One of the highlights of following The UpTake’s live coverage of Norm Coleman’s contest trial today was coming back to my computer after a break to see people in The UpTake’s liveblog laughing about a mouse.  I had no idea what they were talking about, until I saw this post by Pioneer Press reporter Rachel E. Stassen-Berger in the PiPress blog "The Political Animal" — where we find that one of the absentee voters Norm’s put on the witness stand, Peter DeMuth,  used — get this — the mouse on his computer to put his initials on his absentee ballot application, which he sent to Hennepin County via email because he didn’t want to spend the money to print out the application and sign it by hand.  (He did use an actual pen to sign his ballot.)

DeMuth’s name and mouse came up in the context of a discussion over whether county elections officials were right to reject the various ballots cast by the individuals Coleman brought in to testify on his behalf.  Ramsey County elections director Joe Mansky stated that the ballots of at least three of the eight voters, including Peter DeMuth’s, were rejected for the right reasons.  (The eight people Coleman brought forward were not "fifth-pile" absentee ballot voters — that is, their ballots weren’t among the ones that had been rejected wrongly, for reasons other than those allowed under Minnesota law.    Also, none of these people’s ballots would have been allowed under the absentee-ballot recount rules that Coleman’s campaign had a hand in creating.)

But there was bigger news afoot, per The UpTake’s Twitter feed:  "Coleman wants social scientist to testify after saying in opening arguments that they would not http://tinyurl.com/c7yb9s (PDF) #mnrecount"

The social scientist in question?  None other than local conservative blogger and radio talk-show personality King Banaian – and yes, that is his real name.