Al Franken may become senator after legal allegations against Coleman

Allegations have surfaced of voter irregularities involving a paid staffer of Norm Coleman, and the ramifications could have a profound impact on the outcome of Coleman's race against Al Franken.

A reporter for the Minnesota Independent, a progressive online publication, was working on a story about voter turnout when she overheard that Republican poll challengers monitoring voting at the precinct had brought in Mahamoud Wardere to help voters translate.

The Coleman campaign confirmed that Wardere is a paid member of their staff

"I had already spoken to at least three people who told me that translators were telling them to vote for Norm Coleman," she said.

The issue could end up being the basis of a legal challenge. According to Prof. Joe Daly of Hamline University, state election law has a provision that if there is a deliberate, serious or material violation of state election law, a district court judge must gather the evidence and present it to the presiding officer of the U.S. Senate, who would then decide the merits of the allegations.

The Senate could even revoke the results of the election and decide who would be seated as senator.

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lilithu said:

Franken doesn't need legal allegations against Coleman. He won the recount by 225 votes. Woot! :woohoo:


Of course Coleman is contesting.

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Seyorni said:

You can only keep counting till you've tabulated all the ballots, Natas. This has now been done, and Franken came out ahead. That's democracy for you.
All Coleman's doing is wasting more of our tax dollars in a fit of pique.

Weren't the Republicans criticizing the Democrats for not accepting the results of a partial count a few years ago?
The Democrats, as I recall, politely and graciously bowed out -- and were subsequently found to have garnered the majority vote.
Inasmuch as our country subsequently went to pot, I can understand why Frankin didn't want to repeat that mistake.

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Seyorni said:

But they are, all, tabulated, my friend. Every one -- and Frankin got more votes.
Coleman has no real hope, but he's a Republican and, thus, mentally challenged, irrational and subject to tantrums.

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Natas said:

I imagine Franken was going to keep the recounting process going until it showed him ahead, and then suddenly be content with the results.

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Natas said:

I say keep tabulating the votes until it shows a majority in my favor, THEN they're all tabulated.

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