State Canvassing Board Rejects Franken’s 11th Hour Bid
Tuesday, November 18th, 2008According to this Strib article, the 5-member state canvassing board will reject Al Franken’s 11th hour gimmick and certify Norm Coleman the winner of the US Senate election. This isn’t what Franken wanted by any means. At 1pm this afternoon, Minnesota SecState Mark Ritchie will certify Norm Coleman the winner for a second time. It also means that Al Franken, if he’s to get more ballots included, will have to win a court fight to get those ballots included. Here’s what the STrib is reporting:
DFLer Al Franken asked Monday to have rejected absentee ballots be considered in the U.S. Senate election results that are to be certified today by a state board, a move later blunted by an attorney general’s opinion that the issue should be left to the courts.
The eleventh-hour maneuvering occurred as the five-member state Canvassing Board prepared to meet at 1 p.m. today in St. Paul to review results showing Republican Sen. Norm Coleman with a lead of 215 votes out of more than 2.9 million cast.
That margin includes the canvassed results submitted by Minnesota’s 87 counties, plus an additional nine votes in Coleman’s favor that emerged from a post-election audit conducted in a sampling of about 200 precincts to check the accuracy of voting machines.
Franken faced an uphill fight before this. (more…)