Minnesota Senate Court Ruling Released

[democraticinsurgent]

Source: The Uptake

Court dismisses all requests by both campaigns.

Court rules that approximately 400 absentee ballots to be opened and counted, if determine to be legal votes, by noon April 6.

Information still coming out and being interpreted at this writing.

Read more: http://theuptake.org/

---

Looks good for Mr. Franken. ;-)

[derby378]

1. And the wait continues...

Sheesh. Enough already.

[rateyes]

2. At least they are finally ruling.

What took them so damned long? :shrug:

[cali]

3. jeezus this is fucking bullshit.

[Adelante]

4. A week to count 400 ballots -

[hasidic acid]

7. Well heck that's more than 2 an hour...obviously a daunting task!

...

[Eric J in MN]

10. The ballots may be all over the state, and there would be a need...

...to establish a secure procedure to bring them to the Secretary of State, and for him to do the counting.

[Eric J in MN]

5. Highly unlikely that 400 ballots would put Coleman ahead.

Franken leads by 272.

Let's say 50 of the 400 ballots are neither for Franken or Coleman (three way race, some people left the race blank)

Even if Coleman gets 250 of the remainder and Franken 100, Franken would still be ahead.

[Thor_MN]

41. Don't forget that these only MAY be improperly rejected ballots.

Some percentage of these will be determined to be properly rejected ballots upon opening and examination. So knock out propely rejected ballots, those for Barkley and undervotes and Coleman has a very steep hill to climb. It may will be that Coleman couldn't win if he received all the improperly rejected ballots.

[mvd]

6. Doesn't sound like there will be enough for Coleman - good

Is it finally over on April 6?

[Eric J in MN]

8. Probably a federal appeal. A big question is whether Governor Tim Pawlenty...

...will issue an election certificate once the state case is over, or wait for the federal courts.

Minnesota law is vague on whether he should wait.

He's a Republican.

[mvd]

13. I know that Pawlenty will have a lot of pressure

Knowing what you do about Pawlenty, do you think he will give in?

[Eric J in MN]

17. Too close to call. He might not have even decided yet.

Pawlenty initially went on Fox News and promoted a bogus story about ballots in cars. But he later went on Fox News and corrected the story.

It seems a little more likely to me that he'll wait, since the law can reasonably be interpreted either way, and he's a Republican.

[Mister Ed]

34. Federal appeal maybe, but first an appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court is all but certain

I, personally, anticipate that the MN Supreme Court would make a ruling fairly quickly.

[Johnyawl]

38. It's usually the Secretary of State who issues the election certificate

[Mister Ed]

42. I think in MN it's the Secretary of State and the Governor as well. n/t

[dflprincess]

43. You are correct

it is the both the SoS and the governor. Maybe the State Supreme Court will interpret the election law to mean a certificate can only be held up during the state court process and order Pawlenty to sign it.

[AlinPA]

20. The talk I've heard is that Coleman will appeal to a MN supreme court . IMO, he will

go to SCOTUS if he loses that appeal. SCOTUS for him means he will be seated (7-2 republicans).

[Lucky Luciano]

25. Why would this get to the SCOTUS if this is entirely

a state issue? I have no law knowledge, but it does seem odd that a state election issue could go to the SCOTUS. Any lawyers in the house?

[Wednesdays]

30. Well, Bush vs. Gore was a state issue...or so we thought

:shrug:

[1monster]

31. So was Florida election 2000 a state issue. But the Supreme Court stuck its long nose

in anyway.

The Florida Supreme Court ruled according to the State Constitution.

The US Supreme Court ruled according to their political bent and against the US Constitution.

[AlinPA]

44. This SCOTUS will not pass up an opportunity to seat a republican in the senate.

It is an easy one for them, the 5-4 vote is almost automatic.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

9. The link's strange ..............

How come that link says "Still waiting - no news yet"? There's nothing about any ruling.

Where did you get your information? And why doesn't the link have it?

[Eric J in MN]

11. Al Franken leads by 272...

...per this website:
http://www.minnpost.com/dailyglean/2009/03/12/7332/daily_glean_norms_universe_shrinks_as_frankens_lead_grows

But some of the 400 will be for Dean Barkley (I) and some will be blank for the Senate race and some will be for Al Franken.

Extremely unlikely that Al Franken will lose his lead after the 400 are counted.

[CatholicEdHead]

12. Up to 30% or more for Barkley is likley

[Dinger]

39. Fuck Dean Barkley

he should know better. I think coleman financed his campaign. Both are assholes. Didn't Barkley work with Wellstone or (my memory isn't working so good here) was he the one who replaced him? Off to Google I go . . .


On edit, I see he replaced Wellstone after the puke/coleman had him assassinated.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

14. Thank you,

but there's no indication - click on the link in the OP - that any ruling has been made.

http://theuptake.org/

[Eric J in MN]

19. Star Tribune article

http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senate/42221767.html

In a potentially decisive ruling, a panel of three judges today ordered up to 400 new absentee ballots opened and counted, far fewer than Republican Norm Coleman had sought in his effort to overcome a lead by DFLer Al Franken.

The ballots also appear to include many that Franken had identified as wrongly rejected as well as ballots that Coleman wanted opened.
=================================

[Tangerine LaBamba]

21. Ahhhhh!

Good!

Thank you very much.......

[Eric J in MN]

23. You're welcome. NT

NT

[L. Coyote]

48. "many that Franken had identified as wrongly rejected" ding ding!!

[footinmouth]

15. The 400 ballots will be counted April 7

The Uptake will be carrying the vote counting live.

[CreekDog]

16. Coleman would need a 68% margin of victory within these 400 ballots

to tie Franken.

think about that. like 86% to 16%.

[Eric J in MN]

18. Are you assuming all the ballots are for Franken or Coleman?

Dean Barkley (I) got votes, too (15%), and some people left the Senate race blank.

[Lucky Luciano]

24. Exactamundo! So the odds are all the more better! nt

[Ian David]

26. The GOP says the majority of "spoiled" ballots are always from Democrats.

Because they say that Democrats are more likely to be free-spirited and creative in the marking of their ballots.

Hence things like writing "Lizard People" and "Obama!" on your ballot.

[wellstone dem]

22. Link to pdf of the order--read it, it's a beautiful document

http://www.minnpost.com/client_files/pdfs/OrderToCountBallots.pdf

[Seedersandleechers]

27. So the PDF files actually names the people

whose ballot will be counted?

[mountainvue]

28. Yes it does. Interesting. n/t

[Tansy_Gold]

32. Hardly secret ballots, are they. n/t

.

[Mister Ed]

35. They're absentee ballots, so they can't be submitted anonymously

However, I believe that during the counting they are separated from their identifying envelopes and put in a big pile so that no one's vote is publicly known.

[madrchsod]

36. it`s a "privilege" to vote absentee not a "right"..... interesting

i do`t see this going any further than the minnesota supreme court. who ever picked the judges did an excellent job..a republican,a democrat,and a independent.

[Mister Ed]

40. Yes, whoever picked the judges did an excellent job indeed. And that job was done by...

Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Alan Page



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Page

I've always felt admiration for Alan Page. Not content to rest on his laurels after hanging up his cleats as an NFL superstar, he went on to a law degree and a distinguished career as an attorney, an Assistant Attorney General, and finally a Minnesota Supreme Court Justice.

[madrchsod]

45. ya one of the purple people eaters....

and we were happy he came to finish out his career in chicago....


those were the days-no sideline heaters in minnesota!

[DebbieCDC]

47. I wondered if that was the same Alan Page from the NFL

Damn!

[Dollface]

29. Looks like Al needs 65 of the 400 to beat 50%

[madrchsod]

33. if franken wins this he should take his place in the senate

the issue is whether or not reid will seat franken in the senate or play nice with the republicans

[Dinger]

37. Yay!

This is gonna be good!

[progressoid]

46. Gee wiz, maybe he'll get seated by October? November?