here comes the court battles.
The recount of EVERYTHING is over.
Franken is up by 225, but Coleman, that is Senator Norm Coleman (R-MN) is marching to court.
At least two things, however, still stand in the way of Franken becoming Minnesota's newest U.S. senator: the possibility of a ruling by the Minnesota Supreme Court that more wrongly rejected absentee ballots should be counted, and a legal contest that Coleman attorneys all but promised should Franken prevail.
Since there will be court proceedings, no certification for the senate seat in Minnesota. So, neither candidate can be seated. Sigh, Minnesota as Illinois is embroiled by who will be seated as the next senator.
Coleman's attorneys said that depending on what the court decides, they would be ready to file a legal action contesting the recount results as early as Tuesday. Recount attorney Fritz Knaak said that he believed 300 to 400 ballots would go Coleman's way in a contest, including through the addition of absentee ballots so far excluded and the elimination of so-called "double votes" in Minneapolis.
"We are prepared to go forward and take whatever legal action is necessary to ... remedy this artificial lead that we believe is being shown now for the Franken campaign," Knaak said.
Can this count change? Maybe, and I mean a very unbelieving maybe. The problem is once the candidate is ahead, you must do everything in your power to turn the vote totals around. This is going to be tough for Coleman, unless he can prove just unbelievable fraud here in the vote totals, and I don't think this is going to happen.
They're done in Minnesota for the day, and Franken gained a net 176 votes, and leads by a relative landslide of 225 votes. This is a confirmed total, based on the sorting today, but won't be official until Monday. The Canvassing Board will meet Monday to finalize the results, and will likely declare Franken the winner. But Minnesota law lets the losing candidate file an "election contest" that would throw the whole race into the courts, effectively blocking final certification of a new senator. However, with a gap of 225 votes, Coleman will effectively have to throw a hail mary pass to get the results overturned. The only question is how long does he litigate for? h/t DemConWatch
And does Minnesota want to become another Bush v. Gore? I don't think so.
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