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As expected, the Minnesota Supreme Court has once again examined a legal motion by Norm Coleman’s legal team, studied it from every angle, and – once their bellies got over being so sore from laughing – bounced it back onto Norm’s head, smeared in Tabasco sauce.
If you will recall, the petition that the Soops just bounced concerned the Coleman campaign’s extreme concern that 654 alleged extra fifth-pile ballots from certain areas in Hennepin County that just happened to be heavily-Republican areas were being left out of the recount; Hennepin County officials had recommended to the MN SC that they deny this petition. The beauty of the document is that the Soops spend the first half of the five-page order outlining Norm’s December 15 petition to keep all the fifth-pile (that is, wrongly rejected) absentee ballots out of the recount. In other words, Norm’s concern for fifth-pile voters is of very recent vintage, and only seems to cover those in Republican areas.
This drives another nail into Norm’s senatorial coffin. There’s nothing right now to stop the state canvassing board to declare Al Franken the winner, which they are set to do at 2:30 pm Central Standard Time today. (You can watch the proceedings via The UpTake.) Once they’ve done so, there’s a one-week window before Governor Pawlenty signs the certification in which Norm is allowed to, and will probably try at least one last legal gasp, but his options are pretty limited now — even if he tries pushing the already-debunked "duplicate ballots" schtick, that only gets him 200 votes — and he needs 226.
Now, he may be a total jerk and, say, wait until Friday afternoon to file his suits, in the hopes that the Supremes won’t be able to issue a ruling right away and thus drag things out an extra day or two. But really, that’s all he can do now — his track record with the Soops is pretty bad, and he has to pay the court costs should he file and lose a motion once the board declares Al Franken the winner. He may be contributing to Fritz Knaak’s and Tony Trimble’s retirement funds, but that’s all he’ll be doing.
I’ll try to have another update round about 3:00 pm Central. Watch this space.
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My understanding of the 654 ballots is they were not fifth pile, but rather cherry-picked rejected absentee ballots from republican strongholds (likely cross-referenced from GOP donor rolls). There’s a huge difference between the “fifth pile” (unlawfully rejected) absentee ballots and anything from one of the four piles of legitimately-rejected ballots.
Either way, Norm’s got nothing left. There’s just no way he can come up with any legally-sound arguments of impropriety that has a chance of netting him enough votes to overcome Franken’s lead. And I think the GOP sugar daddy donors are going to be cutting him off in a hurry now, so any money he spends may be needed for the FBI probe into his Kazeminy dealings.
Hey PW! Luck You! You get Franken while in Arizona we are stuck with Kyl and McOldfart. Plus, a new Rethug governor.
That’s what I thought, too. In any event, Hennepin County’s elections officials have urged that they be kept out, and they were not part of the 1400-odd ballots known to be actual fifth-pilers.