The Minnesota three-judge Election court has ruled that 400 ballots will be counted. Unless Norm Coleman gets 313 of them to 87, Franken will win (78% Coleman). But among these ballots are many that actually cannot be opened at all. The court needs to see more information on some of the 400 to see if they were legally cast. The Court stressed it would not necessarily count all 400. So Coleman is looking at getting upwards of 80% of a mostly-randomly-selected pool of voters. The Minnesota Supreme Court, which engineeered this special electoral process, is unlikely to overturn it on appeal. Nor do I think the US Supreme Court will wish to get involved, since this was a detailed and transparent recount process unlike Florida's. (And, after all, the Constitution says that the Senate shall be the judge of its own elections).
I predict Senator Franken will take the oath of office before this month is out.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
A Giant Step Closer to Senator Franken
Posted by The Law Talking Guy at 3:23 PM
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2 comments:
I predict Senator Franken will take the oath of office before this month is out.
That is unbelievably optimistic. Why don't you think the appeals process will run longer than that?
Because the courts will act very quickly. Already, this has been lightning-fast as the judiciary goes: just some 90 days between filing the lawsuit and judgment. The Minnesota Secy of State will be required to certify the election immediately unless an appeal is taken immediately. I expect the MN supreme court to take the case and deny relief quickly, and they will likely order that the election certificate be granted. So I think 30 days is enough time.
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