If you haven't been following the minutiae of the impending Minnesota gubernatorial recount closely, this may go over your head, but: the Minnesota Supreme Court has denied trailing candidate Tom Emmer (R)'s petition to complicate and prolong the recount process by forcing local election officials to mount a process called "reconciliation."
For details, I recommend the diaries by the estimable WineRev here and here, but here's the short-but-sweet order from the Court today, a mere couple of hours after oral arguments in the case were heard this afternoon:
STATE OF MINNESOTA
IN SUPREME COURT
A10-2022
In re Petition regarding
2010 Gubernatorial Election
O R D E R
On Wednesday, November 17, 2010, Tom Emmer, the Republican Party’s candidate for governor of Minnesota, filed a petition under Minn. Stat. § 204B.44 (2008), alleging that the Minnesota State Canvassing Board was about to commit an error in certifying the correctness of the results of the November 2, 2010, general election. The court received responses to the petition on Friday, November 19, 2010, and a reply from the petitioner on Monday, November 22, 2010. The court heard oral argument on the petition on Monday, November 22, 2010.
Based on all the files, records, and proceedings herein,
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED THAT the petition be, and the same is, denied. So as not to impede the orderly election process, this order is issued with opinion to follow.
Petition denied.
Dated: November 22, 2010
BY THE COURT:
s
Lorie S. Gildea
Chief Justice
ANDERSON, PAUL H., and STRAS, JJ., took no part in the consideration or decision of this matter.
This isn't an extremely consequential outcome (otherwise I would have put "BREAKING" in all caps in the title); it just means Emmer's first attempt to prolong the recount has been brushed aside. Quite possibly he'll have more, and then after the recount's finished, the smart money says he'll be filing a contest suit and delaying it like crazy.
But Round 1 goes to the good guys.