Minnesota Recount: Franken’s Sore Loser Strategy

The setback at the Canvassing Board has forced Al Franken to face the fact that he didn’t get enough valid votes to beat Norm Coleman in Minnesota’s Senate Race. With the rejection of his bid to get the panel to add in thousands of rejected absentee ballots, there seems little chance that the remaining 15% of ballots left in the recount will produce the kind of change that 85% has not. What’s a surly, self-absorbed DFL candidate to do?

Minnesota’s U.S. Senate showdown is veering down a path toward the courts and possibly the Senate itself after a panel’s ruling on rejected absentee ballots dealt a blow to Democrat Al Franken’s chances.

For the first time, his campaign on Wednesday openly discussed mounting challenges after the hand recount involving Franken and Republican Sen. Norm Coleman concludes. That includes the possibility of drawing the Senate into the fracas.

The state Canvassing Board denied Franken’s request to factor absentee ballots rejected by poll workers into the recount. He sought to overturn the exclusions in cases where ballots were invalidated over signature problems or other voter errors. Coleman’s campaign maintained the board lacked power to revisit those ballots.

Going to court was always inevitable. Gone are the days when the loser of a close election would have the class to accept a tough loss and wish the winner well. The recount is automatic in this case, and a good idea, but the notion that courts should determine winners and losers is antithetical to democracy.

The board’s decision drew a response from the Senate’s top Democrat, Majority Leader Harry Reid, who called it a “cause for great concern.”

“As the process moves forward, Minnesota authorities must ensure that no voter is disenfranchised,” Reid said in a statement. “A citizen’s right to have his or her vote counted is fundamental in our democracy.”

The Senate does have the authority to determine the winner of any Senate election, as does House for its elections, but they rarely use that power. Reid’s comment threatens the efforts of Minnesota to provide a non-partisan, fair, and legitimate election. In fact, it sounds like an extortion attempt to push state officials into a particular decision that would violate the law in order to produce a specific partisan result.

We have laws on the books to ensure that voter fraud and manipulation regarding absentee ballots gets avoided to the extent possible. (We don’t have such laws with voter registration, which is another issue entirely.) Each citizen who casts his votes according to the law has the right to have them counted, and that is fundamental to our democracy, but the citizen has the responsibility to cast them properly according to the law. Citizens who fail to do so lose the ability to have their vote count in that election.

Any action by the Senate to render this election to Franken on that basis would have the effect of undermining the rule of law. That will be completely unacceptable to Minnesotans, as it should be to all states. Expect Minnesotans to take action if Reid pursues that path.

The senate has rarely used the act of refusing to sit elected senators...the last time I can recall that this came up...was right after the civil war

Actually a very similar situation happened as recently as 1974. See below:

The closest election in Senate history was decided on September 16, 1975. The 1974 New Hampshire race for an open seat pitted Republican Louis Wyman against Democrat John Durkin.

Although Wyman enjoyed a lead during the campaign, the Watergate scandals and the August 1974 resignation of President Richard Nixon made it a tough year to run as a Republican. On election day, Wyman barely won with a margin of just 355 votes.

Durkin immediately demanded a recount. That recount shifted the victory to Durkin—but by only 10 votes. Reluctantly, the Republican governor awarded Durkin a provisional certificate of election.

Now, it was Wyman’s turn to demand a recount. The state ballot commission tabulated the ballots in dispute and ruled that Republican Wyman had won—but by just two votes. The governor cancelled Durkin’s certificate and awarded a new credential to Wyman.

As a last option, Durkin petitioned the Senate—with its 60-vote Democratic majority—to review the case. On January 13, 1975, the day before the new Congress convened, the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration tried unsuccessfully to resolve the matter. Composed of five Democrats and three Republicans, the Rules Committee deadlocked four-to-four on a proposal to seat Wyman pending further review. Alabama Democrat James Allen voted with the Republicans on grounds that Wyman had presented proper credentials.

The full Senate took up the case on January 14, with Wyman and Durkin seated at separate tables at the rear of the chamber. Soon, the matter returned to the Rules Committee, which created a special staff panel to examine 3,500 questionable ballots that had been shipped to Washington.

Following this review, the Rules Committee sent 35 disputed points to the full Senate, which spent the next six weeks debating the issue and took an unprecedented six cloture votes, but resolved only one of the 35 points in dispute. Facing this deadlock, Durkin agreed to Wyman’s proposal for a new election. The Senate declared the seat vacant and the governor appointed former Senator Norris Cotton to hold the seat for six weeks until the September 16 balloting.

A record-breaking turnout gave the election to Durkin by a 27,000-vote margin.

>>It boils down to Chambliss. If he loses, then the democrats will steal MN at any cost including invalidating the election and seating franken in order to get to 60 votes.<<

No, the Left does not need 60 Dems. They have Lieberman, Sanders, and RINOs, even if they don’t change the 60 vote cloture rule. And if they do seat Franken, he is likely to be an embarrassment, even by Dem standards. Not to mention that MN voters may resent being cheated when they vote in future elections.

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