It’s right there in the first paragraph of the motion (emphasis mine):
Norm Coleman and Coleman for Senate ‘08 (“Plaintiffs”) requests that this Court grant an emergency injunction preventing Cynthia Reichert (“Defendant”), as well as any other election officials in the State of Minnesota, or other persons, from unsealing, opening and/or tallying any absentee ballot envelopes or any other ballot, including but not limited to spoiled and rejected ballots, that were not included in ballot boxes sealed on Tuesday, November 4, 2008 (“Election Day”) or included in the ballots tallied and sealed at the precinct polling locations.
Distilling that to its core: The Coleman campaign requested that the court prohibit the counting of any ballot not sealed in a ballot box by midnight on Tuesday. As someone who is familiar with Minnesota election law told me, the scope of this requested relief is “breathtaking.”
Now, many of you may be thinking: that would freeze Coleman’s lead at the original unofficial tally of up by 735. That’s correct, but the implications are even more frightening. The results on the SoS website are unofficial, the official reporting occurs at the county canvasing boards in a formal process dictated by Minnesota law. These boards meet after the election (obviously) and Hennepin County’s meeting hasn’t even occurred yet, it’s tomorrow. Coleman’s request actually contravenes Minnesota election law. It’s unknown how many votes weren’t officially in ballot boxes by midnight on election night, but given the long lines at polling places and the complexity of the process, it could be hundreds, if not thousands of votes.
Fortunately the motion was quickly tossed, probably in no small part due to the absurdity of the request, but the motion begs a larger question. How far is Norm Coleman willing to go in undermining democracy to win this election? And why is Norm Coleman afraid of every properly cast ballot being counted?
“How far is Norm Coleman willing to go in undermining democracy to win this election? And why is Norm Coleman afraid of every properly cast ballot being counted?”
1) As far as necessary.
2) Desperation. They are probably seeing that Franken has an apparent advantage in this recount.
This is shocking, however, and very odd that it hasn’t been reported in the MSM. I’m no lawyer, but my guess would be that if the court had ruled in Coleman’s favor, it would’ve been shot down on appeal.
Coleman is a crook in my estimation.
There’s more to this than just elections.
I suspect he thinks that as a seated senator he will be more prosecution-proof than as a private citizen.
Undermining DEMOCRACY…
In a different era might have been called something else.
For someone going to law school, you’d think Matt would know how to read court documents.
Ha! Michael, please, let’s you and I get into a discussion of what these court documents say. I know Ron Carey and Norm Coleman probably told you what they want you to think they mean, but if you’d like me to tell you what they actually say, you only have to ask.