When the Minnesota Canvassing Board ruled that Al Franken had received more votes, Norm Coleman filed his challenge with the election board the next day, despite the fact that he had 10 days to file that appeal. Much the same way, Coleman had promised to file any appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court quickly, rather than running out the clock.
"Minnesota Supreme Court you have to file in 10 days, we're going to file quicker than 10 days, I can assure you," Coleman said Wednesday morning on "Brian and the Judge" on Fox News Radio. "The bottom line is I want to make sure the votes are counted fairly, uniformly, with a uniform standard and we're going to push to the Minnesota Supreme Court to make that happened if we have to."
(You can listen to the interview here.)
MinnPost's Eric Black wrote a week ago:
It will be of modest interest to note how many of the 10 days Team Coleman takes to file. He has said on the radio that he will not need 10 days. It is just a notice, which can be filled out quickly and easily, not the appeal brief.
Many Dems have stated, as if it were a proven fact, that Coleman knows he cannot win and is continuing the case solely and despicably to delay the inevitable seating of Franken. I am aware of no evidence to support this fairly serious allegation of abuse of process. Coleman did not take the maximum 10 days after the Canvassing Board's final action to file his notice of contest -- in fact he filed it on Day One. His trial team could easily have dragged the contest trial out longer by putting more invididual voters on the stand, and, in fact, Team C seems to have blundered by not doing so. Certainly, it was not a decision consistent with a strategy of maximum delay. If Coleman waits until day 10 to file his notice, I will consider that the first dilatory tactic. If he files in the first days of the window, will his critics concede that he has passed up a chance to delay the case further?
It is now DAY SEVEN SIX of that appeals window. Given that Coleman didn't file his easy notice of appeal on Day One, there are only two possible reasons for the delay:
- The GOP is in "keep Franken out of the Senate as long as possible" mode, in order to keep that 59th Democratic vote from being seated, or
- There is internal debate about whether Coleman should appeal or surrender to the inevitable. No one gives Coleman any chance of winning this case. And the best he could hope for -- getting more illegal absentee ballots counted -- would likely pad Franken's victory margin. (Every time Coleman has succeeded in getting more votes counted, it has ended up adding to Franken's totals.)
Let's hope it's #2, while realizing that #1 is far more likely.
Update: As pointed out in the comments, the clock runs out Friday, so it's day six of the appeals window.