At the risk of blowing up a Kos counter thingy (I mean, version 45.0? You've got to be kidding!) and wearing out my welcome here (there couldn't possibly be MORE from Minnesota!) I thought I'd put up some pieces for your consideration.
On the Cliff for those of you wanting to hit & run:
Final: Franken +225, Officially. A Certified Count, just not a Certificate of Election.
Its now Senator-Elect Franken.
Coleman lost another round 5-0 in the MN Supreme CT. He has 7 days to file any further actions.
New Media beats Old Media again.
The Wall Street Journal's Editorial page could be sued to their walls and all the way down the street for libel. Bottom of cliff.
Come on along around the base of the cliff for you can see the end of the Recount from just under the fold......
UPDATE 1: Poster alswerangen in comments reports:
Coleman speaks at 3 (2+ / 0-)
The more I think about it, the more I think he'll concede. If he were going to sue, he would let his mouthpieces do the dirty work (as they should). Maybe he is going to announce that he will be running the RNC.
1) Legal Maneuvers
Word came late morning the MN Supreme court, signed by Alan Page, WITHOUT dissent (so AGAIN 5-0), DENIED the Coleman petition regarding the 125 duplicate/double counts AND the request to include the 654 cherry picked rightfully rejected absentee ballots. Again said the proper venue for this sort of objection is the established "election contest" (7 days to file, 3 judge panel, etc.)
That ruling lifted a cloud hanging and ignited several diaries (including I think 5 by front pager JedL) and even a 0.1 update with changed of title here for the WineRev-- it was that big a deal.
Still not over and Norm DOES have every legal right to pursue this path. If he feels strongly enough about it (and can afford it) he can and should pursue it. It sounds like his case would come down to 3 groups of votes:
The 133 that went missing in a Minneapolis precinct (although there is strong evidence the votes actually existed and the voters actually cast them, just not the physical ballots themselves.) This batch had F & C & other votes in it, and favored Franken over Coleman by +46. (See wingers, its NOT +133 for Franken (and so -133 if they are disallowed. Coleman would ALSO lose votes from this batch if they are disallowed) only 46.)
The 125-150 supposedly double-counted duplicate ballots (made from originals that would otherwise jam the voting machines). These are alleged to favor Franken by +100 or so. Franken attorney Elias said it best yesterday: "Its a theory in search of evidence." Courts LIKE facts and LOVE evidence.
The 654 rightly rejected absentee ballots (twice rejected, once on election day and again during the recount). These are Norm's cherries picked from piles 1-4 of lawfully rejected absentee ballots.
(Side note: Statewide about 12,000 absentee ballots (out of a record almost 300,000) were rejected for statutory reasons (piles 1-4) or mistakenly (pile 5). SoS Ritchie was heartbroken the number was so high. He choked up at a presser pointing out there were several dozen mailed from Baghdad from the troops that arrived the DAY AFTER the Election and therefore, with deep regret, were NOT counted. Thats the Law. Ouch.)
WineRev's Take: The 133 are IN. There is evidence of their existence and there is precedent to support using machine tapes for the votes in a case like this. No way Norm.
The 125-150 are OUT for lack of evidence. Subject to change what depositions and witnesses might testify to, but OUT for now.
The 654 are OUT. These are LAWFULLY rejected absentees. The address DOES NOT match, even allowing for including/excluding zip code; the name DOES NOT match. The ballots DID NOT ARRIVE IN TIME. The voter VOTED IN PERSON. Nope.
We'll know in the next 7 days whether Coleman will file or concede. DailyKossack underwhelm (a freq. poster in these diaries AND A LAWYER) does a treatment on these issues in his/her own diary here:http://www.dailykos.com/...
2) Certifiable Celebration
At approximately 2:37pm CT Secretary of State Mark Ritchie turned to the rest of the Canvassing Board and asked for a motion to receive the final tabulations in the race for United States Senate as compiled in a report by MN Chief Elections Officer Gary Poser. It was moved, seconded and put to a vote. Carried, 5-0. (I'm going to watch hockey with a weird energy when someone is leading 4-0 ("C'mon; just one more goal!") He passed down a certificate of the Count and everyone signed.
Franken: 1,212,431 votes
Coleman: 1.212,206 votes
Difference: Franken +225. And for now that is an OFFICIAL NUMBER.
The 4 judicial types on the Board finally got to speak publicly had high praise for Ritchie and election officials and for themselves. Magnuson called it historic but noted something this big always involved some squeaks and protests. Cleary said he felt they had counted every vote within "the confines of the law"-- which is a very judge-y thing to say. To me Judge Gearin faintly echoed Garrison Keeler's "women are strong, men good looking" shtick:
Ramsey County Chief District Judge Kathleen Gearin called the recount fascinating, occasionally frustrating and always exciting.
"If we have made any [mistakes] -- and we probably have -- our mistakes have been the mistakes of the warm-hearted, and the mistakes of the honest-hearted, and the mistakes of the good-hearted, just like the people of Minnesota," she said.
3) New Media
TheUptake was on the spot late morning when the story broke from the Supreme Court and put up the PDF within minutes.
Just after noon bloggers at the UpTake reported the Coleman Senate offices both in DC and in Minnesota were dark and locked. Phone calls were answered by a recording noting the office was closed and asking the caller call back later.
About 1:15pm a blogger reported the website "minnesotarecount" that had been put up by the National Republican Senatorial Committee the day after the election to watch for Democrats stealing the election had not been updated since NOV. 30....the last time any good news came in for Norm I guess.
At time mark 2:29 blogger Steph asked a GREAT question: "Anyone dying to watch a live Senate broadcast if Franken has to do a filibuster?" LOL! :-) :-D
Then McIntee, in his left-handed, liberal, progressive, pinko-commie way, slanted his in-the-tank coverage and turned on the cameras for the live feed from the Canvassing Board at 2:30pm. According to Jason over at the UpTake, by 2:36 they had 1200 viewers and were adding 1/second. At the signing CNN was in the house; not physically, just using the Uptake's feed. CNN!
By 3:30 the Wikipedia entry for Al Franken had been edited to say, "Junior Senator" and the Norm Coleman entry now reads "Former Senator."
The UpTake headed over to Franken's HOUSE in Minneapolis for a brief presser from ahem the SENATOR-ELECT. Chuck Olson got there first and began broadcasting (I TOLD YOU they were a shoestring operation and could use a few bucks) holding up his iPhone (YAY Apple!) and transmitting video. People said the pix were not bad but the sound was weak. Understandable since Chuck couldn't get any closer.
(What he really needs, geek engineers out there, is a new iPhone boom microphone that would extend out several feet (in a really cool, ergonomic, Apple kind of way) to pick up audio at events like this. Invent it and sell the rights to Apple. Call it maybe, iBoom! (Note to marketing dept.: iBoom is in-house working name; need better. iBoom sounds like an Apple Suicide Bomber Kit.)
Al gave a gracious "Statement on the Election Results", offered empathy to the Coleman family over the strain of the the past 62 days, thanked his staffers and supporters, said there is much to do, said he needed to get to work. Did not take questions. MN Publius has text here:http://mnpublius.com/...
Blogger Dave G. was disappointed in one thing: "Franken should have come out wearing a lizard mask."
4) Wither Norm?
Minnesota Independent rounds up hints Coleman may concede: http://minnesotaindependent.com/...
A blogger reported Norm is NOT all that popular among the Reich-wingers. You've read from time to time they call him/consider him a RINO. I hadn't realized how deep this was until someone posted a reminder from last spring. In McLeod County (WSW of Minneapolis, 2 counties over from Hennepin; Glencoe) the local Republicans refused to host a Coleman rally until he gave them assurances of his undying loyalty to...whatever their tripe is. "Refused to host a rally" for your own party's Senator in your own county....that is a rather serious turn-down among a bunch that prizes lock-steppery above all things.....Whew.
5) Stupid Rethuglicans on Display
As word spread about the MN Supreme Court denying Coleman's last gasp before the Canvassing Board Certification of Count today, the IN THE TANK Wall Street Journal, the Joined-at-the-Hip to corrupt Republicans everywhere mouthpiece got off a meretricious editorial on the MN Senate race.
The opening paragraph reeks like the armpit of a defensive end in the 4th quarter:
Thanks to the machinations of Democratic Secretary of State Mark Ritchie and a meek state Canvassing Board, Mr. Franken may emerge as an illegitimate victory
And they LIE, as in BEAR FALSE WITNESS AGAINST THEIR NEIGHBOR, prevaricate, dissemble, as in actionable, LIBEL, KNOWINGLY PROPAGATING AND FOSTERING A STATEMENT KNOWN TO BE FALSE, CAUSING HARM TO REPUTATION when they print (regarding the famous "5th pile" improperly rejected absentee ballots):
Counties were supposed to review their absentees and create a list of those they believed were mistakenly rejected. Many Franken-leaning counties did so, submitting 1,350 ballots to include in the results. But many Coleman-leaning counties have yet to complete a re-examination.
That last sentence is utterly, totally, transparently, known of common knowledge, completely, deliberately, and maliciously FALSE! (WineRev whips off hat and flings (FLINGS!) it on the floor!)
If you want to know what Franken Team lawyers Mark Elias, David Lillehaug and William Pentelvitch might be doing for an encore once Al is sworn in and any election contests are finished, well here would be something to SUE their ASSES off about! And for sheer sweet justice, bring along Fritz Knaak and Tony Trimble.......after a downer like working for Coleman they deserve a better day and they could CLEAN UP.
Bless his heart the Holy Odin of Numbers, Nate Silver, refused to "endure the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune and took up arms against this (fetid and festering) sea of troubles" and refuted it line by line here at his blog:http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/
6) Odds & Ends
>Echoes of NY Sen. Chuck Shumer's shot continued to echo. Chuck thinks Al should be seated ASAP and doesn't seem to care what Cornyn, McConnell or even Harry Reid thinks about it. CQ Politics on the Hill reports some movement to get Franken into the Senate:http://www.cqpolitics.com/...
>What is Secretary of State Mark Ritchie going to do now that his part is (presumably) over? He wants to REFORM some of MN election laws to make them better and wants to capitalize on the publicity from the recount to push it through the legislature this year! (Man, this guy MEANS IT.) He's planning a statewide tour-- starting NEXT WEEK--- to meet with county and local election officials for 2 things: a) to listen to them and ask them how to improve elections in MN; b) to thank as many of them in person as he can for all their work in 2008 and on the Recount. Great story in the Minnesota Post here: http://www.minnpost.com/...
>Do you know what democracy, transparency and open, honest dialogue can do? Some people still say (BLEEEH) blogging is a sort of keyboard masturbation, and a way to hook up anonymously with like minded folk. Oh yeah? Consider this testimonial from a poster over at TheUptake just at the end of yesterday's events (4:55 time mark):
My final thoughts are this- I was Republican until 2003, and a Libertarian until this weekend. After seeing what happened to the economy, I realize that Libertarianism isn't the answer. As of today, I declare myself to be a Democrat, for the first time in my life. The openness on this site actually helped convince me a little too. Thanx.
Tuesday Morning Media
3 LTEs in the Star Trib today. 1 from Fairibault (south of town) is a Reich-wing rant about Democrats stealing the senate election and thereby destroying the country (so the RNC memos are still circulating.) 1 from S suburb Bloomington recalling Norm's election morning-after presser when he called on Franken to give it up and now calls on Norm to give it up and get out of the way (so OUR memo is still circulating.) 1 from Minneapolis that is a bit odd but ALMOST could be called "fair & balanced" (in a "pox on both your houses" sort of way) but I rather like it:
Franken will fit right in at the D.C. circus
Regarding our Senate election, Minnesotans should say to the nation: "We are replacing a clown with a man who had the imagination and wisdom to clown."
And the Star Trib's story (in the on-line version) this morning so far had generated 805(!) on-line comments! Wow! That's approaching DailyKos levels when there's a pie fight. 805!
Back to the wine shop on the early shift today so thanks for reading. Thats the latest from yust southeast of Lake Wobegon.
Shalom.