Minnesota Supreme Court Backs Franken

June 30, 2009 2:20 PM

ABC's David Chalian reports: The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled in favor of comedian-turned-Democratic candidate Al Franken in his prolonged battle to become a US Senator.

Out of more than 2.4 million votes cast, Franken bested Republican Norm Coleman by 312 votes.  Today’s court ruling appears to be the near final step in this extremely extended process.

Mr. Franken’s defeat over Sen. Coleman provides Democrats with a super-majority in the United States Senate with 60 seats on their side of the aisle.  President Obama clearly won’t be able to count on all 60 votes on every single issue, but it certainly provides a boost to the White House and Harry Reid as they enter into policy negotiations with the Republican leadership in the Senate.

It takes 60 votes to cut off a filibuster in the United States Senate.  The seating of Al Franken potentially robs an embattled Republican Party of one of the strongest weapons of opposition in its arsenal.

“The people of Minnesota will now finally get the brilliant and hardworking new senator they elected in November and the full representation they deserve.  After all the votes have been counted and recounted, the Minnesota Supreme Court has made the final determination that Minnesotans have chosen Al Franken to help their state and our country get back on track,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV).

It’s been 239 days since Minnesota voters headed to the polls to vote for a United States Senator.  In that time, Barack Obama filled his Cabinet (including three Commerce Secretary nominations), Caroline Kennedy considered and declined the chance to become a US Senator, Congress passed a whopping $787 billion stimulus package, Arlen Specter became a Democrat, and Michelle Obama planted and harvested a White House vegetable garden.

“We’ve always said that Norm Coleman deserved his day in court, and he got eight months. Now we expect Governor Pawlenty to do the right thing, follow the law, and sign the election certificate,” said Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ).

In an appearance on CNN on Sunday, Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN) indicated that he was ready to sign the election certificate Al Franken would need to be seated in the United States Senate if the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that he should do so.

“I'm prepared to sign it as soon as they give the green light," Gov. Pawlenty told CNN on Sunday.

It appears the court ruled that Gov. Pawlenty should do just that.  “We affirm the decision of the trial court that Al Franken received the highest number of votes legally cast and is entitled. . .  to receive the certificate of election as United States Senator from the State of Minnesota,” wrote the court in its ruling today.

Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) found himself ahead of Franken by 215 votes at the conclusion of the vote canvass in mid-November 2008.  The margin between the two candidates was less than one half of one percent which automatically triggered a recount.

At the conclusion of the recount in January 2009, Franken had overtaken Coleman’s lead and the Minnesota State Canvassing Board certified the election results with a 225 vote victory for the Democrat.

The next day, the Coleman campaign filed a lawsuit in Minnesota state court contesting the results of the election.  The three judge panel that heard the Coleman contest allowed for consideration of only approximately 400 wrongly rejected absentee ballots.  Coleman’s legal team had argued for a far wider universe of thousands of absentee ballots to be reexamined because of what the Coleman campaign believed to be different treatment of absentees in different counties.

It was this decision to limit the scope of consideration to merely 400 absentee ballots that served as a definitive blow to the Coleman campaign. 

At the conclusion of the three-judge panel’s work, it declared Al Franken the top vote-getter by a margin of 312 votes.

The Coleman campaign appealed the three-judge panel ruling to the full Minnesota Supreme Court which heard oral arguments in the case on June 1.

UPDATE: Coleman conceded defeat shortly after 4 pm ET -- bringing the last race of the 2008 campaign to a close.

"I join all Minnesotans in congratulating our newest United States Senator – Al Franken," Coleman said.