to include the absentees as he tries to overtake Republican Sen. Norm Coleman in the drawn-out recount.

Coleman's campaign lawyers said they would go to court over the absentee ballot ruling.

With all precincts recounted, Coleman has a 192-vote edge over Franken — down slightly from his 215-vote lead entering the recount.

But there's a long way to go. That margin doesn't include the absentees. Nor does it include any of the 6,655 ballot challenges the two campaigns filed during the recount. Both sides have withdrawn hundreds — including 750 Friday by Franken — but the state Canvassing Board will tackle some 3,450 starting Tuesday.

The board's decision on improperly rejected absentees doesn't guarantee they will be opened and counted because it doesn't have the power to order counties to do so. Most counties have gone forward with a voluntary sorting, though others have balked.

But Secretary of State Mark Ritchie said he's not worried about getting counties aboard.

"They are sobered and they would like to correct those errors," he said.

Coleman's campaign planned to file a petition with the state Supreme Court as soon as Friday to seek uniform rules for dealing with the absentee ballots, arguing that leaving the task to counties would create inconsistencies.

Coleman lawyer Tony Trimble said the campaign is asking counties to hold off on any action involving the ballots until the court weighs in.

At least 638 absentee ballots are known to have been rejected for something other than the four legal reasons for disqualification. That's based on an assessment of about half of Minnesota's counties by the secretary of state's office. State officials estimate the total could top 1,500.

It's not known which candidate stands to benefit most from those ballots.

"It would be unjust and disrespectful to those voters not to count those votes," said Judge Edward Cleary, one of four who sit with Ritchie on the board.

About 30 demonstrators gathered outside the Capitol hearing room to urge Canvassing Board members to count the absentee ballots. They held handmade signs saying "Let the people's votes count" and "Count every vote." Some wore "Count every vote" stickers.

The board acted after receiving a legal opinion from the office of Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson, a Democrat, that the ballots should be counted.

"There is no doubt that voters who have complied with all legal requirements, but whose ballots were improperly rejected, should have their vote counted," it read.

The opinion laid out several options for getting the ballots into the count, some involving court action and others through administrative means. It says that the campaigns are free to seek court orders to compel counties to take part.

The board voted unanimously to rely on tapes from a ballot counting machine rather than results from the manual recount in a precinct in the University of Minnesota area in Minneapolis. Coleman's campaign had argued against using anything but the recount figures.

A packet of ballots from the precinct couldn't be found after an exhaustive search of the city's elections warehouse. Consequently, the recount showed 133 fewer votes than the number of people who signed in on Election Day or who voted absentee.

Because Franken decisively won the precinct, he stood to lose the most votes if the board went with the recount tally over the machine tapes.

___

Associated Press writer Martiga Lohn contributed to this report.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081212/...nnesota_senate

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Jolie Rouge · 01-02-2009, 07:26 PM

Senate GOP would block early try to seat Franken
By BRIAN BAKST, Associated Press Writer
1 hr 26 mins ago

ST. PAUL, Minn. – A top Senate Republican said Friday his caucus would block any attempt to seat the winner of Minnesota's close election until an anticipated court case is finished and an official election certificate is issued.

Pending the counting of hundreds of unopened absentee ballots, Democrat Al Franken holds a 49-vote lead over incumbent Republican Sen. Norm Coleman, whose term expires at noon EST Saturday.

Minnesota's other senator, Democrat Amy Klobuchar, has said the man with the most votes after the recount concludes should be seated while legal matters play out. Franken hasn't discussed his intentions.

The new Congress convenes Tuesday. A court challenge and possible appeals could keep the Franken-Coleman contest unsettled for several months. Hundreds of uncounted absentee ballots are due to be opened and examined Saturday, and the Canvassing Board had hoped to wrap up its work by Tuesday.

Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the incoming chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told reporters Friday that Republicans would object to seating anyone before the already lengthy process is finished.

"I can assure you that there will be no way people on our side of the aisle will agree to seat any senator provisionally or otherwise unless there is a valid election certificate and all legal issues about who got the most votes is finally decided," Cornyn said.

If even a single Republican were to object to a bid to seat Franken, Senate Democrats would have to come up with 60 votes to call the vote. Counting two independents who align with them, Democrats will have 58 or 59 seats in the incoming Senate, depending on the resolution of the Minnesota race.

On Friday, counties were finishing sorting envelopes containing previously rejected absentee ballots that could still tip the race.

Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, declined to comment on what lies ahead. He would only say, "It's important that we wait for the Canvassing Board decision."

The Supreme Court said Friday it needs more information before it can rule on a Coleman petition to add more ballots to the recount. The justices asked several county auditors, the secretary of state and Franken's campaign to supply data by Saturday morning on unopened absentee ballots that might have been mistakenly left out of the counting. The justices said they hadn't decided yet whether they will give the petition a full airing.

Election officials around the state have spent the week conferring with campaign representatives about 1,350 sealed ballots that didn't get counted Nov. 4 but which may have been excluded in error. Under a Supreme Court order, all sides had to agree that an absentee ballot was incorrectly rejected before it could be forwarded to the state for counting.

Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty said during his weekly radio show that the process may be flawed because the campaigns have so much power to keep ballots out.

"It seems odd that you would turn over somebody's legal right to vote to the campaigns," he said.

Any lawsuit challenging the outcome must be filed within a week after the state board declares the count over. Once a lawsuit is filed, there is a 20-day window for a special three-judge panel to hear the case. There is no deadline for the judges to rule. Appeals would add weeks or months.

Coleman attorney Fritz Knaak said such a lawsuit is certain.

"An election challenge here is inevitable. Whether we bring it or the Franken campaign brings it, there is no doubt in my mind," he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090102/...nnesota_senate

Jolie Rouge · 01-05-2009, 06:42 PM

Franken on top in Minn. recount; Coleman to sue
Brian Bakst, Associated Press Writer
14 mins ago

ST. PAUL, Minn. – A Minnesota board on Monday certified results showing Democrat Al Franken winning the state's U.S. Senate recount over Republican Norm Coleman, whose lawyer promised a legal challenge that probably will keep the race in limbo for months.

The Canvassing Board's declaration started a seven-day clock for Coleman, the incumbent, to file a lawsuit protesting the result. His attorney Tony Trimble said the challenge will be filed within 24 hours. The challenge will keep Franken from getting the election certificate he needs to take the seat in Washington.

"This process isn't at an end," Trimble said. "It is now just at the beginning."

Franken, a former "Saturday Night Live" personality, ended the recount up by 225 votes, an astonishingly thin margin in a race where more than 2.9 million votes were cast. The recount reversed the unofficial Election Day results, which showed Coleman with a 215-vote lead.

Franken made up the deficit over seven tortuous weeks of ballot-sifting in part by prevailing on challenges that both campaigns brought to thousands of ballots. He also did better than Coleman when election officials opened and counted more than 900 absentee ballots that had erroneously been disqualified on Election Day.

Coleman's lawyers have argued that some ballots were mishandled and others were wrongly excluded from the recount, giving Franken an unfair advantage. After a Minnesota Supreme Court decision went against Coleman earlier Monday, lead attorney Fritz Knaak said a lawsuit was inevitable.

A lawsuit would extend the fight over the seat for months.

Secretary of State Mark Ritchie was careful to note that the board was simply signing off on the numbers found by the recount: Franken, with 1,212,431 votes, and Coleman, with 1,212,206 votes.

"We're not doing anything today that declares winners or losers or anything to that effect," Ritchie said.

All five members of the canvassing board — Ritchie, plus two state Supreme Court justices and two Ramsey County judges — voted to accept the recount results.

A lawsuit would extend the fight over the seat for months. Any court case would open doors closed to the campaigns during the administrative recount. They would be able to access voter rolls, inspect machines and get testimony from election workers.

The campaigns continued the political maneuvering that has marked the nearly two months of the recount.

Marc Elias, Franken's lead recount attorney, referred to his client as "Senator-elect Franken."

"I stand before you today relieved and happy that I can now say with no uncertainty left that Al Franken won this election with 225 votes," Elias said. "This process worked."

"The race in Minnesota is over," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. He called the Republican efforts to continue challenging Franken's election "only a little finger pointing."

Trimble, meanwhile, said that irregularities in the recount mean there "can be no confidence" in the results. And he said Coleman didn't want any delay in filing a challenge.

Minnesota law doesn't allow the issuance of a final election certificate until legal challenges are settled, meaning the state will be represented only by Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat, when Congress convenes on Tuesday. Coleman's term expired Saturday.

___

Associated Press writer Amy Forliti contributed to this report.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090105/...30A33fqrWMwfIE

Jolie Rouge · 01-12-2009, 03:20 PM

Officials turn down Franken request in Minn. race
By BRIAN BAKST, Associated Press Writer
10 mins ago

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Democrat Al Franken was quickly turned down Monday when he asked Minnesota's governor and secretary of state to issue an election certificate that would let him take office in the Senate.

In letters the campaign sent to Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Democratic Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, Franken's lawyers argued that a seven-day waiting period for issuing the certificate after an election has passed and he should get the signed certificate. But the state officials said their hands were tied by state law and they could not act.

Franken led Republican Norm Coleman by 225 votes after a statewide recount that was completed Jan. 5.

Coleman is suing over the result, claiming there were irregularities on Election Day and during the recount.

Minnesota law prevents officials from issuing an election certificate until legal matters are resolved. But Franken's legal team argues that federal election law entitles Franken to receive the certificate before the lawsuit is settled.

"The people of Minnesota are down a senator in the U.S. Senate. This is an opportunity for Governor Pawlenty and Secretary Ritchie to ensure the interests of all Minnesotans are represented in Washington," Franken lawyer Marc Elias told reporters in a conference call. He didn't rule out a lawsuit.

In a statement, Ritchie said state law requires him and the governor to turn down Franken's request.

"Minnesota law is very clear on when a certificate of election can be issued. Neither the governor nor I may sign a certificate of election in the U.S. Senate race until all election contests have reached a final determination," Ritchie's statement read.

The statement didn't specifically address Franken's argument that federal law supecede the state law.

Pawlenty echoed Ritchie, saying it is clear the law won't allow him to issue a certificate while the race is being contested in court.

A spokesmen for Coleman had no comment.

Franken's campaign was due to file a response to Coleman's lawsuit later Monday. Elias characterized the Coleman action as "riddled with errors that are fatal to much if not all of the claims made in the petition."

By law, a trial on the lawsuit must start within three weeks of its filing, which occurred last Tuesday. It will be heard by a three-judge panel that has not yet been named.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090112/...nnesota_senate

Jolie Rouge · 01-15-2009, 02:12 PM

The Minnesota Recount Was Unconstitutional
There's still plenty of time for the state to get it right

You would think people would learn. The recount in the contest between Norm Coleman and Al Franken for a seat in the U.S. Senate isn't just embarrassing. It is unconstitutional.

This is Florida 2000 all over again, but with colder weather.

Like that fiasco, Minnesota's muck of a process violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Indeed, the controlling Supreme Court decision is none other than Bush v. Gore.

Remember Florida? Local officials conducting recounts could not decide what counted as a legal vote. Hanging chads? Dimpled chads? Should "undervotes" count (where a machine failed to read an incompletely-punched card)? What about "overvotes" (where voters punched more than one hole)? Different counties used different standards; different precincts within counties were inconsistent.

The Florida Supreme Court intervened and made things worse, ordering a statewide recount of some types of rejected ballots but not others. It specified no standards for what should count as a valid vote, leaving the judgment to each county. And it ordered partial recounts already conducted in some counties (but not others) included in the final tabulation. The result was chaos.

By a vote of 7-2, Bush v. Gore (2000) ruled that Florida's recount violated the principle that all votes must be treated uniformly. Applying precedents dating to the 1960s, the Court found that the Equal Protection Clause meant that ballots must be treated so as to give every vote equal weight. A state may not, by "arbitrary and disparate treatment, value one person's vote over that of another." Florida's lack of standards produced "unequal evaluation of ballots in several respects." The state's supreme court "ratified this uneven treatment" and created more of its own, and was unconstitutional.

Bush v. Gore is rightly regarded as controversial -- but not because of its holding regarding the Equal Protection Clause, which commanded broad agreement among the justices. The controversy arose because of the remedy the Court chose for Florida's violation, which was to end the recount entirely. The majority thought that time was up under Florida law requiring that its results be submitted in time to be included in the Electoral College count. That aspect of Bush v. Gore commanded only five votes. Two justices thought Florida should get more time and another chance.

The problem with the remedy was that it arguably violated the same principle that led the Court to invalidate the recount: the need to treat all votes equally. It had the practical effect of awarding the election to Bush (though subsequent media counts confirmed that Bush won anyway, under any uniform standard). This has led to enduring partisan criticism of the case, some fair and some unfair.

But no matter: Bush v. Gore is the law of the land. On the question of how the Equal Protection Clause applies to state recounts, the ruling, which reflected a 7-2 majority, controls.

Minnesota is Bush v. Gore reloaded.

The details differ, but not in terms of arbitrariness, lack of uniform standards, inconsistency in how local recounts were conducted and counted, and strange state court decisions.

Consider the inconsistencies: One county "found" 100 new votes for Mr. Franken, due to an asserted clerical error. Decision? Add them. Ramsey County (St. Paul) ended up with 177 more votes than were recorded election day. Decision? Count them. Hennepin County (Minneapolis, where I voted -- once, to my knowledge) came up with 133 fewer votes than were recorded by the machines. Decision? Go with the machines' tally. All told, the recount in 25 precincts ended up producing more votes than voters who signed in that day.

Then there's Minnesota's (first, so far) state Supreme Court decision, Coleman v. Ritchie, decided by a vote of 3-2 on Dec. 18. (Two justices recused themselves because they were members of the state canvassing board.) While not as bad as Florida's interventions, the Minnesota Supreme Court ordered local boards to count some previously excluded absentee ballots but not others. Astonishingly, the court left the decision as to which votes to count to the two competing campaigns and forbade local election officials to correct errors on their own.

If Messrs. Franken and Coleman agreed, an absentee ballot could be counted. Either campaign could veto a vote. Dean Barkley of the Independence Party, who ran third, was not included in this process.

Thus, citizens' right to vote -- the right to vote! -- was made subject to political parties' gaming strategies. Insiders agree that Mr. Franken's team played a far more savvy game than Mr. Coleman's. The margin of Mr. Franken's current lead is partly the product of a successful what's-mine-is-mine-what's-yours-is-vetoed strategy, and of the Coleman team's failure to counter it.

The process is not over yet, since the state court decision in effect kicked the can down the road. The candidates can revisit these issues by contesting the legal validity of the election under state law -- which Mr. Coleman's team did last week.

But as matters stand now, the Minnesota recount is a legal train wreck. The result, a narrow Franken lead, is plainly invalid. Just as in Bush v. Gore, the recount has involved "unequal evaluation of ballots in several respect" and failed to provide "minimal procedural safeguards" of equal treatment of all ballots. Legally, it does not matter which candidate benefited from all these differences in treatment. (Mr. Franken did.) The different treatment makes the results not only unreliable (and suspicious), but unconstitutional.

What is the remedy? Unlike Bush v. Gore, there is no looming national deadline. Minnesota can take its time and do things right.

This means two things: First, the process must conform to Minnesota election law. Second, it must conform to Bush v. Gore. Whatever standards Minnesota uses must be applied uniformly, consistently, and under clear standards not admitting of local variation. Discrepancies between machine counts and hand recounts, and between numbers of recorded votes and signed-in voters, however resolved, must be resolved the same way throughout the state.

The standards for evaluating rejected absentee ballots likewise must be uniform, with decisions made according to legal standards, not by partisan campaigns. If the Minnesota Supreme Court fails to assure these things, the matter could go right up to the U.S. Supreme Court.

And what if there is no reliable way to determine in a recount who won, consistent with Bush v. Gore's requirements?

The Constitution's answer is a do-over.

The 17th Amendment provides: "When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct."

In a sense, a vacancy has already "happened." The U.S. Senate convened on Jan. 6 with only one senator from Minnesota. Still, the seat is perhaps not "vacant," just unfilled. But if the contest proceeding does not produce a clear winner that passes constitutional muster, a special election -- and a temporary appointment by Gov. Tim Pawlenty -- may be the only answer.

For now, the only thing certain is that the present "certified" result -- which is that Mr. Franken won by 225 votes out of more than 2.9 million cast -- is an obvious, embarrassing violation of the Constitution.

Mr. Paulsen is professor of law at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis, Minn. He is formerly associate dean of the University of Minnesota Law School.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123197800446483619.html

Jolie Rouge · 01-23-2009, 12:06 AM

Franken's motion to dismiss recount suit rejected
Patrick Condon, Associated Press Writer – 51 mins ago

ST. PAUL, Minn. – A three-judge panel in Minnesota's contested Senate election has denied Democrat Al Franken's motion to dismiss his opponent's recount lawsuit, clearing the path for the trial to start next week.

The judges rejected Franken's argument on Thursday that their review should be confined to determining if the recount was mathematically correct, saying the court has jurisdiction to determine whether votes were legally cast.

Republican Norm Coleman is suing over a recount that ended with Franken up by 225 votes. Coleman's lawsuit alleges that it's an artificial lead based on the double-counting of some ballots and other inconsistencies in some precincts.

The judges did not validate those allegations in refusing to dismiss the case, saying: "It is immaterial whether or not the plaintiff can prove the facts alleged."

Coleman's attorney, Ben Ginsberg, called the decision a "stinging defeat" for Franken.

"We look forward to the trial commencing on Monday," Franken's attorney, Marc Elias, said in a statement.

The judges denied a request by Coleman's lawyers to order counties to ship about 12,000 rejected absentee ballots to the court so that they could be quickly accessible once the court decides whether they should be counted. No explanation was given for the rejection.

Coleman on Thursday also asked the three judges to order inspectors into 86 Minnesota precincts where his lawyers believe there were irregularities in the vote count.

The inspectors would "go to those precincts where there are still questions and try to settle them," said Ginsberg. One inspector would represent Coleman, another Franken and the last would be neutral. Unsettled disputes would presumably be forwarded for consideration in the election trial.

Coleman's attorneys said if the judges rule on the motion by the end of Thursday, there would be time for the inspections to occur before Monday. The judges did not make a decision Thursday, but they were expected to meet again Friday.

Elias argued it would be difficult to accomplish what Coleman wants before the trial starts. Even if it could, Elias said, state law doesn't allow for the process Coleman proposed. He said Coleman's proposal amounts to an end run around the state Canvassing Board and the process it set for determining whether votes were legally cast.

"How can it be that we're going to count these precincts under a new rule when we already counted 4,000 precincts under a different standard?" Elias asked.

Judge Elizabeth Hayden, a member of the three-judge panel, also questioned the need for inspectors in light of the hundreds of hours that went into the recount and the state Canvassing Board's effort.

"So that all becomes moot?" she asked. "We start over and ballots can be accepted or rejected by different criteria?"

Franken has asked the Minnesota Supreme Court to order that he get an election certificate before the resolution of the trial. On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Democrats would try to seat Franken but didn't say when, and on Thursday his spokesman said Senate Democrats may not make any such move for a few weeks.

As Coleman awaits resolution of the trial, he landed a new job. The Republican Jewish Coalition announced that he had agreed to join the group as a consultant and strategic adviser. Executive director Matt Brooks said Coleman would advise the 40,000-member group on policy, help with recruiting and deliver speeches around the country. Brooks said he wouldn't lobby for them. He declined to say how much Coleman would be paid.

Coleman expects his work with the group to be temporary and is still confident of prevailing in the election lawsuit, his spokesman Mark Drake said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090123/...CfOasiaY9H2ocA

Jolie Rouge · 07-01-2009, 02:07 AM

It’s official. The Senate gets another buffoon :

Quote:

It is U.S. Senator Al Franken.

The Minnesota Supreme Court today decided that Franken, a Democrat, won the highest number of votes in last year’s U.S. Senate race and deserves a signed election certificate.

The court said that Republican Norm Coleman didn’t prove that a lower court made mistakes requiring a rehearing of the case. Coleman had asked the court to order thousands of rejected absentee ballots counted. He had hoped the counting would allow him to overcome Franken’s 312-vote lead.

The court’s decision brings to an end the seven-month state fight over the Minnesota Senate race. Franken has had a lead since January and a trial court decided in April that he won the highest number of legally cast votes.

Showtime !

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/06/30...another-clown/

Al Franken is coming to Washington.

Quote:

The unanimous court wrote that "because the legislature established absentee voting as an optional method of voting, voters choosing to use that method are required to comply with the statutory provisions."

They went on to say that "because strict compliance with the statutory requirements for absentee voting is, and always has been required, there is no basis on which voters could have reasonably believed that anything less than strict compliance would suffice."

What can you say about voters who can't get the job done? Honestly, is it that hard to fill out a ballot?

But there's no doubt that Al will really elevate the tone of the joint. http://www.punditandpundette.com/200...asantness.html

Update:

Quote:

A STATEMENT FROM SENATOR NORM COLEMAN

ST. PAUL – Senator Norm Coleman today made the following statement at his home in St. Paul:

“Ours is a government of laws, not men and women. The Supreme Court of Minnesota has spoken and I respect its decision and will abide by the result. It’s time for Minnesota to come together under the leaders it has chosen and move forward. I join all Minnesotans in congratulating our newest United States Senator – Al Franken.

“Just a few last words about my legal challenge. Sure, I wanted to win. Not just for myself but for my wonderful supporters and the important values I have always fought for. I also thought it was important to stand up for enfranchising thousands of Minnesotans whose votes weren’t counted like the others were. After all, issues and politicians come and go, but voting is fundamental.

“It is the essence of democracy so I knew we needed to do everything we could to get it right.

“I am forever grateful and humbled by the people of Minnesota who have given me the honor to represent them – and even more grateful for their wisdom, courage, patience and understanding over these past several months.

“The path that I take in the future is not nearly as important today as the path that we must now — all travel on together — to strengthen our state and our nation.

“I have never believed that my service is irreplaceable. We have reached the point where further litigation damages the unity of our state, which is also fundamental. In these tough times, we all need to focus on the future. And the future today is we have a new United States Senator.

“I congratulate Al Franken and his victory in this election. He now enjoys the advantage that our Congressional Delegation has over the other 525 people on Capitol Hill: he represents Minnesota.

“I know the great ideas, the amazing work ethic and the historic ability to come together to get things done in this state will help him greatly, as it has me.

“Speaking of which, I think we all should take a moment to thank Amy Klobuchar and her staff. They have done a great job of carrying the burden of two Senators these last six months. She is an extraordinary public servant.

“I don’t reach this point with any big regrets. I ran the campaign I wanted. I conducted the legal challenge I wanted. And I have always believed you do the best you can and leave the results up to a higher authority. I’m at peace with that. As to my future plans, that’s a subject for another day.

“We live in a great country and a great state. We can all have confidence that by some path we don’t yet know – one which we can all come together to lay out – we will arrive at the better future we all seek.

“Thank you and may God bless Minnesota and America.”

Did anyone think it would end any other way than this?
Right now, I’m not in the mood for arguing over the details. All I can say is from the minute I heard Franken was in the race, I said to friends, “By hook or crook, this guy will be in.”

After hearing about all the votes that were tossed out for Coleman by the Frankenstein mob, anything is possible. They threw out votes where people had used a check mark for Coleman instead of filling in the oval circle. That didn’t count. Numerous others were also cited.

Maybe it’s my utter cynicism, but honestly: given a choice between a man like Norm Coleman, who, after all, wasn’t involved in any scandals or anything, and a man like Al Franken, what sober-minded people would choose Franken? Something has ALWAYS smelled fishy about this entire affair from the word “go.”

And Coleman looks ok coming out of this. Fought a good fight. Conceded when, and I certainly agree, continuing to fight would be bad for himself and for his state. The Democrats and MN will be learning the lesson quickly that some times getting what you hope for is often not a good thing.

House
Senate
Executive
Ok, now it’s All on the democrats.

Any gripes, take it to the democrats.

dv8grl · 07-01-2009, 09:02 AM

I'm gonna watch Stuart Saves His Family, in celebration of Al's win!