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Minn. high court rejects Franken's Senate request
2009-03-06
ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Minnesota Supreme Court on Friday blocked Democrat Al Franken's petition for an election certificate that would put him in the U.S. Senate without waiting for a lawsuit to run its course. The decision means the seat will remain empty until the lawsuit and possible appeals in state court are complete. Republican Norm Coleman's lawsuit challenging Franken's recount lead is at the end of its sixth week, and both sides expect it to last at least a few more weeks. After a state board certified recount results showed Franken 225 votes ahead, he sued to force Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Secretary of State Mark Ritchie to sign an election certificate. Franken argued that federal law stipulates each state will have two senators when the Senate convenes, and that law trumped a state law that blocks such certificates while lawsuits are pending. But the state Supreme Court disagreed. In their ruling Friday, the justices said states aren't required to issue such certificates by the date that Congress convenes. The justices wrote in their unsigned opinion that "if the Senate believes delay in seating the second Senator from Minnesota adversely affects the Senate, it has the authority to remedy the situation and needs no certificate of election from the Governor to do so." Coleman's team hailed the ruling for giving the state courts space to sort out Coleman's lawsuit. "This wise ruling will ensure that Harry Reid, Al Franken and Chuck Schumer cannot short-circuit Minnesota law in their partisan power play," Coleman adviser Ben Ginsberg said, referring to two Democratic leaders in the Senate. Franken attorney Marc Elias said the campaign was disappointed. "Obviously we had hoped for a different result, but we accept the ruling of the Supreme Court," he said. The three-judge panel in Coleman's lawsuit heard motions Friday by Franken to dismiss the suit and by Coleman to declare a recount rule illegal. Coleman attorneys defended their legal case, pointing to evidence of inconsistencies and incomplete voter registration records. Coleman attorney Jim Langdon said rejected ballots were reviewed with "different sets of eyes with standards applied differently." Coleman's attorneys argued their side had presented evidence showing at least 1,725 rejected absentee ballots should be opened and counted. By Franken's analysis, only nine rejected ballots had been shown to be valid. In other arguments, Coleman is questioning a recount rule that's at the heart of his claim that some people got two votes because both a damaged and replacement ballot for them were counted. Coleman attorney Joe Friedberg said the campaign initially accepted a rule guiding recount officials to count the original ballots, but he said the campaign did so "presuming that there would be an equal number of originals and duplicates." The problem, Friedberg said, was that some of the duplicates weren't properly marked. Franken attorney David Lillehaug said both campaigns and the secretary of state's office agreed on the rule, which he said is legal. "The attempt to back out," he said, "is always after Sen. Coleman decides he didn't like the results." ___ Associated Press writer Brian Bakst contributed to this report.
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