Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Eric Magnuson will recuse himself from participating in Norm Coleman’s legal contest of the U.S. Senate race, according to John Kostouros, Communications Director for the state’s Court Information Office. Under Minnesota law, the Chief…
Had state Sen. Kathy Sheran’s bill to reform absentee voting dodged Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s veto pen last year, it might have spared Minnesota at least some of the agony of the current statewide recount. Sheran has denied foreknowledge that the outcome of Minnesota’s U.S. Senate race this year would hang on absentee ballots. Now she tells the Minnesota Independent that her reform effort also wasn’t inspired by a recount involving a contested absentee ballot in her first race 24 years ago. That story is told in government meeting minutes that are — amazingly — available online going back more than 50 years at the City of Mankato Web site. But proximity to the state’s most dramatic recounts seems to run in the family for Sheran, whose father was a longtime justice on the state Supreme Court.
The Minnesota Supreme Court will not wade into the murky issue of allegedly double-counted ballots in the U.S. Senate contest. Sen. Norm Coleman’s campaign believes that in some instances both duplicate and original ballots were mistakenly included in the manual recount. It had asked the state’s top court to enjoin the canvassing board from certifying any election results until the issue is resolved.
Sen. Norm Coleman’s campaign argued this morning that the state canvassing board should reconsider decisions on at least 16 ballots that it believes were awarded to the wrong candidate in the U.S. Senate contest. The five-member panel agreed to examine the ballots in question, but ultimately decided that their initial determinations on the vote allocations would stand.
Shortly after the state canvassing board reconvened this morning, Al Franken moved into the lead for the first time during the U.S. Senate recount. The Democrat’s lead grew to more than 250 votes by the time the five-member panel broke for lunch and It is expected to continue increasing throughout the day.
A divided Minnesota Supreme Court ruled today that wrongly rejected absentee ballots should be counted in the U.S. Senate race. But the process ordered by the three-justice majority mandates that both campaigns must agree that a ballot was improperly invalidated if it is to be included in the final tally. The opinion was authored by Helen Meyer, with fellow justices Lorie Skjerven Gildea and Christopher Dietzen joining her in the majority. Justices Alan Page and Paul Anderson wrote strongly worded dissents, arguing that the ruling is inconsistent and inadequate for ensuring that every properly cast vote is counted.
The U.S. Senate contest turned to the Minnesota Supreme Court this afternoon. At stake was whether improperly rejected absentee ballots (thought to number roughly 1,500) will ultimately be included in the recount. The Coleman campaign is seeking a temporary restraining order to stop local election officials from counting such ballots. It’s uncertain when the court will issue a ruling.
Minnesota Supreme Court justices Eric Magnuson and G. Barry Anderson will not participate in a case involving the U.S. Senate race currently before the state’s top court. The last sentence of an order issued yesterday by the Supreme Court subtly announced this decision: “Magnuson, C.J., and Anderson, G. Barry, J., took no part in the consideration or decision of this matter.”
The biggest gaffe of the local campaign season? Against stiff competition from Michele Bachmann, it may have been Deborah Hedlund hitting “reply all” as the candidate for the Minnesota Supreme Court responded last month to an email with the provocative title, “Can Muslims Be Good Americans?”
Hedlund has been no stranger to controversy in her tenure on the bench. Let’s review.
Tim Tingelstad’s challenge to current Supreme Court Justice Paul Anderson has flown under the radar in a year in which contentious presidential and congressional races in Minnesota have captured mainstream attention. Declaring that “judges must be God-fearing men and women,” Tingelstad is running a quiet campaign to bring radical Christianity to Minnesota’s Supreme Court.
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