William Pentelovitch

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.

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.