The Franken team just continues to rain all over Norm Coleman. Al Franken has yet another ace up his sleeve as his legal team fights through the litigation in the Minnesota race. It seems that the voters in Minnesota are tired of Norm Coleman trying to steal the race away from the "certified" winner, Al Franken. A new lawsuit has just been filed this afternoon in Minnesota state court, by the consolidated action of 64 voters who say their absentee ballots were wrongly rejected and are now seeking to have them put into the count.
The Franken campaign has not directly filed this lawsuit, but lead campaign attorney Marc Elias stated yesterday that they were giving it their support.
From TPM:
Does this have a chance of succeeding? Absolutely, because the option of individual voters suing to get their ballots counted was an often-discussed legal remedy throughout this whole process. Now that we're in the contest phase, the Franken campaign and its supporters are really stepping up to compete.
PDF of the law suit filed by the "disqualified" 64 Minnesota citizens:
http://www.mncourts.gov/...
Al Franken's lawyers really don't mess around and they're not wasting any time confronting Norm Coleman with the realities of their victory. Lead Franken campaign attorney Marc Elias has filed a lawsuit at the state Supreme Court, today to force GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Democratic Secretary of State Mark Ritchie to issue Franken a certificate of election, which would enable the Senate to seat him as the new junior Senator from Minnesota.
PDF of the law suit:
http://www.mncourts.gov/...
Elias placed a request with Minnesota Governor Pawlenty and Secretary of State Ritchie yesterday, which they both promptly rejected, arguing that Franken was entitled to a certificate.... contrary to the somewhat opaque state law that the state of Minnesota law blocks the issuing of a certificate until after Norm Coleman's lawsuit to overturn the result is settled. But Elias argues otherwise saying that "(a) different section of the same law would actually require the issuing of a certificate in a legislative contest, with its discussion of revoking an already-issued certificate if the contest concludes with the original loser now on top. So there is a tension between these two provisions".
I'm glad to see the Franken team taking a more aggressive approach to getting Al Franken seated as the victor. Norm Coleman and his team consisting of lead attorney Ben Ginsberg, who was the attorney responsible for stealing the election for George Bush in Florida in 2000 appears to have bitten off more than he can chew, as almost all of the Coleman suits were quashed by the Courts...and it appears that he is running out of options, grasping at some pretty ridiculous assumptions to further their cause....
http://www.startribune.com/...