Why Norm Coleman Will Win (+GOP Activists to Sue)

Anyone following the recount has no doubt heard the bluster and bravado regularly coming from the Al Franken campaign. However, in recent days, Franken and his Washington legal team have seemed awfully desperate for a campaign that is trying to convince people they are winning. They have now tried to shove Al Franken onto the Senate floor through three separate venues – only be to be rebuffed and delayed because their effort clearly violates Minnesota law.

Why, if they claim to have a lead, are they so desperately anxious to put Al Franken in a Senate seat? Simple: They know Norm Coleman is going to win the election contest. And here’s why:

Norm Coleman won on election night and he continued to lead throughout the administrative canvassing process that followed. In the next stage – the administrative recount – Minnesota law restricted what the state Canvassing Board could consider, and in the end the Board certified numbers that are premature, inaccurate and not valid.

Minnesota election law specifically leaves these and other unresolved issues for the contest phase, which is just getting underway and will be tried before a three-judge panel at the end of January(1). During that contest, Al Franken’s lead will disappear and Norm Coleman will be declared the winner when the following errors are corrected.

First is the issue of wrongly rejected absentee ballots. In the election some 12,000 absentee ballots were rejected – thousands of which were improperly rejected. During the recount, the only improperly rejected absentee ballots that were counted came overwhelmingly from Democrat areas – which skewed the results exponentially in Franken’s favor. The reality is that inconsistent standards were applied in different locations throughout the state – meaning that certain types of ballots that were counted from Franken areas were left uncounted in Coleman areas. When a consistent standard is applied – and ballots still uncounted in Coleman areas come in – Norm Coleman will gain far greater votes than Franken.

Secondly, and perhaps most alarming, is the fact that at least 150 ballots – mostly from precincts in heavily-Democratic Minneapolis – were double-counted during the recount. The double-counting of these votes netted Franken over 100 votes. The State Canvassing Board conducting the recount acknowledged this was likely an occurrence – as did local election officials in Minneapolis – and said this needed to be examined in a contest. Simply put, many precincts have more votes than voters. This clearly violates the Constitutional right of “one person, one vote – and when this problem is rectified Al Franken’s margin will drop even further.

Third, in one Minneapolis precinct, 133 allegedly “missing ballots supposedly tallied on election night but which were never found during the recount process were counted, which again inflated Franken’s totals by over 40 votes. Rather than following Minnesota precedent and law by tallying only the ballots that were actually counted, the board reverted to election night tapes. However, these ballots may very well have never existed – and the contest will provide a forum to ensure Franken doesn’t benefit from votes that never actually took place.

Fourth, “newly discovered ballots, which appeared for the first time during the recount, were never counted on election night but which were included in the canvassing board’s totals. So, rather than sticking with election night totals like they did in the aforementioned Minneapolis precinct, they counted these ballots – again greatly benefitting Franken’s totals.

The discovery phase for the election contest, which will begin the last week of January and will be heard before a three-judge panel, has reportedly already started. It will likely include the opportunity to put election officials under oath for the first time and will provide the opportunity to actually investigate these errors and get it right.

The reality is Franken’s desperate ploy to get himself seated on the basis of Canvassing Board numbers Minnesota law, the Supreme Court, the Canvassing Board and even Franken’s campaign acknowledge to be inaccurate indicate Franken’s realization that his high water mark has come and gone. Reality is setting in, and the facts will show that Norm Coleman will, in due time, be seated as Minnesota's United States Senator.

(1) 01.16.09 ST: TRIAL ON COLEMAN CHALLENGE TO BEGIN ON JAN 26

Republican Norm Coleman's trial challenging DFLer Al Franken's lead in the U.S. Senate recount will begin Jan. 26, according to an order issued this afternoon by the three-judge panel that will hear the case. The order did not map out when specific issues would be argued, nor did it touch on other details surrounding the rare proceeding, including whether cameras will be permitted. However, it set the time for the hearing on Franken's motion to dismiss Coleman's challenge for Wednesday. If that motion fails, another hearing would be held next Friday on any motions made for summary judgment followed by a pre-trial conference. The case will be tried in a courtroom at the Minnesota Judicial Center, which is across the street from the State Capitol. The order followed an hour-long meeting held this morning behind closed doors with attorneys for the campaigns and the panel. The district court judges on the panel are Elizabeth Hayden, Kurt Marben and Denise Reilly.

Franken and Coleman lawyers have dueled in recent days over how broad Coleman's legal challenge should be and how long it should take. Also today, the Supreme Court ordered that the petitions of 64 voters who claim their absentee ballots were wrongly rejected be settled at the recount trial. The order by Justice Alan Page noted that the three-judge panel is equipped to determine whether the ballots complied with legal requirements and should be counted.

Joining the Coleman team today for the first time was prominent Twin Cities litigator Joe Friedberg, who will take the lead in trying the case for Coleman. Friedberg said it will be "a team effort" that will include recount attorneys Fritz Knaak and Tony Trimble. "It's going to be like a trial, although it's a unique type of proceeding," said Friedberg after the meeting. "There'll be witnesses, there'll be physical evidence, and I think it'll be a pretty orderly proceeding. You're looking at three judges there who all know what they're doing, and they're going to try not only to make it understandable themselves but with the tremendous public interest, they're going to make it understandable to the public."

The Coleman camp is proposing a five-stage trial that would start early next month, while the Franken team has suggested a narrower schedule that would begin Jan. 26 and last 15 days. Franken attorney Marc Elias has said that the trial, by state law, must begin no later than Jan. 26. Documents filed by the campaign had asked the three-judge panel to announce a schedule as soon as today. Friedberg said that Coleman was an old friend who called and asked him to work on the trial. "He's obviously in a very important place in his life ... What am I going to say? Of course I'd do it." Asked how long he's been involved in the legal effort, Friedberg said: "You can look at your watch." The trial schedule is important, he said, because there are multiple issues in the case. "You can't put an opening statement together that really should chronicle what's going to go on in the trial, until you know the order of trial and what issues come before what other issues," Friedberg said.

# # # # #

01.14.09 ST: GOP ACTIVISTS TO SUE OVER ALLEGED DOUBLE-COUNTING IN SENATE RACE

A group of Republican activists announced today that they will file a lawsuit to eliminate alleged double-counting of votes in the U.S. Senate recount, and they invited Democrats and independents to join them in the interest of fairness. Though the group acknowledged that it had few concrete examples of actual double-counting, its attorney said he believes there "could be hundreds" of double-counted votes. At a news conference, the group said it would launch a website in hopes of getting other Minnesotans to join them. "My vote was disenfranchised" because of the double-counting, said Scott Walker, a Republican activist from St. Paul. "I am furious about that." The attorney representing the plaintiffs, Doug Seaton, said the group would try to join a lawsuit filed by Republican Norm Coleman.

Democrat Al Franken was certified last week as the highest vote getter by the state Canvassing Board, leading to Coleman's legal challenge and leaving Minnesota for now with just one U.S. senator. "It's a Minnesota issue," said Michael Brodkorb, a prominent Republican Internet blogger (Owner of "Minnesota Democrats Exposed". Mike is doing an outstanding job - FlA) "I can't change the fact that I'm a partisan Republican. . .this really has nothing to do with partisan politics. It's about preserving the concept of one person, one vote."

The group, like the Coleman campaign, says that some duplicate ballots made to replace ballots that couldn't be fed through tabulating machines weren't properly marked, making it impossible to link the originals and duplicates. In some cases they say both were counted. Recount tallies in some precincts exceeded the number of votes picked up by the machines on Nov. 4. But not all election officials have released the polling place sign-in rosters that are a more accurate measure of the number of voters. It could be impossible to trace original ballots that weren't marked to align with a duplicate, as state law requires. Seaton said it's too soon to say what a possible remedy would be.

~ Minnesota U.S. Senate Election Fiasco ~
FR Keywords: Norm Coleman(R) | Al Franken(D) | Franken: SorosBoy | Porn-O-Rama! | Endorsed by Al “Globull Fraud” Gore
Coleman-GOP Election Recount Legal Action(s) | MN Sec. of State Mark "Commie Soros Puppet" Ritchie
"The Dirt": Arianna Huffington was Franken's Secret Video Sex 'Ho - Post 2

TAB

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