Just a few items.  The only fight left before certification is the one over the absentee ballots which may have been wrongfully rejected.  As discussed earlier, the Minnesota Supreme Court issued an odd order mandating that both campaigns must agree on the ballots to be recounted.  There are 1,346 absentee ballots which local officials have determined were improperly rejected.  Franken wants all of them counted.  Coleman, well, I’m not clear on what Coleman wants exactly, except that he doesn’t want certain of the identified ballots opened, and he has introduced more ballots from districts which favor him.  It’s all explained, sort of, here.  Since it’s unlikely that the campaigns will reach any agreement, further court action seems inevitable even before the certification.

An item of rich irony – among the absentee ballots Coleman opposes is one cast by an elections judge.  The basis is that the date next to her signature and the date next to her witness do not match.  She insists that they do and that she and her witness were well aware of the law when they signed the envelope.  The irony?  She says her vote was for Coleman.  Will he withdraw his challenge?  Probably not, as it would undermine the remainder of his challenges.

Coleman is now accusing election officials of bias.

The Republicans are threatening to fight the seating of Franken should he be certified the winner.  Not sure what they can do with at most 41 votes even if they have a legal basis.

Coleman’s hope is to keep close enough after the rejected absentee count in order to get a reversal on the court’s rejection of his duplicate vote argument and hope that makes the difference.  It’s a slim hope, but he’s pulling out the stops.

About these ads