Nov 8, 2008 7:11 pm US/Central
Coleman Loses Attempt To Block 32 Votes From Count
ST. PAUL (AP) ―
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Coleman's campaign asked Ramsey County Chief Judge Kathleen Gearin to issue a temporary restraining order in regard to counting of the ballots.
Gearin says she denied the request Saturday for lack of jurisdiction.
CBS
Sen. Norm Coleman failed Saturday in an attempt to block 32 absentee ballots from Hennepin County from being counted in his close race with Democrat Al Franken.
Coleman's campaign asked Ramsey County Chief Judge Kathleen Gearin to issue a temporary restraining order regarding the counting of ballots it said had not been counted on Election Day or been kept in sealed ballot boxes. Gearin said Saturday she denied the request for lack of jurisdiction.
The Republican senator's campaign issued a statement saying it made the request amid "increasing questions about unexplained and improbable shifts in vote counts."
Franken's campaign spokesman Andy Barr called it "a Saturday sneak attack" spurred by concern Franken was gaining ground.
The most recent tally from the Minnesota secretary of state's office had Coleman 221 votes ahead of Franken on Saturday.
The request from Coleman's campaign said Minneapolis elections director Cynthia Reichert called its office at 7:45 p.m. Friday and reported that 32 ballots had been found and would be counted the next morning.
"We were actually told they had been riding around in her car for several days, which raised all kinds of integrity questions," said Coleman's attorney, Fritz Knaak.
Gearin denied the campaign's request to stop the count for an investigation of the ballots' history because the court does not have jurisdiction until the vote total is final and an official contest of the result has made, Knaak said.
Coleman has no plans to contest the results because he is ahead, he added.
Knaak also said a Minneapolis attorney reassured Coleman's campaign that no one but an elected official had access to the 32 ballots and there was no tampering.
Barr objected to the fact that Franken's campaign received only an hour's notice of the Saturday hearing. He described Coleman's request as an attempt to shut down the normal tabulation process and disenfranchise voters.
"Our position is simple: Count every vote fairly," he said in a statement.
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Norm Coleman was born in New York City in 1949. Al Franken was born in New York City in 1951.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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