Al Franken lost and did what GORE couldn't pull off

Coleman Mounts Legal Challenge Against Franken

Tuesday, January 6, 2009 1:04 PM
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MINNEAPOLIS – No longer a U.S. senator, Republican Norm Coleman was headed to court Tuesday, seeking to overturn a state board's certification that Democrat Al Franken won the U.S. Senate recount.


Coleman's lawyers had promised a legal challenge a day earlier, arguing that some ballots were mishandled and others were wrongly excluded from the recount. Coleman scheduled an afternoon news conference at the State Capitol in St. Paul to discuss his next steps.


Minnesota law prohibits final certification of a winner in the face of such a lawsuit, meaning the race could remain in limbo for several more months.


Franken declared victory Monday, but a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said in Washington the former "Saturday Night Live" personality would not be sworn in with new senators Tuesday.


Franken spokeswoman Jess McIntosh declined Tuesday to reveal if he was in Washington or what he would do during a legal challenge.


Minnesota's Canvassing Board certified Monday that Franken won 225 more votes than Coleman, out of almost 3 million cast.


"I am proud to stand before you as the next senator from Minnesota," Franken told reporters outside his downtown condominium.


The Canvassing Board's certification of the recount results started a seven-day clock for Coleman to file a lawsuit. His attorney, Tony Trimble, said Monday afternoon that the challenge would be filed within 24 hours.


"This process isn't at an end," Trimble said. "It is now just at the beginning."


A lawsuit would open doors closed to the campaigns during the administrative recount. The campaigns would be able to access voter rolls, inspect machines and get testimony from election workers.


When the smoke cleared after the election, Coleman appeared to hold a 215-vote lead. But Franken made up the deficit over seven tortuous weeks of ballot-sifting, in part by winning more of the challenges that both campaigns brought against thousands of ballots.


Franken also did better than Coleman when election officials opened and counted more than 900 absentee ballots that had erroneously been disqualified on Election Day.


Likely to be a major feature of any lawsuit is the argument by Coleman's lawyers that some ballots were mishandled and others were wrongly excluded from the recount, giving Franken an unfair advantage.


Secretary of State Mark Ritchie was careful Monday to note that the board was simply signing off on the numbers found by the recount: Franken, with 1,212,431 votes, and Coleman, with 1,212,206 votes.


"We're not doing anything today that declares winners or losers or anything to that effect," Ritchie said.


All five members of the canvassing board — Ritchie, plus two state Supreme Court justices and two Ramsey County judges — voted to accept the recount results.


A lawsuit case would fall to a three-judge panel picked by Chief Justice Eric Magnuson of the Supreme Court. Magnuson served on the Canvassing Board, but declined to say Monday if he would remove himself from the selection process as a result. Magnuson was an appointee of Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty.


Costs of the election lawsuit fall to the campaigns. But there is a provision in state law that exposes the government to costs if results are reversed due to any irregularity in election procedure.