Tense moments in Minnesota Senate recount, Candidate tries to halt Minnesota recount

[sce56]

Source: CNN



ST. PAUL, Minnesota (CNN) -- One of the last remaining steps in Minnesota's U.S. Senate race recount was temporarily halted Saturday morning when attorneys with Republican incumbent Norm Coleman's campaign attempted to stop the counting of about 950 improperly rejected absentee ballots. The state's Supreme Court had ordered that rejected absentee ballots be counted if local officials and each campaign could agree that the selected ballots were rejected mistakenly. Local officials identified 1,350 such ballots. The Franken campaign wanted to count those and leave it at that, but the Coleman camp took issue with hundreds of them and sought to add about 650 more.

Since the Franken campaign would not agree to these ballots, the Coleman campaign sought the intervention of the state's high court. The court is considering the request but has not set a hearing at this point, and it is still unclear whether it will. At the start of a meeting Saturday as the secretary of state's office counted the 950 rejected ballots, Coleman attorney Tony Trimble asked Deputy Secretary of State Jim Gelbmann to cease any counting. After about an hour recess to consult the state attorney general's office, Gelbmann returned, saying the decision was to "not slow down this process today, get the counting under way. ... We are relying on the oral advice of the attorney general." He cut Trimble off when he attempted to respond, but Trimble said, "This is a public meeting, and I'm going to have my say." Gelbmann gave him two minutes, and Trimble said that he objects but that the Coleman camp will reluctantly abide by the decision. The Coleman campaign has maintained that there has been no uniform standard in reviewing and counting rejected absentee ballots.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/03/minnesota.senate.recount/index.html

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Coleman tries to stop the vote counting!


GOP Sen. Norm Coleman, left, and Democrat Al Franken are in a battle for a Minnesota Senate seat.
Coleman trails Democrat Al Franken by about 50 votes.

[JI7]

1. i HATE Coleman , i will be almost as happy as the PResidential win with Franken's win

and getting rid of scumbag Coleman

[EFerrari]

2. Kick his @ss, Al.

:kick:

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. Gee...that sounds familiar....Florida comes to mind.

Repugs sure got their election stealing rule book down.

[HopeHoops]

4. Do you have to have an "Asshole Certificate" to run as a Republican? Good GRIEF!

[peacetalksforall]

5. Norm should call Katherine, Jeb, and the Miami-Dade-Washington, DC door pounders

for some last minute help.

If anyone wants to know who the Miami-Dade-Washington DC door pounders are, just ask - I'd like to rant for about an hour or so. One of the Republicans cheating and hypocritical moments - a very important one for them - a grand success for the cheats of identity and interference. CHEATS!!!!!

[grantcart]

6. So that's why we had to wait - absentee ballot count over - Franken wins by 223

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8054343

[Garbo 2004]

7. Apparently Franken now leads by 225. Link to theuptake.org:

http://theuptake.org/

[totodeinhere]

8. This is great news. It looks like it's over for Coleman.

Good riddance to him.

[stillcool]

9. Hey..it worked before..

next stop Supreme Court?

[underpants]

10. So an attorney for a campaign cuts off an elected state official?

Sounds like a mine disaster in Utah

[Peregrine Took]

11. Ever notice Coleman looks like an alien? Hmmmmm......

[sce56]

12. Humm does he have a straight pinkie finger?

[Roy]

13. You mean these guys were not available?