Procedural Control of Senate Hinges on Minnesota( Coleman v. Franken )

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Arlen Specter's decision to become a Democrat significantly raises the stakes in a contested Senate race in Minnesota, with the outcome of that fight now set to determine whether Democrats gain procedural control of the Senate.

The Minnesota Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments on June 1 in the election dispute between Democrat Al Franken and Norm Coleman, who was the Republican incumbent until January. Mr. Franken currently leads the race by 312 votes, and many analysts say the state supreme court could reaffirm his victory within weeks.

The Minnesota contest is now pivotal because, with Mr. Specter's decision to join the Democrats, Mr. Franken's victory would make him the 60th vote for the Democrats. With 60 votes in the Senate, Democrats could overcome the minority party's parliamentary tools for blocking any of their initiatives.

Mr. Coleman could appeal to the federal courts if the state supreme court rules against him. But once the Minnesota Supreme Court has ruled, Gov. Tim Pawlenty could face considerable pressure, and possibly a legal requirement, to certify Mr. Franken as the state's next senator.

An initial vote count suggested Mr. Coleman had won re-election on Nov. 4, but by such a narrow margin that a recount was mandatory. After a recount, the Minnesota Canvassing Board declared Mr. Franken the winner by 225 votes out of nearly three million.

Mr. Coleman challenged that result in state court, but a seven-week trial led to Mr. Franken extending his lead to 312 votes following a recount of contested absentee ballots. Mr. Coleman is appealing that ruling to the state supreme court.

"We'd be happy to have the Minnesota Supreme Court decide the issue," he said, though he didn't rule out a federal challenge.

So the control of the senate is now in the hands of a state Supreme Court.

This issue to me is weather the votes of each county must be held to the same standard for interpretation. Must a vote count or not count based on the residence of the county of the voter?

Are more errors allowed in metro counties than in non-metro counties?

If so, why? When we set rules for voting, how many rules can we break and still want the vote to count? If we care about voting so much, shouldn't we invest a few minutes in learning how to vote correctly? When you make a mistake, ask for a replacement ballot, don't scribble and expect the ballot to count. In Minnesota, you can bring in a helper to help you vote. Why would these people not do that? Do we permit the military to be deprived of their absentee votes because the process allows county officials to delay sending the ballots out to the military so late that they cannot be returned on time to be counted?

I would hope out of all of this, Minnesota would rule that not only should ever legitimate vote count, but that when they determine that legitimacy, they make every election judge in the state use the same blessed procedure.

Failure to do this will bring mistrust in the system, and illegitimize the eventual winner.

It is time to draft laws that do not permit people to game the system any longer.

There should be significant tightening of the procedures for voting throughout the country, more ballot security, and more oversight.

If we don't, we will never trust that the peoples’ votes count for anything.

It seems like an open and shut 14th Amendment ruling in favor of Coleman to me, but judges nowadays find emanations of pet penumbras all over the place.

Remember when SCOTUS struck down legislative apportionment of State Senates?

“One man, one vote” was the slogan. Whatever happened to that concept?

Seriously getting “truly non-leftists” from both Congressional Houses to willingly switch to the Republican side should be a major priority from now on, if the Republicans are ever going to actually have any kind of political clout in the present Congress. Now, if only the GOP actually had a decent, conservative leader who would actually follow through on this.

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