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...Coleman's attorneys claim the ruling violated the equal-protections clause of the U.S. Constitution. "The court has given him very narrow opportunity for establishing proof or establishing evidence as to what ballots are going be counted," notes David Schultz, a professor at Hamline University and the University of Minnesota who is an expert in election law. "It still leaves the court with what looks like an inconsistency. But that may be an issue for an appeal." If the loser appeals to Minnesota's Supreme Court, Schultz adds, the state may have only one Senator until mid-July...
Nevertheless, election experts say no legal precedent or basis exists for a re-vote in Minnesota law. (A re-vote was conducted in a 1974 New Hampshire U.S. Senate race, but the margin was just two votes.) Besides, as the state retrenches in the face of a $4.5 billion deficit, another election would be costly. Secretary of state Ritchie, a Democrat, says it would cost the state between $3.5 million and $5 million. "It's pure fantasy, pure baloney," he says...
...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 in the Senate...
...electoral circus. "Let Coleman and [Franken] take a nice gold coin and flip it in the air," he says. "I don't know why they are monkeying around. They're never going to find out all the correct ballots." That may seem like an absurd idea. But in fact, Minnesota law provides that the state could resort to a coin flip if both candidates are tied. That happened in a 2008 race for mayor of Goodridge, a northern town here with a population of 98, after each candidate received 22 votes. At this point, it's an option Minnesotans would...
Read "Franken vs. Coleman: Still Counting in Minnesota...