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.
If I still have a job come Thursday....I’ll be upping my monthly pledge.
Minnesota is generally conservative. But here in the twin cities, all the loonies congregate and we ship in other loonies ( somalis) by the boatload. You add the Duluth/Iron Range hardcore union dinosaurs and a healthy dose of fake votes and you have enough to give franken
40% of the vote, which is enough to win.
But like they say, it ain’t over yet.
Hear, hear!! Thank you, Minnesota, for taking the heat off my state.
tie it up in the courts for decades
Coleman ran a s--tty re-election campaign - he voted for the bailout and didn't define himself. He went down the same road as Jim Talent of MO did - too much "I'm proud of working with the Dems" BS that turned conservatives off and made independents indifferent to him.
You also need to take into account that Soros' goons targeted Coleman because he went after corruption in the UN. 3rd party voters had nothing to do with this and the 15% who voted for the 3rd party candidate would have stayed home or voted for someone else anyway. Coleman lost due to the three things: (1) Election fraud, (2) Being wishy-washy and not taking command, and (3) Being tied to the Bush-RNC tepid leadership.
Threat of a filibuster??? Surely that never stopped the Dems from ever trying! Usually, they get their way, too!
But when you run as a wishy-washy moderate who brags about working hand-in-hand with Democrats that'll also turn off voters. Stop blaming the voters but for the record if I lived in MN I would have voted for Coleman.
Ummm....
You bumped....I bumped....
We all bumped.
;-)
We’ve known for some time that the US Senate is a joke. This seals it.
It’s an unfunny bad joke, but a joke nonetheless.
On further reflection, this is more than that.
This is a clear sign of the Apocalypse.
Ha!
No way! Why?
Bring at least one gun per person and....Welcome to Texas.
Dontcha worry. There's an incoming asteroid on the way: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2228309/posts.
Meanwhile, have a drink.
It’s called the “Mondale factor” or maybe Mondale’s revenge for getting beat in 2002.
“No way! Why?”
The HollyWooders are sticking together....
Norm is originally from Brooklyn
Was a Reg. Democrat till the mid late 90s when he had his fill of Clinton.
He is more conservative than the Third Party loons who paved the way for Franken
The fact that Coleman didn’t beat this horse’s a$$ by 20% shows Minnesota is pathetic. It makes NY look good. That takes some doing.
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