The Norm Coleman legal strategy unfolds

January 9, 9:55 AMSouth St. Paul ExaminerRob Shirk

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U.S. Supreme Court building

Where is Norm Coleman going with this lawsuit? He must feel he has a better than even chance of regaining (retaining?) his senate seat, once the courts hear his case. He must, right?

There are several ways that the Landslide Norm Coleman campaign will take. One avenue they probably will want to explore is the so-called "cherry picked" absentee ballots. The standards for accepting or rejecting absentee ballots are up for debate for either candidate and some have predicted that a lawsuit could also make use of issues that so far have received little or no attention.

It is highly probable that Landslide Norm Coleman wants to "cherry pick" 650 absentee ballots that were never counted to now be counted, even though they were previously rejected. Twice. There was a total of 12,000 absentee ballots - out of about 300,000 cast - that were rejected for all sorts of reasons.

This is painfully reminiscent of the "Sore Loserman" strategy leveled at the Al Gore campaign of of recounting ballots only in three heavily democratic counties around Miami in the 2000 Presidential Florida recount. It is now a role reversal.

I think one way or another, those ballots will be counted - Coleman recount lawyer Fritz Knaak

The absentee ballots were essentially separated into five piles. Pile five was the pile where local officials determined they should have been counted. In Pile Five, the two campaigns again challenged 419 ballots. Then Landslide Norm Coleman went searching in the other four piles and said let's count these other 600 plus ballots. This is “Palm Beach/Broward County” all over again. The Republicans may want to do a handshake with Landslide Al Franken to count all absentee ballots regardless of rejection reasons to see what the totals are. That is essentially the spirit of the argument made by the Bush Campaign in 2000. Count them all or do not count any of them. It's déjà vu all over again.

There are 12,000 rejected ballots. There’s hundreds that came in one day late, some from soldiers in Baghdad and Kuwait. They break my heart. But by law, they were rejected - Secretary of State Mark Richie

An affidavit from a Hennepin County (Minneapolis) election official shows the Landslide Norm Coleman campaign has not supplied reasons to look at these 650 ballots, and election officials in multiple counties, including Ramsey county, Pipestone County and others all say they’ve been taking the time to review the Landslide Coleman list, and they stand by their decisions.

The election contest (lawsuit) will be heard in Ramsey County by a three-judge panel assigned by Judge Alan Page, the next ranking justice to the chief justice.  Chief Justice Eric Magnuson, a Gov. Tim Pawlenty(R) appointee, has recused himself as he sat on the State Canvassing Board. The "contest" would have to begin within three weeks after filing, and there would be another 15 days to appeal its decision. Fred Morrison, a University of Minnesota professor of constitutional law, said Landslide Norm Coleman's absentee ballot claim could become the basis for a bid to the U.S. Supreme Court that inconsistent treatment of ballots from county to county violated the U.S. Constitution's Equal Protection Clause.

Oh, boy. Minnesota might be headed down the road to the U.S. Supreme Court! It will give the citizens of Minnesota the time to practice saying "Senator Landslide Al Franken".

Next...the double counted ballot question.

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