Word: franken
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...signs are that it's got even further to go. On Friday, Minnesota's highest court refused Franken's request that Governor Tim Pawlenty and secretary of state Mark Ritchie be forced to award him the coveted election certificate, which, according to Senate rules, is necessary to seat a candidate. The ruling virtually ensures that the legal wrangling will continue for several more weeks and - if Coleman chooses to appeal the case, possibly to federal courts - perhaps even months...
After Minnesota's canvassing board certified Franken the winner of the state's protracted race by 225 votes in early January, Coleman filed an election contest on grounds that flaws in the state's election system were so widespread that they cost him the Senate seat. In the weeks that followed, Coleman's legal counsel has subpoenaed dozens of Minnesota voters and election officials to testify before a three-judge panel about irregularities in the state's vote-tallying process...
Tellingly, both sides appear to be girding for more legal battles. Franken attorney Marc Elias recently sent a letter to the Federal Election Commission requesting an expedited advisory opinion about whether the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee can set up two recount funds on Franken's behalf; Coleman's campaign says it agrees with the request. Meanwhile, dozens of GOP leaders solicited donations for Coleman's recount fund via YouTube in late February...
...Franken's counsel thought otherwise. On Friday, the panel heard arguments about a request from Franken to dismiss the case altogether because, they argued, Coleman failed to prove that there were enough improperly rejected ballots to close Franken's 225-vote margin. The court is expected to rule on that motion soon. In the meantime, Franken's team has been trying to prove that flaws in the state's election system were the exception, not the rule. He is also attempting to get about 800 absentee ballots tossed into the final tally, most of which are from counties...
That only fuels the suspicion, voiced by Franken, that the GOP wants to drag out Coleman's legal battle as long as it can to delay the Democrats from gaining another vote in the Senate, which would bring them even closer to a filibuster-proof 60-vote majority. "They're willing to let Minnesota have one Senator in order to delay my getting there," Franken recently told the Associated Press. For his part, Coleman has said he is "not in this to prolong it" but "to get it right" - though his decision to attend meetings with his former GOP colleagues...