Franken Camp Submits More Ballots As Judges Deliberate
We might all be waiting on a ruling from the Minnesota election court -- but even that doesn't stop the stream of interesting legal filings in this never-ending dispute.
The Star-Tribune reports that the the Franken campaign submitted over the weekend their specific list of rejected absentee ballots to be considered for counting, and it adds up to 430 envelopes -- 131 more than the number they'd given during closing arguments. All the ballots were already in evidence, so this is still allowable.
A Franken spokesperson told the the Strib that the campaign is directly asking the court to count the ballots mentioned at closing arguments while these are being put in "for consideration." What this essentially means, as the Strib points out, is that the Franken camp believes they've solidly proven the previous ballots under the court's strict standards, while the 131 could be a backup plan for just in case the court gives in to the Coleman arguments for using more lenient standards to let in some new votes.
The court's order on which ballots to count will be a very important step in this process, before we get a final ruling for a winner. Some unknown ballots are going to be admitted in -- and just pay attention to which campaign's list any individual envelope came from, and you'll have a rough idea of what to expect.
Josh
Matt
Eric
The court is not going to buy Coleman's partial proof. They were adamant that certain proofs were necessary and Coleman ignored it. What would make even the Strib think that all of a sudden they were going to accept those for which there was no record on if they voted otherwise, had mismatched signatures, and had changed their addresses?
March 17, 2009 6:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
At this point nothing would surprise me. I cannot fathom how this has dragged on for so long. On the other hand I wish Al Gore had fought as hard for his rightful office as Norm Coleman has fought for his wrongful office.
March 17, 2009 6:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Where was Gore supposed to take his fight after the USSC shut down the Florida recount? It seems to me that once the Supreme Court makes a ruling, you are pretty much at the end of the road.
March 17, 2009 6:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think where Al Gore didn't fight hard enough - at least from the reference point of 20-20 hindsight - was in not asking for a statewide recount in Florida. A recount limited to three counties is what the Supreme Court was able to say, in the end, led to equal protection problems.
March 17, 2009 7:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
IIRC, the 3 county recount was specifically required by Florida law -- the law didn't allow a request for a statewide recount.
Perhaps that was a tactical mistake, but at the time it seemed reasonable for Gore to follow state law rather than request something not allowed for law. I still believe that the Florida Supreme Court ruled consistently with the spirit of the Florida election law as it was written, that the correct procedure was to try determine the intent of the voter.
Who knew that the U.S. Supreme Court would involve itself in a dispute that was clearly under the purview of state law?
March 20, 2009 11:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
Actually, the exception length of these proceedings may speed up the eventual seating of Senator Franken.
My take is that the reason the case has moved so slowly is because the court has been extremely careful to avoid giving the litigants (mainly Coleman) any possible grounds for appeal.
Had the court treated Coleman as a standard litigant, he could have tied this up in appeals for a very long time. If they had given Coleman grounds for a federal appeal, the case could meander on for many, many more months.
I believe this court wants their ruling to be the final say. The court has allowed Coleman tremendous leeway and inordinate time in bringing his case. The court even thought better of their sanction against Coleman. They reversed themselves and allowed Coleman to put witness testimony into evidence, even though Coleman and the witness had clearly been guilty of misconduct. The court is clearly trying to take away any and all grounds for appeal.
I tend to think the exceptional length of this case has been an overall plus for Franken. Even given all this time and leeway, Coleman has been completely unable to prove any malfeasance. Coleman was never going to win at the ballot box, his only chance was to prove the election was fraudulent and get a re-do. In this effort he has utterly failed.
Given the length of the case and the leeway given to Coleman, the court has likely made it very difficult for Coleman to have any legitimate grounds for appeal.
I expect this thing to be over roughly 20 days after this current court decision. Franken will win the case, Coleman will have 10 days to file notice of appeal. Franken can force Coleman to file notice of appeal immediately by asking the MN SC for an election certificate. Coleman dare not dally with such a request pending.
Coleman will then have 15 days to file his complete appeal to the MN Supreme Court. I expect the court will mull it over for a few days, then refuse to hear it. Shortly after that (very, very shortly), the MN SC will order the Governor to sign the certificate of election.
Coleman may appeal to SCOTUS, but it won't matter. The MN SC has already made it clear that the certificate of election must be granted after all MN State cases are over. Franken will be seated within hours of the MNSC rejection of Coleman's appeal, assuming the Senate is in session.
My guess is that Franken has another 25 to 30 days before officially becoming Senator. That's assuming Coleman can manage to raise the funds necessary to file an appeal. If he cannot, Franken may be seated next week.
March 17, 2009 7:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for a good discussion and I strongly agree that this is what the court is up to: denying Coleman the appeals circus that he desparately wants to visit upon the innocent electorate of Minnesota.
As to him having the funds, Republicans continue to indicate they'll keep this charade bankrolled. They are *aching* to see their banana-republic electoral specialist Scalia further disgrace the Constitution and the rule of law by getting his malevolent, result-oriented hands on this. That's their real shot, even if it ain't much of one now that their fellow pol Rehnquist is gone, the way they see it.
March 18, 2009 5:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
Arrggh! The torture never stops! Make it end. Please make it end.
March 17, 2009 6:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm just so sick of this shit. Here we have, on the one hand, a lying, conniving slick oil car salesman & on the other hand a genuinely funny, intelligent & sincere mensch & fucking Minnesota can't figure out what to do. I'm sick of the 3 election judges. I'm sick of the entire state of Minnesota. And I guess I'm just sick of every single one of us. I think Grassley is actually onto something but he didn't take it far enough. We should all commit suicide. Fuck us. We don't deserve to live.
March 17, 2009 7:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
garyb50, I think you are so right. And I haven't heard it put so succinctly in oh, a day or two. Keep the faith bro.
March 17, 2009 10:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Settle down. This might be over fairly soon. Al might be a few months late in getting seated, but he'll get there, and he'll do a fine job and win his next election by an indisputable margin.
Look, if we're all supposed to take the gas pipe over this, how could we even have survived 8 years of Bush, or the death of Paul Wellstone and Coleman's slithering into that Senate seat in the first place? It's frustrating, but put it in perspective. We've got the House, the Senate, and the White House. The Republicans are a bunch of impotent, whiny, clueless crybabies. They're swirling around the drain and it's only a matter of time before gravity pulls them down.
Finally, stop blaming the entire state of Minnesota. We elected Paul Wellstone twice. We elected the first Muslim member of Congress in U.S. history. We're the only state that went with the Democrat in every single presidential election since 1976. We continue to have the best voter turnout in the country in nearly every national election. Blame the Republicans. Blame the media. Blame the RNSC-Coleman slime machine. Blame the third party spoiler. But, don't blame all of Minnesota for this. We have cleaner and better run elections than most other states and Al's chances of winning were vastly better here than in most of the other 50 states.
March 17, 2009 10:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Great, chimpale, step on my rant. But, OK, thank you. Since my grandmother died I have no one to tamp it down. Will you be my surrogate grandmother?
: )
March 18, 2009 12:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
And, BTW, here's where I live: http://www.pbase.com/image/110335808
March 17, 2009 7:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Where is this photo taken?
March 18, 2009 11:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
I mean, c'mon, how would you like to drive by that every freaking single day?
March 17, 2009 7:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
I feel that way sometimes, too. Sure, it's a slow process, but this is just an election and Franken will win. It's not really worth a full-blown descent into existential nihilism.
March 17, 2009 10:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Look, we are a little bit Loonie in a nice kind of way.
We even claim the Loon as our state bird, and the Morel Mushroom as our state fungus. (things it is nice to know about Minnesota.) And we have a Saturday Night Radio Show about the weekly events in our hinterland. (Otherwise known as Greater Minnesota.) And we take pride in very accurately counting all elections, just as we all count our change down to the penny.
But when the Blizzards sock people in for a month or two, and you have finished reading the seed catalogues, and sent in your order, there really isn't all that much to do except sit in your ice fishing house, over your little hole in the two foot thick lake ice, hope for a nice Northern, drink a brandy now and then, and recount the ballots in the last election. It suits us nicely. Now Ice Houses are off the lakes in the southern part of the state, go off Rainy Lake up by Canada next week, so yea, it is time to finish up the ballot counting, and get ready to plant.
As they say, For everything there is a Season.
March 17, 2009 11:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, you can always tuck yourself in and read John Sandford.
March 18, 2009 12:22 AM | Reply | Permalink
Does the Franken camp have ballots just laying around. It's been months, and their still submitting them?
This can't end soon enough.
March 18, 2009 1:35 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'm useless. Sorry. Gnight.
March 18, 2009 1:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
Well, ya know they are probably covering their butts. If Norm has submitted a pile from his friendly counties that he says should be counted because voters neglected to fill in box "B" but that should be OK any way then the Franken guys say hey we've got some like that you could throw on the pile too. Never know what those judges might decide to do.
Don't you think that sounds likely?
March 18, 2009 6:18 AM | Reply | Permalink