franken-coleman-court.thumbnail.jpgThis is a surprise, folks — I thought Franken wouldn’t rest his case until Friday, but courtesy of The UpTake, we have Franken attorney Marc Elias saying that they will provisionally rest today, after calling a few more witnesses to the stand.  What’s more, today is going to be a short day in court — though likely not behind the scenes — as court won’t begin until 1:30 PM Central Daylight Time instead of the usual 9:00 am time.

So why the early rest — especially considering they took one-fifth as many days as the Coleman side did to present their case?  Because they think they’re got this sucker locked up:

“We feel good about how our case went,” said Franken’s lead recount lawyer Marc Elias. “We think we have put into evidence a strong case.”

 And why keep their client, Al Franken, waiting even longer to get into the U.S. Senate if they feel he’s going to win this case anyway?

Team Coleman will likely spend Thursday and Friday on their counterclaims, even as the the Election Contest Court prepares to mull over the hundreds of ballots Franken’s team is introducing to be reviewed — and unlike the ballots Coleman’s people have been lobbing, the Franken team’s ballots are much more likely to have been properly cast in the first place.   Next week will see the Election Contest Court ruling on which ballots are legit, then actually requesting them from the counties in question to be brought to the Secretary of State’s office to be opened and counted.   And then — a ruling favoring Franken, which the Coleman camp will almost certainly appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court in what will be their last chance at delaying the inevitable.