It’s becoming apparent that Al Franken isn’t going to pull ahead of Norm Coleman in the still-ongoing Minnesota Senate race:
While a tiny margin separates the candidates in the Minnesota U.S. Senate race, it is wide enough that Democrat Al Franken faces a daunting task in challenging votes to erase Sen. Norm Coleman’s lead.
The two sides have disputed thousands of the other’s votes, but many of those challenges are regarded by experts as frivolous.
To win his case before the state Canvassing Board, Franken must prevail on more than 6 percent of his challenges of Coleman votes even if Coleman fails to succeed on any of his challenges, a Star Tribune analysis shows.
If the outcome of past election disputes provides a clue, Franken will have a hard time reversing enough votes to win, said one veteran elections official who has been involved in the Senate recount.
“Based upon the kinds of challenges I’ve been looking at in the last two weeks, I think that’s just not going to happen,” said Joe Mansky, Ramsey County elections manager.
Franken’s campaign said Friday that the gap between the candidates isn’t as wide as it appears and expressed confidence that his challenges would prove generally more meritorious than Coleman’s.
But Mansky said earlier that Franken has a better chance of winning by suing to force the counting of absentee ballots that the Democrat contends were mistakenly rejected.
“Franken’s best [and perhaps his only] chance will be in court, not with the recount,” Mansky said.
But it’s unlikely that a Court, whether state or Federal, will overturn the decision of a state election board.
So, apparently, Franken has another trick up his sleeve:
Al Franken’s (D) campaign may ask the Democratic-led Senate to intervene on his behalf to allow some disqualified absentee ballots to be counted in his quest to unseat Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.).
Franken attorney Marc Elias made the case to reporters Monday that as many as 1,000 absentee ballots were improperly disqualified and that the Senate or the courts may need to step in to resolve the issue.
“No recount can be considered accurate or complete until all the ballots cast by lawful voters are counted,” Elias said of the recount that became necessary when only about 200 votes separated the two candidates on Nov. 4.
(…)
The U.S. Constitution allows each congressional chamber to be the “Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members.”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) called the Board of Canvassers’ decision to not count the absentee ballots “a cause for great concern” last week, fueling speculation that the Senate would explore the legality of the Minnesota recount’s results.
“If ultimately there is no remedy before the canvassing board or before the courts, then that is certainly an option,” Elias said of the Senate’s potential intervention in the election results.
“The Franken campaign has made it clear that the recounted votes and will of Minnesotans matter little to them, and that they intend to take their campaign to change the outcome of this election on to the United States Senate,” said Coleman campaign spokesman Mark Drake. “Al Franken should personally reject this strategy outright, and honor the right of Minnesotans to choose who their senator should be — and not allow lawsuits and the strong-arm tactics of the majority leader of the United States Senate to intervene in this process.”
If they wanted to, Reid and the Democrats would probably have the votes to strong-arm Franken into the Senate.
But that wouldn’t make it right.
An election was held, and the results were incredibly close. Under Minnesota law, a recount was held, and, while the results are still incredibly close, it’s fairly clear who the winner is at this point.
Using the Court system and arcane Senate rules to change the result is just wrong.
