Posted on 01/17/2009 10:02:03 AM PST by flattorney
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.
Just a guess but I suspect what the democrats expected to happen after attempting their steal was that the Coleman campaign would graciously concede Nixon-style and the GOP would encourage him to do that. I seriously doubt they anticipated a fight.
dirty harry also said," The war is lost" and " I'll never seat anyone that blagobitch appoints".
dingy harry has a crocodile's mouth and gnat's nuts.
I believe that Coleman may be tougher than a lot of members of the GOP that we have seen. It is an adversary system and if he shows solid leadership, has good lawyers and can compel the governor to show some backbone he may win.
Judges get appointed for many reasons. Many, for example, are lawyers from good firms who don’t find them that helpful in the practice and so want to place them on the bench to have an ally there.
It would be interesting to get bios on these particular judges.
The Fact of the matter is that the US Senate has no legal standing not to seat a member if said member has been certified by the State's Sec. of State.
This is why Mr. Franken has not been seated. He has yet to be certified by the Minnesota Sec. of State.
When either Mr. Franken or Mr. Coleman receive said certification the "high and mighty, grand pooba Harry Reid will have no legal standing to "not seat" that person.
This is exactly why Senator Burris was denied his seat originally. He had not yet been certified by the Illinois Sec.of State.
When he received said certification he was seated..as the US Senate was legally bound to do.
Reid says lots of things that are not to be believed.
Rats have twice not seated certified winners (NH senate race and Indianna house race). I am not sure why the Minnesota situation is different. The Senate is not guided by state law. Coleman will never be seated. I am not sure if Republicans can stop the seating of Franken if Coleman is certified as the winner.
Good to hear.
"The Senate Democrats made it clear weeks ago that they CANNOT accept an appointment made by a governor who is accused of selling this very Senate seat. I agree with their decision. We say this without prejudice toward Roland Burris's ability, and we respect his years of public service... Under these circumstances, anyone appointed by Gov. Blagojevich cannot be an effective representative of the people of Illinois and, as we have said, will NOT be seated by the Democratic Caucus."
That having been said, what gives me a wee bit of optimism is that the courts and Senate haven't already ordered Franken seated.
Maybe there's more to this than is being made public.
What’s really sad is that there was ever any need for a re-count. Franken is a buffoon, and too many MN voters didn’t seem to think that.
No data regarding Dingy, but based upon my college biology courses, you are either seriously insulting gnats everywhere, or grossly overestimating Dingy.
In the Supreme Court's Order concerning how to review the rejected absentee ballots, the Court ordered reps from both parties to review all of the ballots, and to agree upon which ones were improperly rejected. Those ballots would then be opened and counted. The Court admonished both sides to put politics aside and do it right, reminding them of Rule 11 of the Rules of Civil Procedures (which provides for sanctions against attorneys) if they don't. Coleman's team played fair, but Franken's didn't in refusing to allow obvious errors to be corrected in Republican counties. This is the Supreme Court's fault, as there is no basis in state law for this action.
As Carey correctly points out in his column, Minnesota law leaves these types of issues to election contests, which allows for an open process and court supervision. That is why I have long railed against the cries that this election has been stolen. Let the Court process play itself out, first. Aside from Franken's manuevering with the rejected absentee ballots, there hasn't been evidence of partisan interference in this recount process.
And we all know how well that turned out. sarc/
The initial judge in Washington where the contested election was challenged, was appointed by a Republican, who then recused himself over a minor technicality which a dimwit judge would NEVER do. The court case was then heard by a supposedly "fair" judge (dimwit nevertheless) who decided that the thousands of add'l votes in King County & other dimwit precincts all were allowed to stand.
The dimwit judge listened....took careful notes....appeared judicious....and promptly ruled in favor of Fraudoire. Case closed.
It will be a miracle if liberal MN judges allow the contested ballots & issues to be ruled in favor of Coleman and overtake Franken's corrupted stolen election. I am from MN and I don't see this happening at all. Kudos for Coleman however. It is refreshing to see just for a change, a Repub that puts up a fight and stays with it. We shall see for how long.
In 1968, in a nearly unanimous opinion by Chief Justice Earl Warren for eight members of the Court, the Supreme Court held that "the Constitution leaves the House without authority to exclude any person, duly elected by his constituents, who meets all the requirements for membership expressly prescribed in the Constitution." Those qualification are expressly enumerated within the body of the Constitution and relate only to eligibility requirements such as age and residence.
In answer to your second question as to whether Republicans could stop Franken from being seated if he was certified the answer, according to the Constitution and the USSC, is an unequivocal NO!! This also applies to Coleman should he win his suit and become certified by the Minn Sec of State.
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