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Minnesota court declares Al Franken

Over five months after the election, a three-judge panel has declared Democrat Al Franken the winner of the Minnesota U.S. Senate race. The judges issued their final ruling late Monday, stating "Franken received the highest number of lawfully cast ballots in the Nov. 4, 2008 general election." They also have determined that Franken is entitled to receive the certificate of election. Last week, Republican Norm Coleman suffered a blow after a few hundred previously rejected absentee ballots were opened and counted at the tail end of Coleman's lawsuit contesting his loss in a statewide recount. They broke almost 2-to-1 for...

. . . During the recount Senator Coleman lost his narrow lead to Franken, coming out on the short end of a 225-vote margin. Senator Coleman has challenged the result of the recount in the election contest. The election-contest trial took place over seven weeks. The case is pending before the election-contest panel of three judges, but the result appears foreordained, based on rulings made to date by the panel. In all likelihood, the election-contest panel will declare Al Franken the winner, and Senator Coleman has already vowed to appeal the result to the Minnesota Supreme Court. What happened? The...

The Democrat made a net gain today in a count of formerly rejected absentee ballots that pushed his advantage to more than 300 votes in the U.S. Senate race. Democrat Al Franken today extended his lead over Republican Norm Coleman in the U.S. Senate election, following the counting of about 350 formerly rejected absentee ballots this morning by a three-judge panel. Unofficially, Franken took 198 of the ballots, while Coleman added 111. The ballots added about 87 to Franken’s recount lead, enlarging his margin over Coleman to more than 312. The result makes it even more likely that, barring an...

First Murphy seemed to have won the election,then Tedisco took the lead, now they’re tied. The news coming from New York’s district 20 is becoming stranger and stranger as days go by. The voting machines are recanvassed, which led Republican Jim Tedisco to take the lead (by as few as 12 votes at a certain moment). As it is now, Tedisco and his Democratic opponent Scotty Murphy are tied, however. Jim Geraghty reports: “The recanvass of the ballots in the NY-20 race has yielded, so far, a 77,225 to 77,225 tie. Saratoga County still has to be recanvassed, and absentee...

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - An already close race in New York's 20th Congressional District just got as close as it can possibly get: The state Board of Elections says the candidates are separated by zero votes. Republican Jim Tedisco and Democrat Scott Murphy are tied with 77,225 votes each on Friday. They're running to replace Kirsten Gillibrand, who was appointed to the U.S. Senate. The race will come down to absentee votes, with the elections board reporting 3,000 ballots returned so far from Republicans and about 2,200 from Democrats. Party registration doesn't guarantee a vote. Most absentee ballots won't be...

- - Absentee ballots to be counted will be far fewer than Coleman sought in effort to close the U.S. Senate gap. Abstract: Norm Coleman's lawyers all but conceded defeat Tuesday and promised to appeal after a panel of three judges ordered no more than 400 new absentee ballots opened and counted, far fewer than the Republican had sought to overcome the lead held by DFLer Al Franken. The ballots include many that Franken had identified as wrongly rejected as well as ballots that Coleman wanted opened in his quest to overcome the 225-vote lead that Franken gained after a...

The race in the 20th Congressional district between Republican Jim Tedisco and Democrat Scott Murphy is too close to call. With 100 percent of the precincts reporting, Murphy leads Tedisco by only 59 votes, 77,344 to 77,285. With nearly 6,000 absentee ballots that will essentially decide the race as of Monday, the election will not be decided at least until April 13. As of Monday, 5,907 absentee ballots were received by the state Board of Elections out of around 10,000 mailed, according to spokesman Bob Brehm. Absentee ballots must be postmarked by March 30 and received within seven days for...

Judges ordered inspection of 1,500 envelopes for rejected absentee ballots, which could lead to more votes being counted. Norm Coleman's luck improved a bit Thursday, as judges in the U.S. Senate recount trial ordered an inspection of about 1,500 rejected absentee ballot envelopes and changed their minds about letting a Coleman witness testify. The ballot inspection could lead to counting more votes, something Coleman needs, if local officials discover voter registration cards in the ballot secrecy envelopes of voters whose ballots were rejected for lack of registration. But there's no assurance how the votes would divide between the candidates. [Snip]...

Democratic Senate candidate Al Franken has told a Minnesota court he would agree to the opening and possible counting of almost 1,600 still-sealed absentee ballots. In a Saturday filing, Franken's lawyers submitted a list of absentee voters whose rejected ballots they want to give another look. About half the voter names also appear on a longer list compiled by Republican Norm Coleman. The rest are distinct from the Coleman roster.

A lawyer for Republican Norm Coleman said Wednesday that Minnesota's Senate trial could go faster thanks to a judicial order likely to cut the absentee ballots that have to be reconsidered. The three-judge panel set out 19 different reasons that uncounted absentee ballots were rejected in the race between Coleman and Democrat Al Franken. They've ordered both candidates to submit arguments by the end of the trial day Wednesday on whether those ballots could be ruled in or out by category — rather than considered one by one. "If they pull out certain categories, those are categories we won't be...

The three judges presiding over the U.S. Senate recount trial took a break this morning to consider an objection from Al Franken's legal team that the lawyers for Norm Coleman are keeping them in the dark on the rejected absentee ballots they're presenting in court. Franken attorney David Lillehaug said that the Coleman camp has failed to adequately answer interrogatories -- the questions and answers between sides in a legal dispute -- and shouldn't be permitted to introduce more exhibits until they give a factual basis for each one.

Democrat Al Franken says he's frustrated at not being able to join the U.S. Senate, but accepts that it's beyond his control for now. Franken tells The Associated Press that he has no doubt he's the winner of Minnesota's U.S. Senate race. A recount ended with him leading Republican Norm Coleman by 225 votes, but Coleman is challenging that in a lawsuit.....

Perry Mason, meet Rachel Smith. Smith, the top elections official in Anoka County, dropped a minor bombshell Thursday in the courtroom where a lawsuit over Minnesota's U.S. Senate race was being heard. She testified that the county has found — within the prior 24 hours — a dozen or more ballots that were never counted in the statewide recount that ended last month. While the number is not enough to overcome Democrat Al Franken's 225-vote lead over former Republican Sen. Norm Coleman, it suggests there might be other uncounted ballots in other counties. Only a handful of elections officials have...

As both sides hurled taunts and accusations Wednesday, lawyers for DFLer Al Franken and Republican Norm Coleman braced for a showdown today in the state's highest court on whether Franken should be seated in the Senate while their courtroom election fight continues. Franken attorney Marc Elias called the recount trial -- Coleman's legal challenge of Franken's 225-vote lead in the certified recount results -- "a shrinking case" and said the law demands that the Democrat be seated in the meantime to give Minnesota the two senators it deserves. At 9 this morning, the Minnesota Supreme Court will hear Franken's motion...

In a ruling that keeps alive Republican Norm Coleman's chances of overturning Minnesota's U.S. Senate recount, a three-judge panel on Tuesday allowed him to bring evidence to trial that as many as 4,800 absentee ballots were wrongly rejected and should now be counted. The decision expands the evidence that can be considered in the recount trial

The decision expands the evidence that can be considered in the recount trial, giving Coleman the opportunity to put more ballots into play in his effort to erase a 225-vote lead for Franken. In a ruling that keeps alive Republican Norm Coleman's chances of overturning Minnesota's U.S. Senate recount, a three-judge panel on Tuesday allowed him to bring evidence to trial that as many as 4,800 absentee ballots were wrongly rejected and should now be counted. The decision expands the evidence that can be considered in the recount trial, giving Coleman the opportunity to put more ballots into play in...

A trio of judges rejected Republican Norm Coleman's request to investigate alleged vote-counting irregularities in precincts around the state over the weekend, just days before they begin hearing Coleman's lawsuit over the Minnesota Senate recount. Coleman's lawyers identified 86 precincts where they said problems may have contributed to Democrat Al Franken's 225-vote lead after the recount. Coleman is suing to overturn the result. The judges said Coleman didn't prove that the inspections were necessary to prepare for the trial, which starts Monday and is expected to last weeks.

ST. PAUL – Ben Ginsberg, legal counsel to the Coleman for Senate campaign, tonight made the following statement: “Tonight’s decision from the court is a stinging defeat for Al Franken. It underscores that the Coleman contest will proceed, that there will be a trial, and that every valid vote will be counted and counted only once. This victory for the voters of Minnesota should serve as another strong reminder to Harry Reid and Al Franken that they can’t just dismiss for their convenience the legal process in Minnesota. This will allow Minnesota voters whose votes have not yet been counted,...

Last session's senior senator from Minnesota Norm Coleman, still battling Al Franken to be seated in the Senate, has taken a paid job as a consultant to the Republican Jewish Coalition, which harshly attacked Obama last fall, its executive director, Matt Brooks, said....