Posted on 04/13/2009 4:37:37 PM PDT by ButThreeLeftsDo
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 Franken to pad his lead to 312.
Outside the courtroom, Coleman attorney Ben Ginsberg minimized the new margin because his side was certain to appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court.
"What happened today in the sphere of this election is really inconsequential," he said. "There's a much larger universe of ballots that should be opened."
Ginsberg said he hopes the high court would reinstate as many as 4,800 absentee ballots rejected by local officials.
Top Franken attorney Marc Elias said he doubted an appeal would change things.
"The problem that former Senator Coleman has is he lost fair and square," Elias said. "He lost because more people voted for Al Franken than voted for Norm Coleman. No amount of lawyering or sophisticated legal arguments is going to change that."
Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, a Democrat, said he would welcome an appeal, saying he thinks the state's highest court could provide closure.
The appeal must come within 10 days after the final order from the three-judge panel that presided over the seven-week trial.
We had a kook beat a rino in the state of Minnesota. Hardly surprising.
Minnesota...you suck. And soon you’ll know just how much.
Having failed at everything else he’s attempted, Franken becomes the perfect Senator.
Seems appropriate that the Senate get a new ass.
So, Senators are now elected by men in robes!
Welcome to the new representative republic!
That gives the dems they need to override a filibuster doesn’t it?
Hate to upset anybody, but I’d much prefer the RINO in the Senate.
I agree, but the way the Senate is voting it hardly makes any difference.
Exactly. RINOs take note--you can be tipped over by a drooling putz. Coleman's children must hide their faces at school.
Minnesota is now officially on my Do Not Visit list.
What a travesty.
Franken will be an embarrassment for the dems during his time in the senate. It’s just a dammed shame he’s going to be allowed to vote...
No that’s only 59 votes, but it really doesn’t matter they way the Senate has been voting any way.
Clearly, we now have the lead Senator for the Somali field investigations....
that slug will be in the u.s. senate the rest of his life.
It will be fun to see him pick fights with other Senators on CSPAN.
And will SNL now make fun of him if he makes an ass out of himself in the Senate? I doubt it but I would have a lot of renewed respect for SNL if they did parody Al Fricken.
YAY!!!
The Senate deserves this clown to make a mockery of the Democratic Party.
The Dems are like a completely corrupt sheriff and his gang of deputies who smugly think they have immunity for any crime, to the point where they now just commit them in broad daylight.
Someone needs to ride in and clean up this town.
Yep.....
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