This gives the standard for filtering Norm's 4800, (and maybe Al's other 700), but it does nothing to address the process whereby that filtering takes place. Right now, Coleman is being allowed to try each of his 4800 in open court indivdually by grilling county officials.

When and how is the court going to give the screening responsibility to someone besides the feew per day approach and bring this thing to a reasonable end considering due process?.

Courts don't care too much about timeliness, especially in instances like this.

That said, it's pretty clear that the entire purpose of this challenge has gone from getting Coleman seated(even he must see that the odds of that's happening are vanishingly small)to keeping the seat unfilled(and thus out of Democratic hands)for as long as possible--this results, essentially, in a vote for the Republican caucus--or a half a vote, if you will--and that is a big thing in these times.

This trail will continue on at a snails pace until the stimulus passes completely and is signed by President Obama. Once that happens I expect the Judges to make a major ruling that will either end the case or greatly dash Coleman's long shot hopes.

I mean given the standards they set for Franken's ballots, couldn't they simply tell Coleman to greatly slash his 4800, I mean he's arguing cases where the signatures didn't match, where places were not signed, etc.

They're playing the game with him. I guess the fact that they are playing the game is good news for Franken because they wouldn't bother dragging it out if they were going to give Coleman what he wants. So Franken just has to sit on the sidelines and wait.

Posters carwinrpc and xargaw are entirely correct. At this point, this is about denying Senate Democrats another seat. With Franken seated, they need to peel off just one GOPer to get to cloture on anything. That will be hard enough with the GOPers enforcing their typical Prussian-style discipline and angling for the 2010 (if not 2012) elections.
And that is the meta-issue here...let's not kid ourselves. The GOP is willing to let the country suffer (indeed...they're hoping the country suffers) to write their ticket back to power. Coleman's struggle is a small but significant piece of that strategy.
Does anyone out there know just who is funding Norm's legal efforts at this point (and not his fending off a separate criminal investigation)? THAT could be a real 'tell'...

The repubs have no respect for the law or the voters or the country or best interest of anything or anyone but themselves. I think this behavior should have a clinical diagnosis and a name like "Republican Syndrome" or "Selfish Obsessive"

They do everything they can to suppress voting from any group not reliably conservative and then cry and whine and grandstand in the courts when they want their votes counted. Coleman himself has already taken another job but I am sure his masters in the repug party have made it clear that he will be expected to beat this dead horse for as long as possible to keep Al Franken out of the Senate and keep the Dems having to beg for the 60 votes they need to get anything done.

I honestly would love to see the repubs have to do a real filibuster against the stimulus plan and have Americans look at these clowns on TV and remember their names and faces. We all need to see the idiots who would let the country burn down rather than let something pass that benefits working people and not just the rich fucks and corporate robber barons repubs seem only to care about.

All Coleman has been doing is screwing the people of Minnesota for his own selfish ends. The chances of his winning the election are now worse than 1 out of a thousand now, yet Minnesota needs both its senators to be in Washington RIGHT NOW to help in the economic recovery of the country and particularly the Minnesotans. Coleman's more than a jerk; he has become an enemy of the hard-working people of Minnesota.

I don't blame the trial court for the delay. I blame the Minnesota Legislature. They are the ones who enacted the foolish statute that requires a final decision on election appeals before issuance of an election certificate. Election contestants should be required to get a temporary injunction against the certificate if they don't want their opponents seated while the contest proceeds. (That would require the contestants to prove that they are likely to succeed on the merits, that they will suffer irreparable harm, that the injunction is in the public interest, etc.)

Fortunately, Franken has a decent argument that the statute doesn't apply to elections for U.S. Senators.

Whoops, that should be Deep Marine Technology--sorry.

I just checked and Deep Marine has asked for and received a 60-day delay to conduct an internal investigation.