Coleman Camp asks that election results be 'set aside'

[Stuart G]

Source: Star Tribune


By PAT DOYLE and KEVIN DUCHSCHERE, Star Tribune staff writers

Last update: March 3, 2009 - 5:33 AM


For more than a month, Norm Coleman stressed flaws in Minnesota's election system.

And on Monday, Coleman lawyer Jim Langdon wrote the three-judge panel to suggest the problems are so serious they may not be able to declare a winner.

"Some courts have held that when the number of illegal votes exceeds the margin between the candidates -- and it cannot be determined for which candidate those illegal votes were cast -- the most appropriate remedy is to set aside the election," Langdon wrote in a letter to the court.

Coleman's team rested most of his case Monday in the U.S. Senate election trial after more testimony underscoring problems with the election system. Under questioning from the Republican's lawyers, Minnesota's elections director acknowledged inaccurate data in the registration system that could exclude otherwise qualified people from voting.

Read more: http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senate/40556467.html

[Lasher]

1. How about 2 out of 3?

If they have the election over again does Coleman have to beat Franken twice now to win?

[onehandle]

2. He made a strong case in 2000 for a "re-vote" in Palm Beach County.

No he didn't.

I kid, I Kid!

[lisa58]

8. lol - I was gonna say!

[billybob537]

3. Send ex Sen. Coleman some CHEESE

to go with his WHINE!!!!!

[1monster]

16. No, no, no! Send him some "geeze" to go with the whine. (nt)

[hootinholler]

33. He has plenty of Geeze already. n/t

[Stuart G]

4. He is without a doubt, one of the world's biggest jerks...

Now it is all about a recount..great. What a waste of hot air he is.:nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity:

[TechBear_Seattle]

5. I was waiting for him to try this

Sorry, Norm: you don't get "do-overs." :eyes:

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

6. Because spending $86k on a recount is too expensive for Minnesota

but reholding the election isn't.

[Festivito]

31. So many good points. My head can only shake so much. /nt

[lisa58]

7. Well, we knew this was coming. Minnesota Law allows for a coin-toss to break a tie...

...I don't think the judges will set this aside for a coin-toss.

[byeya]

9. The Senate is the sole judge of its members according

to the Constitution. Give it another week and then seat Al Franken and end this charade. The longer this goes on the better MN looks because that state seems to put fairness first. It's quite a contrast with, say, Florida or Texas.

[Odin2005]

17. I fear that this might be used as an excuse to make such electriom challenges harder so...

...the pukes can get away with election fraud more easily.

[No Elephants]

10. NOW, he reaches this conclusion? After MN has already been

without a Senator for months?

Whatever happened to the Norm Coleman who said back in November that Franken should simply skip the recount entirely and withdraw?

[Bette Noir]

11. Nothing has changed.

Normie still thinks Franken should skip the recount and withdraw.

[GreenTea]

12. Keeping Franken from voting on Obama bills & agenda is a major goal of the republicans. Coleman and

the republicans will try to stall as long as they can to keep Franken when being seated as the 59th vote for the Democrats.

Coleman can't and will not win, if this case is done legally by the book, However Coleman's lawyers are trying to get a new special election out of it....And what do the republicans have to lose by another election, nothing, only gain...very slimy and it shouldn't be allowed.

But of course the despicable republicans are trying to seek any illegal and slimy way to get Coleman seated instead, with the same slimy tactics and deeds the republicans used and that went unchallenged during Bush's presidency for so many years.

Republicans are truly the slime of mankind!

Support Franken recount fund - Act Blue

http://www.actblue.com/page/franken

[formercia]

21. The GOP is also afraid of Franken's wit.

Just wait until he's seated. The debates are going to get very interesting.

[MiaCulpa]

13. This is just insane

Remember the uproar over the questioning of 2000's election results? The repugs went totally bonkers. Here, they're bonkers, but...oh hell. It's getting to hard to say anything about 'em that sounds logical. lol

-Diane

[Odin2005]

14. Fuck you, Norm, just FUCK YOU!

Can we tie this fucker up and throw him into the Mississippi?

[Stuart G]

24. I second the motion...let us

throw him in the river..and do we recall?

That it was Coleman who wanted Franken to orally concede the night of the election. I do. Do you?

[gratuitous]

15. So, tip the board over and declare the game a tie

A sophisticated gaming strategy. For a three-year-old. For someone aspiring to another term as a United States Senator? Not so much.

Sorry, Mr. Coleman. You can't change the rules of the game after the result is in. You lost, Franken won, get over it.

[redqueen]

27. Hahahaha... well said.

:thumbsup:

[LiberalFighter]

18. Minnesota Supreme Court should find Coleman guilty and fry him in the electric chair.

We can hope can't we?

Doesn't the Minnesota Supreme Court realize that they need to get this over fast or they will be an embarrassment?

[OwnedByFerrets]

19. Two questions....how can this CRAP be ended so that

Minnesota can have two representatives in the Senate? And, can this idiot keep this going for the entire term Franken is supposed to be serving?
And a third. Does this ultimately help Franken in a re-election bid?

[elocs]

20. This "CRAP", which is MN state election law, should not last much longer.

Coleman has rested his case, Franken will make his case, the judges will rule, declaring Franken the winner. He will then be certified by the governor and the secretary of state and then be seated in the Senate. Coleman then is free to appeal as long as he can, but Franken will be Senator. Let's allow the law to actually work rather than just seeking to impose Franken as a senator because that seems kind of Republicanish.

[CatholicEdHead]

23. Actaully MN Gov Tim Plawlenty (R) will want to hold off through the appeals

He would not sign a Election Certificate until all appeals are exhausted, which will take who knows how long.

[gratuitous]

30. Minnesota's state law should be changed

After the elections board certifies a winner (as in this case), the state law should be changed to allow for provisional seating of the certified winner. As it stands now, as long as a sore loser can keep a challenge on life support, the people of the state are denied their representation. I don't think anyone really envisioned the lengths to which Coleman would go to drag the process out for month after month, but now that the Minnesota legislature has this example of low-minded pettifoggery, they should enact the Coleman Law to discourage it from happening again.

While I'm all in favor of a full and fair count of the ballots, the Minnesota law as currently written invites this sort of monkey-wrenching by an unscrupulous election loser who holds the entire election system up for public denigration and baselessly encourages public mistrust.

[elocs]

32. If there were a list of states whose election laws need changing, MN would be far down that list.

Just because things are not going as quickly or how we wish does not mean there is something wrong with the process. My guess would be that once Franken wins this judicial process that the governor would be under pressure to certify Franken as the winner.

If all of this was the other way around and Franken was behind by a few hundred votes we would surely consider it to be a stolen election and we would expect Franken to do everything he could do to win and we would feel righteous about it. That is what Coleman is doing even if it is not righteous. The ability to see and understand both sides does not mean you are unable to determine what you believe is right.

[gratuitous]

35. The law contemplates a good faith challenge

I simply called for a change in the law to allow provisional seating of a candidate certified the winner by the Elections Board. If you think the Elections Board is routinely crooked or routinely certifies the wrong winner, maybe Minnesota has bigger problems than I realized.

Coleman's incessant challenge, brought in bad faith, has unnecessarily deprived Minnesota of representation in the United States Senate. And because there's no penalty or sanction for Coleman to continue to pursue his challenge, there's no disincentive to bring a bad faith challenge to a conclusion. Indeed, while Coleman has shed all the accoutrements of office that would cost him money personally (such as maintaining an office and a presence in Minnesota and Washington DC), he has shown no similar compunction to stop raising money from other like-minded monkey-wrenchers whose only goal is to continue to deny Minnesota its rightful representation. There is no defense of the integrity of the election system going on here; indeed, the sole purpose of Coleman's (and his bankrollers) continued obfuscation is to bring the election system into doubt and disrepute, causing damage to the mechanisms everyone agreed to before the ballots were cast. I don't think this is what the state law contemplated. Making allowance for provisional seating of a certified election winner would, I believe, short-circuit bad faith challenges such as the one being pursued by Coleman.

If a candidate truly believes he or she has been wronged by the system, evidence of chicanery should attract public sentiment and support. Coleman's partisan and ever-shifting rationalizations, excuses, testimony and witnesses is clear evidence of bad faith and represents a flaw in the state elections scheme that should be addressed.

[elocs]

38. Coleman is doing absolutely nothing that does not go on in courts all over the nation everyday.

The judges are there to deal with challenges, incessant or not, in good faith or not. There are likely just as many people in MN who are as convinced that Coleman is the victim of chicanery and partisanship.

Did you see this: http://mnpublius.com/2009/03/breaking-coleman-camp-fined-for-delay/

Breaking: Coleman Camp Fined For Delay!

Today, after Minnesota elections director Gary Poser and Minneapolis election judge Pamela Howell testify, Coleman will bring his case to a close.

Howell will be allowed to testify in the U.S. Senate election trial — but Coleman will have to pay for the delays caused by his attorneys’ mistakes in disclosing documents about Howell.

Howell began testifying in the trial last week, but stopped after it was revealed that Coleman’s attorneys violated the rules of civil procedure because they didn’t give Democrat Al Franken’s attorneys certain information about her.

Last week, the judges had barred her from testifying because of the problems, changed their minds and were willing to allow her to testify on Friday. But once she began her testimony, she revealed that there were more documents that the Coleman attorneys neglected to share.

The judges today decided to allow her to testify but also decided that Coleman would have to pay for the costs of the delay that his attorneys’ nondisclosure caused.

[gratuitous]

39. My, I should have brought my dancing shoes

The tune changes so quickly! What's next, a polka?

[elocs]

40. Since I am clueless as to what you are talking about, I think I just ignore you.

You really aren't worth the trouble.

[badgervan]

41. Taking Way Too Long....

... and every day that goes by without Franken in the Senate hurts Minnesota, the country, and especially Dems who are sick and tired of being gamed by repub manipulators. Four months, and counting....!

[elocs]

44. It's going to take as long as it takes, which in this initial judicial process

should not be much longer. Imagine how people in personal injury suits must feel when it may take years to resolve. I'd say the one thing we would not want is to make it look like Franken's being seated in the Senate is being forced through in spite of the legal process because that is they type of thing we would accuse Republicans of doing. Coleman can make all the motions and assertions he wants because that is why the judges are there--to rule on them and dismiss them when needed. Court cases are always about gaming and if it was our side that was doing the gaming people here would be celebrating.

[sutz12]

22. Hey, Norm. How about we set YOU aside?

:evilgrin:

[myrna minx]

25. We Minnesotans are sick of your BS, Coleman!

Leave already!

[dflprincess]

46. Just as I was reading this thread I received a call from Franken's people for a donation

I told the woman I was reading that Normie wants a redo and we both burst into scornful laughter. It really was perfect timing.

I have to go now, I promised to go out to Franken's website and donate because I don't like to give my card numbers out. (be right back)

[xxqqqzme]

26. If I'm following normie's logic,

then his election in '06 wasn't valid either.

[KamaAina]

28. Nuh-uh! Do-over!

Did not! Did too! :cry:

[FlyingSquirrel]

29. In all fairness, if it were the other way around we'd be hanging onto this argument

I'm not afraid of a do-over, I think Franken would win. But let's hope the argument fails, of course.

[EFerrari]

45. What?! When was the last time a Democrat tried to have a clean election

set aside?

Good god.

[spanone]

34. of. course. they. do.

[truthisfreedom]

36. Do one of two things: Seat the winner (Franken) or have a new election (Franken wins.)

Period.

[damntexdem]

37. Whine, whine. We don't like how it turned out, so we want a do-over!

The court should just rule that it's all over, Franken won, Coleman go home.

[DebbieCDC]

42. And in this economic climate just WHO is going to pay for this new election Normie?

The State of Minnesota? Nah, don't think so. Tough times and all (not that Normie understands such things).

GOP? OxySlob told his Orcs not to give any money to the RNC, so no money there.

Diebold?

Lotto?

Mysterious Aliens?

Just askin'

[Lorien]

43. Sore Loserman. nt.

[TankLV]

47. OK coleman - declare Franken the winner and be done with it already!

that IS what you had in mind, right?

[Abq_Sarah]

48. Oh, for crying out loud!

This needs to end. Now.