election certificate

She wants to make it so a drawn-out election dispute like the one between Al Franken and Norm Coleman never robs Minnesota of congressional representation again. So state Rep. Phyllis Kahn is vowing to revive a bill to require provisional election certificates be issued to candidates who hold the lead in votes while courts hear [...]

Al Franken’s election certificate was signed by Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Secretary of State Mark Ritchie early Tuesday evening, only hours after the state’s high court turned down Norm Coleman’s appeal of Franken’s win.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty says he will sign the election certificate declaring Al Franken the winner of the 2008 race for the U.S. Senate. “I will be signing the election certificate today as directed by the court and applicable law,” said Pawlenty.

As Stuart Smalley would say, he’s good enough, he’s smart enough, but doggone it the Minnesota Supreme Court has refused Al Franken’s request that it order officials to issue him an election certificate (pdf). 

File this under “It Can’t Hurt to Ask”: Al Franken’s lawyers plan to request Friday that judges dismiss Norm Coleman’s lawsuit contesting the Minnesota U.S. Senate election recount that put Franken up by 225 votes.

Without a new state law requiring a provisional election certificate in cases like Al Franken’s, Minnesota could be without its second U.S. senator for four to five months. That’s the opinion of Hamline University School of Law professor David Schultz, who advised state Rep. Phyllis Kahn on her bill that would seat Franken temporarily until former U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman’s current election contest trial is resolved.

Al Franken is asking the Minnesota Supreme Court to order Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Secretary of State Mark Ritchie to issue a signed certificate for Franken’s election to the U.S. Senate. Franken contends that one part of Minnesota law requiring a certificate to be issued trumps another that Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Secretary of State Mark Ritchie cited in turning down direct requests from Franken yesterday, pending former U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman’s lawsuit.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty refused to grant a request from the Al Franken campaign to issue an election certificate for the contested U.S. Senate seat held until recently by U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman.
“I have a duty to follow state law and our statutes are clear on this issue,” Pawlenty said in a statement his office released [...]