High court rules unanimously against Coleman

by Betsy Sundquist
Published: June 30,2009
Time posted: 1:00 am
Tags: 2008 Senate recount, Al Franken, Norm Coleman

Pack your bags, Al: The Minnesota Supreme Court has ruled unanimously against former Sen. Norm Coleman’s request to overturn the recount of the election battle between Coleman and Al Franken.

In a 32-page ruling handed down just minutes ago [PDF], the court said Coleman and his attorneys failed to prove that a lower court or elected officials violated the constitutional guarantee of equal protection. (Two justices, Chief Justice Eric Magnuson and G. Barry Anderson, recused themselves from considering the Coleman appeal because they served on the state canvassing board that certified the results of the election.)

Additionally, the justices said the lower court acted appropriately in including the infamous "lost ballots" in the final election tally.

This means that Franken, a Democrat, is still officially up 312 votes over Republican Coleman. (In other words: He’s good enough, he’s smart enough, and 312 more Minnesota voters like him better than they like Coleman.)

And it means that now Coleman can appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. It also means that Gov. Tim Pawlenty is likely to sign Franken’s election certificate (the governor has hinted as much in several public appearances in the last month).

"I’m prepared to sign it as soon as (the Supreme Court gives) the green light," Pawlenty told CNN anchor John King on Sunday.

Below the fold, more from the ruling:

S Y L L A B U S
1. Appellants did not establish that, by requiring proof that statutory absentee voting standards were satisfied before counting a rejected absentee ballot, the trial court?s decision constituted a post-election change in standards that violates substantive due process.
2. Appellants did not prove that either the trial court or local election officials violated the constitutional guarantee of equal protection.
3. The trial court did not abuse its discretion when it excluded additional evidence.
4. Inspection of ballots under Minn. Stat.

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No Responses to “High court rules unanimously against Coleman”

  1. Anonymous Says:
    June 30th, 2009 at 12:15 pm

    It sure took long enough….

    I personally hope this is the last time I hear Norm Coleman mentioned! As far as I’m concerned, he’s done in politics.

  2. Anonymous Says:
    June 30th, 2009 at 12:42 pm

    Norm is such a pathetic character that he’ll probably try to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Sorry, Coleman, won’t work!

  3. Anonymous Says:
    June 30th, 2009 at 12:46 pm

    FYI, the last three text blocks under “Opinion” — beginning with the *second* instance of “election or during the recount was made by either party” — should be removed, because it’s just repeating text (and confused me for a few moments). Looks like somebody was cutting and pasting too quickly.

  4. Anonymous Says:
    June 30th, 2009 at 12:57 pm

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75yo42QvSPM

  5. Staff Says:
    June 30th, 2009 at 12:58 pm

    the dreaded double-paste strikes! Thanks for the note,
    –Dan @ PIM
    –
    PoliticsInMinnesota.com - thanks for visiting our new site! Contact staff via staff@politicsinminnesota.com or the site contact form.

  6. Anonymous Says:
    June 30th, 2009 at 1:39 pm

    We have to make a correction, since we don’t have IRV yet… He’s good enough, he’s smart enough, and ignoring the opinions of 437,505 Barkley voters, 13,923 Aldrich voters, 8,907 Niemackl voters, and 2,365 write-ins adding up to over 16% of all voters (1), 312 more voters liked him more than Norm Coleman.

    1. Not to mention ~2,333,000 Minnesotans who chose not to vote, about 45% of the population.

  7. Anonymous Says:
    July 9th, 2009 at 4:07 am

    good blog

    jen x

    http://www.firstbathrooms.co.uk

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