Franken finds more ballots after losing... AGAIN

[SoFlaJDM]

coleman says he'll check out sotomayor as soon as he's re-elected

[Photon1001]

I still don't get it, how can someone dis on the gov't so badly and then still think congress isn't the perfect place for a comedian?

[SoFlaJDM]

All but over for Coleman, experts say - Michael Falcone - POLITICO.com

Seven months after Minnesota's Senate election, the state's highest court hasn't reached a decision but election law experts agree: Norm Coleman doesn’t have a prayer.

These experts see almost no chance Coleman's lawyers will prevail in their appeal to the state’s high court to count more ballots in a bid to erase Al Franken’s slim lead.

Peter Knapp, a professor at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, pointed to the court's oral arguments on Monday, when the justices expressed skepticism toward Coleman’s lawyer, Joe Friedberg.

“Each of the five justices asked some questions that seemed to hone in on the absence of evidence," said Knapp, an expert on the Minnesota Supreme Court who has kept a close eye on the case. "And when each of the five are asking those questions, that’s significant.”

He cautioned that “it’s really easy to over-read the judges' questions as a sign of the way they’re leaning,” but added: “That being said, if I had to put money on the outcome – my money would be on Franken.”

Edward B. Foley, an election law expert at the Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University, agreed: “Based on the questioning, I’d be surprised if Coleman got a remand back to the trial court.”

Foley said that Coleman’s lawyers “always had a fighting chance” based on legal theory — but, he pointed out, “having a valid legal theory is not enough to win a lawsuit.”

He and other legal scholars interviewed by POLITICO said that that the facts were simply not on Coleman’s side. Friedberg’s task this week was to convince the justices of his contention that more than 4,000 additional absentee ballots should be included in the final vote tally because they had not been handled in the same way by every county.

The legal wrangling has stretched on since January and in his appeal to the state high court, Coleman, a Republican, contended that the decision in April of a three-judge panel that ruled Franken won the election by just over 300 votes should be overturned.

In an article posted on his Web site after watching the oral arguments, Foley noted that Coleman might end up losing the appeal not because his case lacked merit, but instead because his legal team failed to muster enough hard proof to “show which specific ballots were wrongly treated by local election officials.”

At one point on Monday, Associate Justice Christopher Dietzen, who was appointed to the court last year by Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty, complained to Friedberg that he was offering “no concrete evidence” to back up his theories.

Guy-Uriel Charles, a Duke University professor who specializes in election law, said that he had not talked to any colleagues in the legal community who had made a convincing argument that Coleman could win his appeal.

“It’s not that Coleman hasn’t raised important questions,” Charles said. “If it is true that counties are interpreting the absentee ballot rules differently because of differential resources, that’s a question the legislature should address, but I do not think that’s a question the courts could address after the fact.”

He added, “Generally, election law is not terribly conducive to broad fishing expeditions.”

Read more: All but over for Coleman, experts say - Michael Falcone - POLITICO.com

[motivez]

I just want to chuckle at the title of this thread once more.

Hello 60 seats.

[motivez]

Oh, and hopefully we can move this forum to the Archives soon and create an Election 2010 soon for midterms.. as soon as this is settled, that'll happen.

[SoFlaJDM]

here's another laugh:

Minnesota Court Orders Coleman To Pay Franken Over $94,000



In an order issued just a short while ago, the Minnesota election court has now commanded Norm Coleman to pay Al Franken $94,783.15 in itemized costs from the trial. The Franken legal team had originally asked for $161,000, but the court rejected some of the claims as either not being sufficiently documented or not justified under the loser-pays provision of the election contest law. Bear in mind that even the $161,000 claim would only have made a small dent in the millions that have been spent in this process.
This was previously the subject of much back and forth in legal filings between the two parties, with Team Coleman arguing that no costs should be awarded until after the appeals are done. With this order now hanging over them, it will now be one more thing to litigate or otherwise sort through.

[SoFlaJDM]

looks like the MN supreme court unanimously voted to give franken the seat.

any republicans have any more insider updates?

[Photon1001]

looks like Franken won by 312 votes, that's got to be some kind of record..

[Stylerod]

Whew. The world can finally start to spin again.

[Scrum]

Motion to archive this thread with the title intact.

[motivez]

Yeah. I'm still trying to decide how best to archive the entire forum.

[JaJae]

Originally Posted by Scrum

Motion to archive this thread with the title intact.

As far as I'm concerned this election was won with a lot of unethical and illegal foul play. There was a lot of crap going back and forth between both sides, but Franken got the best of it. It's amazing how people defend the way he got into office and the very same people who support him (very few according to recent polls) are the same ones who bitch and moan endlessly over Limbaugh and Coulter. If one of them had won an election under the same terms all hell would have broken loose. Al Franken being a senator for this nation is not a good thing the same as it would be bad if Limbaugh or Coulter got into the position. As far as I'm concerned anyone who supports him just shows how blatantly biased and extreme their political views truly are.

When everyone is done responding to this post make sure you don't forget to head over to the latest Sara Palin thread to mock her as being a loon and to celebrate her leaving office.

[SoFlaJDM]

Originally Posted by JaJae

As far as I'm concerned this election was won with a lot of unethical and illegal foul play. There was a lot of crap going back and forth between both sides, but Franken got the best of it. It's amazing how people defend the way he got into office and the very same people who support him (very few according to recent polls) are the same ones who bitch and moan endlessly over Limbaugh and Coulter. If one of them had won an election under the same terms all hell would have broken loose. Al Franken being a senator for this nation is not a good thing the same as it would be bad if Limbaugh or Coulter got into the position. As far as I'm concerned anyone who supports him just shows how blatantly biased and extreme their political views truly are.

When everyone is done responding to this post make sure you don't forget to head over to the latest Sara Palin thread to mock her as being a loon and to celebrate her leaving office.

as far as i'm concerned, the comedian was the better choice than the blatantly corrupt clown that had already lost to a former professional wrestler. as far as I'm concerned, the unethical and illegal crap was by far mostly done by coleman's camp. as far as i'm concerned those who still support the losing candidate are just showing how they can't see behind the (R) after her name.

as far as i'm concerned, you're wrong.









again

[Donkey®]

Originally Posted by JaJae

As far as I'm concerned this election was won with a lot of unethical and illegal foul play. There was a lot of crap going back and forth between both sides, but Franken got the best of it. It's amazing how people defend the way he got into office and the very same people who support him (very few according to recent polls) are the same ones who bitch and moan endlessly over Limbaugh and Coulter. If one of them had won an election under the same terms all hell would have broken loose. Al Franken being a senator for this nation is not a good thing the same as it would be bad if Limbaugh or Coulter got into the position. As far as I'm concerned anyone who supports him just shows how blatantly biased and extreme their political views truly are.

When everyone is done responding to this post make sure you don't forget to head over to the latest Sara Palin thread to mock her as being a loon and to celebrate her leaving office.

The Republicans set the precedent with the 2000 election.