recount

Nearly seven months after election day, Minnesota’s unresolved Senate race sees another milestone today — and a chance to move closer to filling the state’s second seat. The state Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Norm Coleman’s bid to overturn a trial court’s ruling that Al Franken won the U.S. Senate election by a [...]

Unlike Norm Coleman, the Republican incumbent in Minnesota’s last great recount did not appeal to the state Supreme Court. Gov. Elmer L. Andersen faced, as Coleman has, a ruling by a specially empaneled court that his Democratic rival (Karl Rolvaag) had won more votes. But Andersen decided not to continue the legal battle. His full statement of [...]

The danger of paper cuts was greater than the chance that Al Franken would lose his 225-vote lead to Norm Coleman today as Minnesota officials ripped open 351 more ballots from last year’s U.S. senate race in front of the state’s election-contest court. Franken increased his lead by 87 votes. “I think we are done,” said Franken attorney Marc Elias afterward.

Deputy Secretary of State Jim Gelbmann says he has no regrets about voting for Independence Party candidate Dean Barkley over Al Franken. But his ticket-splitting raises the question of what role DFL voters played in setting the stage for Minnesota’s recount drama. Political observers say Democrats who didn’t vote for Franken don’t have to take the blame. As one observer put it, “party loyalty isn’t what it used to be.”

They’re wearing riot gear in London and they’re talking recounts in New York. It’s all so St. Paul, last fall.

Here’s a 16-minute video recap of Minnesota’s five-month slog (so far) to elect a new U.S. senator. It’s the work of those stalwart Franken-Coleman multimedia chroniclers at The UpTake.

The Federal Election Commission didn’t tell Al Franken what he wanted to hear about setting up his own fund to cover election-contest legal costs. Franken’s legal rhetoric about “no end in sight” didn’t hurt his case, a commissioner tells MnIndy, but the specter of future recounts did.

Thursday’s statement by Norm Coleman attorney Joe Friedberg has generated plenty of interest at local blogs and national news sites alike, mainly for his opinion that it’s “probably correct” that Al Franken will come out on top when the three-judge panel hearing Coleman’s Senate election contest rules. USA Today responded by asking, ““When can we [...]

Norm Coleman told donors who are worried about the leak of personal and financial data from his campaign Web site to cancel their credit cards and call him with questions. A Coleman contributor in Atlanta who did just that — shelling out $16 for an expedited replacement card — tells the Minnesota Independent that no one answers the phone at the number Coleman gave.

As recently as last year, Norm Coleman promised campaign donors his Web site would not store their credit card numbers. That was then. The Coleman Web site’s “Privacy Policy” now promises only to encrypt contributors’ data “during the transfer process.” The old policy — or even a sensible system of encrypting data and storing it away [...]