MN-GOV

Emmer Hires Ex-State Chief Justice (And Ex-Canvassing Board Member) To Legal Team

Eric Kleefeld | November 9, 2010, 1:45PM

MN Gov candidate Tom Emmer (R)

In a further sign that Republican candidate Tom Emmer is going to put up a serious fight in the Minnesota gubernatorial recount, the state GOP has announced the hiring of a very important name for his legal team: Former state Supreme Court Justice Eric Magnuson, who previously served on the state Canvassing Board in the 2008 Senate recount, and will now serve in the role of chief litigator on Team Emmer.

As the Star Tribune notes, Magnuson played a special role within the Canvassing Board itself, keeping detailed notes on the sorts of disputed markings on ballots that the board would encounter, and the "precedents" on how they would count them. (For example, he helped to establish a rule that the state's law against a person signing their ballot would not apply in cases where a person had crossed out a previous choice, then signed the alteration in the manner in which people are accustomed to marking up legal documents.)

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