Coleman Lawyer Floats New Possibility To Judges: Throwing Out The Election

[babylonsister]

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/03/coleman-lawyer-floats-new-possibility-to-judges-throwing-out-the-election.php?ref=fp1

Coleman Lawyer Floats New Possibility To Judges: Throwing Out The Election
By Eric Kleefeld - March 3, 2009, 9:29AM


That talk from the Coleman campaign about how we can't get a legitimate winner in the Senate race, and therefore we can't certify a result for Al Franken, has now gone beyond the court of public opinion -- it has officially entered the courtroom itself.

The Coleman team has previously said that the judges have to either undo the strict standards for letting in new ballots, or else undertake a review of all 290,000 absentee ballots from Election Night and start proportionately reducing the totals. In a new letter to the judges, however, Coleman lawyer James Langdon floats a new solution -- declaring the election to be unsolvable, and nullifying it entirely:

Some courts have held that when the number of illegal votes exceeds the margin between the candidates -- and it cannot be determined for which candidate those illegal votes were cast -- the most appropriate remedy is to set aside the election. In that regard, the Court may wish to review the following cases addressing situations in which the number of illegal votes is large and the margin of victory is small...

So there you have it. The Coleman legal team is now officially putting forward the idea of throwing out the election, as a serious potential legal remedy. The context so far indicates that this is part of their game of chicken with the court, to get them to undo the strict standards themselves, or perhaps go along on a proportionate deduction regime that might hurt Al Franken. But who knows where it will go from here.

[Redbear]

1. This is the only argument Coleman had left.

None of his other arguments could reverse the result, so he had to resort to "let's go back to square one."

[Dappleganger]

2. What spoiled brat.

He probably asked for that during his failed run for class president in high school, too.

:sarcasm:

[blogslut]

3. Sounds like this may be the last stand

My money's on Al.