Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Legal News Blogs -> JURIST - The Paper Chase

Legal News

: JURIST - The Paper Chase

Minnesota court declares Franken winner of US Senate race

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] A three-judge panel for the Minnesota State Court for the Second District on Monday declared  Al Franken the winner of the state's 2008 US Senate race over opponent Norm Coleman. Both candidates had brought claims before the court over absentee ballots in their favor that they said were legally cast but wrongfully rejected. The court held that an April 7 order giving Franken 1,212,629 votes and Coleman 1,212,317 votes entitled Franked to be certified as the winner, and dismissed claims by Coleman that the count either included votes which had been counted twice, or should have included votes cast in his favor which still would not have given him more votes than Franken. Franken celebrated the court's finding, and asked Coleman to accept the ruling and allow Franken to begin serving in the US Senate. A spokesperson for Coleman said he would challenge the order  in the Minnesota State Supreme Court, and that he may even pursue the case to the US Supreme Court. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) currently serves as the sole senator of Minnesota.  Prior to the court order, a mandatory manual recount concluded in January similarly showed that Franken had won the election by 225 votes.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on April 14, 2009 (boomark / email).