Minnesota Recount Trial: Another Episode

Back in early December, 2008, I started a post, “It’s Coleman! No, It’s Franken. No, Wait…” as follows: “As you may remember, a long, long time ago, when only a few votes separated the two candidates after the regular election…”

That “long time ago” was early November 2008, when what was to be a simple election for the next U.S. Senator from Minnesota turned into a seemingly never-ending sequence of bad calls, premature calls, close calls, miscalls; and recounts, re-recounts, protests, and challenges; and rulings and further challenges, and further rulings ending up in a still ongoing three-judge panel trial in St. Paul, Minn.

Well, the never-ending drama—and one that has been on our TV screens for almost as long as “As The World Turns”—continues to turn and churn.

Today, the Minnesota Star Tribune, in “Recount trial: Coleman dealt blow, but no knockout,” reports:

Dealing a blow but not a knockout to Republican Norm Coleman’s hopes, the judges in the U.S. Senate election trial on Friday tossed out most of the 19 categories of rejected absentee ballots they were considering for a second look, making it clear that they won’t open and count any ballots that don’t comply with state law.

And,

On its face, the ruling looked to be a victory for DFLer Al Franken, whose lawyers had urged the judges to turn down 17 of the 19 categories and said Friday that they had very nearly done it.

But, not so fast:

…Coleman’s attorneys saw it differently, saying that the ruling leaves untouched about 3,500 of the 4,800 rejected absentee ballots they want the court to open and count, enough to make it possible for Coleman to overcome Franken’s 225-vote certified recount lead.

And on Monday, just like the famous soap opera will resume, and churn, so will the testimony resume at the Minnesota Judicial Center in St. Paul, Minn.

I won’t be watching either one.