Minnesota Supreme Court Hearing Live Thread

Minnesota Supreme Court, Minnesota Public Radio ^ | 10/31/02 | TonyInOhio

[TonyInOhio]

The Minnesota Supreme Court will hear arguments at 11:00 EST (10:00 CST) on the status of absentee ballots in next week's election.

Minnesota Public Radio will carry the hearing live. You can hear it live here (click on "Live MPR audio stream" on the lower right). The Court's information officer said KSTP Television may be providing live coverage as well.

Please post what you see and hear, here.

[Hunble]

why didn't EVERY state check their own election laws to see if there was anything needing correction.

No arguments from me!

Our laws are formed after extensive debate. Each side argues their side of the issue and a compromise is reached.

Judges should not be allowed to alter the laws. If they identify a law that may be illegal because of Constitutional reasons, it needs to be passed back to the politicians for further debate.

A very long process, but that was known when our country was founded.

[steveegg]

Looking back through the statutes, should the Minnesota Supreme Court follow at least some semblance of the law, the ONLY ballot that would be changed is the US Senate ballot. The prescribed method is to blot out the US Senate ballot on the official ballot, and relist that race and that race only on the supplemental ballot.

[Prysson]

This is a tricky issue...On one hand absentee ballots favor republicans so you dont want to start over...

on the other hand you dont want to ASSUME that a vote for Wellstone was a vote for Mondale so shoudlt the democrats be required to recast...problem is how do you say that democrats have to recast but republicans dont...

The whole thing is a mess and I feel a real sympathy for anyone having to make decision on the "fairness" of this one.

On the other hand that is the "job description" of the secretary of state who in this case consulted with the DEMOCRAT attorny general and agreed on a course of action..as per usual though the democrats would rather take it to court then follow the rules..after all a court might just say they dont have to play by the rules ie New Jersey.

I swear why even have a secretary of state and go through the illusion that they have a job to perform when every time they make a decision the Rats sue.

[Prysson]

Yup..I find it very amusing that he spoke out against the economy when under his term as VP of the country they economy sucked so bad they had to create a MISERY index.

[Prysson]

FYI Minnesota has precisely that..and activist liberal court system.

I suspect that what the democrats want is to really fudge up the whole absentee ballot process.

Most of those ballots are for coleman...require those ballots to be "remailed" and how many coleman votes does that kill.

[Hunble]

You summarized the difficult issues very well.

To be fair, all absentee ballots should be invalidated for the choice of Senator. But only for choices of Senator.

I fully understand why the Democraps are upset, since votes for Coleman are counted, but Wellstone votes are rejected.

However, rejecting valid votes does cause an equal protection problem.

I just thank God that I am not one of those Judges. Darn if I know of a solution!

[Prysson]

I think that is the general reason why the deomcrats tried to play the outrage card at even the suggestion that there be a debate. It didnt work and there will be a debate...thank god.

[ApesForEvolution]

They only render (some) carcasses in MN....

[Otta B Sleepin]

At least the Dems haven't started criticizing Mary Kiffmeyer's make-up....yet.

[William McKinley]

There is no perfect solution, which is why the Legislature crafted the laws the way they did. It was, in their opinion, the best way to handle things in the case of a death. Allow a new candidate to be placed on the ballot, but don't disenfranchise overseas absentee voters by letting those ballots be changed so late that they could not possibly be received and returned in time.

And the US Constitution gives the right to make the determination of the best way to handle it to the legislature, where it is debated and voted on by the elected representatives of the people, not to the judiciary.

[Hunble]

And the US Constitution gives the right to make the determination of the best way to handle it to the legislature, where it is debated and voted on by the elected representatives of the people, not to the judiciary.

I fully agree and have no arguments with that legal theory.

[steveegg]

One could always follow the clear-meaning of the statute and tell the RATs that since their original guy died within 16 days, that Wellstone gets whatever votes were cast via the absentee ballot, Mondale gets whatever votes are cast at the polls, and if they don't win, to go pound sand.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

DFL asks Supreme Court to order new absentee ballots
Minneapolis Star Tribune, MN

[Hunble]

Now you have presented an option.

Any absentee ballots cast AFTER the death of Wellstone are counted as valid.

[Redbob]

Yeah, Jesse said he felt "used,..." and it took him a long time to find the word "violated" - I got the impression it wasn't really a part of his vocabulary.
Why do you suppose?
LOL!

[Senator_Blutarski]

Consistently lost in the press coverage and discussions of this topic is the fact that the US Senate race is only one of dozens of races on the ballot. The Democrats act as if the Senate race is the only race on the ballot.

You don't throw out the State Senate, State Representative, US Representative, County Commissioner, County Auditor and Dogcatcher votes just because someone else on the ballot died.

[ApesForEvolution]

My guess is, if this goes 'worst case scenario', they will count votes for the democr@p candidate, Mondole, if the individual has voted a 'straight' (as if democr@ps are remotely 'straight') democr@p ticket, citing their 'intent'. Which is a crock, because few other states are so 'independent' in their voting.

To argue that the 'intent' to vote for Headstone, the person running under the democr@p label, is intended to merely be a vote for any democr@p candidate, i.e.; as a vote for Mondole, the person running under the democr@p lable - is ludicrous and disenfranchises even those independent democr@ps that could have voted GOP, independent or even green if Mondale had been on the ballot.

A possible solution, 'fair to all', would be to throw out the same number of absentee Coleman votes for Senate as there are votes for Headstone amongst the absentees.

And insure that people that voted absentee can not vote again in person at the polling place.

[ApesForEvolution]

FloriDUH translation: "I'm trying to give you the game before kickoff, but it's really tough with these darned laws in the way to get it done. But, we feel your pain and don't want to take any chances that the democr@p will lose. So, do you have any ideas we can run with?"

[Hunble]

Yup, since I am running for the lowly job of City Counsil, us little people kind of get lost in the debate.

Of course, we can always settle this Senate race the old fashion but historical way.

Republicans have the guns, and Democraps are afraid of them. *Evil Grin*

[ApesForEvolution]

Governor The Body doesn't want his 'legacy' to end with this democr@p bs, being swayed away from the dfl at the Memorial/DNC Convention he left midway through. Hatch has to live with all of this, assuming he wins re-election.

"Let's stick to the law and make it a potential scapegoat - not the MNSC or the AG..."