Coleman Lawsuit: It's On Like Donkey Kong

Citing the gross inconsistencies in how Coleman and Franken ballots were treated, with Franken always getting the double-benefit of the double-standard, Coleman's suing.

I had worried he'd give in like a good little Republican. So far he's not going out like a punk.

Coleman, whose term expired Saturday, led Franken by 215 votes in the Nov. 4 count but that advantage flipped during a prolonged recount. Coleman's lawyers say recount inconsistencies and election irregularities should be reviewed by a special three-judge panel.

In going to court, Coleman has three big challenges: raising money to pay escalating legal bills, proving the election was flawed and managing the public's desire to have the race over.

And while Coleman is filing the lawsuit, Franken will also have a chance to try to scrounge up additional votes. Both sides will have options they didn't have during the recount, such as accessing voter rolls, inspecting machines and introducing testimony from election workers.

Coleman's filing includes some of the points his lawyers have been making for weeks. It centers mainly around claims that hundreds of rejected absentee ballots from Republican-leaning areas should have been part of the recount, that some ballots in Democratic territory were counted twice and that election officials were wrong to use machine tallies for a Minneapolis precinct where ballots went missing.

But there are new angles, too.

The lawsuit alleges that the Canvassing Board made mistakes when determining voter intent on challenged ballots, that ineligible voters cast ballots and that some absentee ballots were erroneously opened early, raising chain-of-custody concerns.

The lawsuit doesn't spell out how many votes Coleman hopes to gain.

A race that was a couple of years in the making—Franken announced his campaign in February 2007—is now two months past Election Day.

posted by Ace at 05:22 PM

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