MSC: Canvassing Board Won't Count Alleged Duplicate Ballots

The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled earlier today that the state Canvassing Board can't be forced to count alleged duplicate ballots for Al Franken. Republican incumbent Senator Norm Coleman's campaign wanted this done rather than having a court hearing.

Senator Norm Coleman's campaign believes that some votes in Franken strongholds were counted twice for the former Air America and Saturday Night Live alumnus. He took his case to the Minnesota Supreme Court and they denied his request today. The Court believes that the dispute would be better resolved in a court hearing where evidence from both campaigns can be presented. The disputed ballots can be counted for now. The Coleman campaign believes that between 130-150 ballots were counted twice for Franken. The Minneapolis-St. Paul StarTribune.com reports on another development in the Coleman-Franken fiasco: ''The state high court gave local elections officials and the Coleman and Franken campaigns more time to identify improperly rejected absentee ballots in the U.S. Senate race and send them to the state for counting.'' The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that local election officials have until January 2 to deliver the unopened and uncounted absentee ballots to the Secretary of State's office. They have until January 4 to open and count them. On January 5, the Coleman and Franken campaigns can challenge the Secretary's decision on whether or not the ballots will be counted as legitimate votes. The court previously ruled that the local election officials could open and count the disputed absentee ballots and they had to be sent to the Secretary of State's office by December 31. Officials feared that voters would be identified by this process. Votes would've been counted by precinct. The StarTribune reports the following: ''It's estimated that as many as 1,600 absentee ballots may have been improperly rejected by election officials.'' Currently, Democratic challenger Al Franken has an unofficial lead of 47 votes over Republican incumbent Senator Norm Coleman in the recount that began on November 19. The new session of Congress begins on January 06, 2009 and it doesn't look like that Minnesota will have two senators leaving for Washington, D.C. together.