Coleman: Lawsuit a ‘virtual certainty’
Coleman: Lawsuit a ‘virtual certainty’
By Reid Wilson and Michael O’Brien
http://thehill.com/campaign-2008/coleman-camp-lawsuit-a-virtual-certainty-2008-12-24.html
Top lawyers for Sen. Norm Coleman’s (R-Minn.) campaign said Wednesday that a lawsuit challenging the results of one of the closest Senate races in history is all but assured.
The statement comes after the Minnesota Supreme Court on Wednesday unanimously rejected a suit filed by Coleman’s campaign. The lawsuit that sought to prevent a state board from certifying election results that Coleman had alleged includes errors.
In a 5-0 decision, the court ruled that the state’s Board of Canvassers had the authority to certify election results that might have included so-called “duplicate ballots.”
The Coleman campaign had claimed that such ballots, created by local election officials to mirror original ballots that were somehow damaged, were sometimes counted twice by accident, and should not be included.
“We are deeply disappointed in that result. The Supreme Court decision virtually guarantees this election will be decided with an election contest,” Fritz Knaak told reporters on a conference call on Christmas Eve. “There’s no question, I mean no question in our minds that [a lawsuit] will happen now.”
Should the Coleman campaign file a contest, which it must do within seven days of the end of ballots being counted, the election results cannot be certified and no one will be sworn in when the 111th Congress meets January 5.
Knaak and Coleman co-counsel Tony Trimble still predicted the first-term Republican would come out ahead of Franken at the end of the recount, though Democrats sounded a dramatically different and much more optimistic tone.
“Minnesotans have waited a long time to find out who won this race — and today’s unanimous ruling means that the process can move forward despite attempts to halt its progress and cast doubt on the result,” Franken spokesman Andy Barr said in a statement. “Now we approach the end of a recount that Minnesotans can be proud of — and one that we strongly believe will result in the election of Al Franken.”
As many as 1,600 previously disqualified absentee ballots that the state Supreme Court ordered to be part of the final tally are yet to be counted. Neither campaign would comment on the status of court-ordered negotiations to resolve how to count those ballots.
Counting those ballots is not expected to be completed until January 5, meaning Minnesota will be represented by just one senator until the various court actions run their course. The lawsuits themselves could take “potentially quite a while,” Knaak predicted.