Minnesota Independent

Senator Al: State Supreme Court rules Franken won Senate race

By Paul Demko | 06.30.09 | 2:50 pm

Minnesota’s interminable U.S. Senate race may finally be over. More than seven months after election day, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled today that Democrat Al Franken prevailed by 312 votes over Republican Norm Coleman. Franken will almost certainly now become Minnesota’s junior senator. The court, however, did not explicitly order Gov. Tim Pawlenty to sign an election certificate.

SCOTUS also-rans carried more campaign-donor baggage

By Chris Steller | 05.28.09 | 11:31 am

Barack Obama’s White House would rather not fight or switch when it comes to making nominations to the U.S. Supreme Court. So it wouldn’t be surprising if Sonia Sotomayor’s clean slate on political campaign contributions weighed in…

Franken calls on state Supreme Court to order issuance of election certificate

By Paul Demko | 05.11.09 | 5:41 pm

Al Franken won the U.S. Senate contest fair and square. That’s the gist of the Democrat’s 53-page brief filed Monday with the Minnesota Supreme Court. Franken wants the state’s highest court to affirm the ruling by a three-judge panel that he won the U.S. Senate contest by 312 votes and order that he be issued an election certificate immediately.

Coleman files appeal with state Supreme Court, cites ‘disparities’ in ballot tally

By Paul Demko | 04.30.09 | 4:28 pm

Norm Coleman filed his appeal of the U.S. Senate election contest with the Minnesota Supreme Court today, citing “deliberate and disparate treatment” of absentee ballots.

Justices Magnuson and Anderson will not hear Senate contest appeal

By Paul Demko | 04.08.09 | 12:20 pm

Minnesota Supreme Court justices Eric Magnuson and G. Barry Anderson will recuse themselves from any appeal in the U.S. Senate contest. The two justices were part of the five-member canvassing board that oversaw the statewide manual recount and determined that Al Franken won the contest by 225 votes. Because of this conflict, Magnuson (pictured) and Anderson have removed themselves from previous hearings before the state’s top court. John Kostouros, the court’s communications director, confirms that they are expected to withdraw from any proceedings going forward.

Franken makes case to be seated before Supreme Court

By Paul Demko | 02.05.09 | 12:38 pm

Al Franken should be allowed to serve in the U.S. Senate while a legal contest over the results of the election is heard in state court. That was, in essence, the argument made by Franken’s lawyer in a hearing before the Minnesota Supreme Court this morning.

Franken deemed winner of Senate recount, but Coleman will contest in court

By Paul Demko | 01.05.09 | 5:25 pm

Al Franken has emerged from the Senate recount with a 225-vote lead over incumbent Norm Coleman. The five-member State Canvassing Board unanimously certified the results at a hearing Monday afternoon. Nearly two months after the election, and following a painstaking statewide manual recount of nearly three million ballots, Franken received 1,212,431 votes, while Coleman earned 1,212,206.

Can we please give the Senate seat to the ‘Crazy McCain Lady’?

By Paul Demko | 01.01.09 | 7:00 am

Thanks for the memories. Now please go away. Yes, we’re talking about you, Rudy Giuliani. And you, Wolf Blitzer. We no longer wish to be a swing state. Henceforth the residents of the state of Minnesota promise to vote reliably Democratic. Or Republican. It doesn’t much matter which — just as long as you people promise to stop showing up in our little slice of the frozen tundra seeking to feel our pain. But to memorialize the horrors visited upon us during the (still ongoing) campaign season, we offer — in honor of our favorite member of the Statewide General Election Canvassing Board — the G. Barry Anderson Awards.

Supes ’n’ Dupes: Minnesota Supreme Court grills recount rivals on duplicate ballots

By Chris Steller | 12.23.08 | 5:13 pm

The Minnesota Supreme Court was visited by ghosts of Last Week Past on Tuesday afternoon as the two sides in the statewide Senate recount paid their second visit in five days. Attorneys for Democrat Al Franken and Republican U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman who debated last Friday about wrongly rejected absentee ballots argued over different issue today: the Coleman camp’s request to stop the recount to determine whether votes on ballots that were damaged and then duplicated for counting purposes on Election Day were counted twice during the recount.

Who’s on first? With recount’s Andersons and Magnusons, it’s ‘Who’s on the bench?’

By Chris Steller | 12.23.08 | 1:11 pm

You can’t tell the players in the Minnesota Senate recount drama with a scorecard — even a Politico blog that’s called The Scoreboard misattributed a quote (since corrected) on Monday from Marc Elias, a lawyer for Al Franken, as coming from Fritz Knaak, U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman’s recount attorney. Minnesota media mostly keep those two straight, but even locals find the profusion of Scandinavian surnames in the various recount venues vexing. More including the Anderson Effect and a Sven-and-Ole routine, after the jump.