January 14, 2009
Posted: 09:46 AM ET

From
Franken's team is turning to the state's highest court.
Franken's team is turning to the state's highest court.

MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (CNN) – Democrat Al Franken asked the state's Supreme Court Tuesday to order Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Democrat Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie to sign the certificate of election that would validate the 225-vote lead he holds over former Republican Sen. Norm Coleman.

Pawlenty and Ritchie had each denied the request, saying Minnesota law prohibits them from signing off on the state canvassing board's final count until all election legal contests have been exhausted.

Coleman has filed suit over the canvassing board's count. No start date has been set for that trial.

Also Tuesday, more than 60 voters whose ballots were rejected filed a request, backed by Franken, that would order state officials to open and count each of their ballots because they claim it was rejected in error.

There was no word on action from the high court as of Wednesday morning.

Filed under: Minnesota Senate race recount


Fred Heartly   January 14th, 2009 1:36 pm ET

Look Neo Cons do not care about Fair… They are the chosen ones who know whats best for all of us, that is their version of freedom. They lost an election but these sick folks will be back in 2012 with the Palin's and Hanity's so beware. Fox News host the Huckabee's to make him more of an ICON to run in 2012. Remeber we are in a war and just cause we won the battle, the war is still on.

Skiwee   January 14th, 2009 1:35 pm ET

What's this?..Round 10?

James   January 14th, 2009 1:00 pm ET

this rick guy seems like a complete idiot …

FP   January 14th, 2009 12:45 pm ET

Rick -
you must be more stupid than george bush – global warming is not a hoax and look at the polls – franken is winning…

Ian Minneapolis, MN   January 14th, 2009 12:40 pm ET

This is ridiculous. There needs to be a stipulation stating that if it's two close it goes to the third party candidate. I mean this is what is happening. Myself and the rest of the people of MN are going without full representation because these two clowns are bickering and filing lawsuits left and right. I say cut them both off and give it the libertarian party

Marc   January 14th, 2009 12:06 pm ET

Rick, stop the spin, the Global Warming is not an oax.
The percentage of its existence and growing that belongs to the human race is still being disputed. But it's no longer considered an oax by serious scientists.
Serious scientists are those who after spending years suppporting a theory, always with the most honesty possible in their expressions of their opinion, realize that their theory was proven beyond any doubt wrong and admit it, then they move on. Even Einstein had problems to admit that some of his ideas were wrong, and that didn't diminished his importance to science, it only made him a stubborn man.

windfall   January 14th, 2009 11:56 am ET

this is more complicated than most of you posters understand.
64 people are filing suit because their ballots were wrongly rejected, and those are just the people who KNOW theirs were.
in one instance, it was rejected because the voter's signature didn't match what was on file. turns out that voter campaigned for Franken.
coincidence?

after having Coleman in various offices over the years, i truly believe he will stop at nothing to win. look what happened to Wellstone…3 weeks before the election.

Meh   January 14th, 2009 11:56 am ET

Lisa< He hasn't been on SNL in about 20 years.

Go Al!!

Joe Green   January 14th, 2009 11:53 am ET

I don't understand how either side can claim to be "winner" and the other the "loser" when the race has swung on a couple of hundred votes – depending on how they are counted.

So to those who think one side "won" and the other "lost", well, what day is it?

Let's let the PROCESS complete itself instead of short-circuiting it like we did in Florida in 2000.

Minnesota law provides for electoral challenges. Norm Coleman is entitled to his day in Court. If the original count had stood, it would be Franken filing suit.

So let's chuck this stupid, silly "sore loser" nonsense.

Let the process continue until all challenges are resolved and all votes counted.

That is how the system works. Trying to "certify" an election when the law clearly states it is illegal to do so it not the way.

Trying to say "I won" when the process is not complete is not the way.

And no matter who wins, a margin of a couple hundred votes is HARDLY A MANDATE FROM THE PEOPLE OF MINNESOTA.

Jane   January 14th, 2009 11:52 am ET

This guys an idiot. He will fit right in in washington.

Aaron from Ohio   January 14th, 2009 11:47 am ET

Steve in Las Vegas- A ballot can be rejected for many reasons. For example: If your name is Brad E. Bart and it is listed in the voting book as Brad F. Bart, it will be rejected. If you moved between the time you registered (even if just next door) and your current address doesn't match, it will be rejected. You could have been purged from the voting rolls (either rightly or wrongly). Your address could be 662 Main Street and it was incorrectly listed as 622 Main Street. There are dozens, iof not hundreds of reasons why a ballot is rejected.

Not Rick   January 14th, 2009 11:42 am ET

LOL. I'm surprised Rick didn't list evolutionary theory as a 3rd hoax.

Darth Vadik, CA   January 14th, 2009 11:36 am ET

Ok Coleman, are you trying to win your case in court. You actually think you'll be back in Senate? OK whatever dude,

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHA

What do you really excpect out of this, you still lost either way you look at it.

SORE LOSER SORE SOSER SORE LOSER SORE LOSER
I can sing this all day
SORE LOSER SORE LOSER SORE LOSER, he he he he he

Lisa Roberts, P.h.d.   January 14th, 2009 11:35 am ET

Isn't this the idiot from SNL who says "I'm Okay"….?

ulysses   January 14th, 2009 11:26 am ET

As messy as this all is, it's really important that the dusty nooks and crannies are seeing some daylight. This is how we find out what needs to be improved in our system. Minnesota has one of the best election systems of any state, but hopefully we've learned that there is still room for improvement. I believe a runoff election would be a better way to handle such a close contest between these two candidates, since 15% of the population didn't vote for either one of them. I also believe we need to have an official solution for how to seat somebody for the office while a protracted legal battle works its way through the courts. Should Coleman keep his seat until Franken officially beats him? Should Franken be seated until Coleman's court challenges are settled? Should the seat remain vacant? I don't know, but I do think it's an important question that deserves due process so the situation can be handled more smoothly in the future.

mike c   January 14th, 2009 11:25 am ET

No doubt if Coleman had won they would have already certified him. There ought to be someone appointed to serve during the legal challenges, how about Jesse the Body

Michael M, Phoenix AZ   January 14th, 2009 11:24 am ET

At the rate this is going, it may be resolved by the next election cycle in 6 years.

Steve in Las Vegas,NV   January 14th, 2009 11:18 am ET

Why does this remind me of the mess in FL in 2000?? At least there isn't a problem with chads!

Why are there any votes not counted?

What causes ANY vote to be rejected?

Any answers?

Linda Fleisher   January 14th, 2009 11:17 am ET

The people of the State of Minnesota should be outraged that the battle between Franken (the apparent winner) and Coleman for the US Senate seat continues to go on without any end in sight. Considering Franken's previous background in comedy, I'm sure he doesn't find any of this funny. I sincerely hope that he has the last laugh. Go Al!!!

John, Rochester MN   January 14th, 2009 11:16 am ET

Those dirty Democrats! They get an impartial recount to do in their favor, then they ask the court to finalize it and even back people that want their votes counted! What won't they stoop to?

Chris   January 14th, 2009 11:16 am ET

If only the Republicans were this concerned about making sure that "all election legal contests have been settled" for the 2000 Florida recount, then we would not be in the multitude of messes that we are today.

Rick   January 14th, 2009 11:07 am ET

The two biggest hoax's ever perpetuated on the American people:

1) Global warming
2) Al Franken's senate election "victory"

Gilbert   January 14th, 2009 11:06 am ET

I'm all for you Al but slow down and make sure you do it right, Sen Coleman will do anything to hold his job. Remember he is no better than Sen Lieberman who is also a traitor to the Democratic party so be ware.

Jeff in Illinois   January 14th, 2009 11:05 am ET

I was listening to Neocon radio the other day, (good to know what the Anti-Constitutionalists are thinking), and they couldn't stop whining about Al Franken "stealing the election" in Minnesota, just like Barack Obama "stole the election" for president. I wonder how pervasive the insanity of these Anti-American Cheney-lovers really is….

RR   January 14th, 2009 11:04 am ET

Politics is such a joke now with all the corruption, so send the comedian/talk radio partisan to the senate to confirm once and for all politics is a joke.

CA Indie for Obama   January 14th, 2009 11:03 am ET

The Gov and MN SC are correct in not signing since doing so would not be following the written law. Not conducting the recount would have been wrong since it would not be following MN law on mandatory recounts (under 1/2 of 1% for those die-hard neo-con republicans). just let the legal system as written in MN run its course (as it did in FL, repubs) and accept the final decision (as the dems did).

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