A three-judge panel overseeing the Minnesota recount trial “today ordered up to 400 new absentee ballots opened and counted, far fewer than Republican Norm Coleman had sought in his effort to overcome a lead by DFLer Al Franken,” the Star Tribune reports.
The ballots also appear to include many that Franken had identified as wrongly rejected as well as ballots that Coleman wanted opened.
Spokespersons for Coleman and Franken were not immediately available for comment.
But absentee ballots rejected during and after the November election became the centerpiece of Coleman’s court challenge of the 225-vote lead that Franken obtained after a recount.
The three-judge panel ordered the ballots delivered to the Secretary of State’s Office by April 6 and opened and counted April 7 in the Supreme Court room at the Minnesota Judicial Center.
In rejecting most of the ballots Coleman had sought to open, the panel dismissed his lawyers’ arguments that it apply a more lenient standard in deciding which ballots should be counted.
The paper calls this a “potentially decisive ruling.”
Meanwhile, Politico reports that this ruling likely favors Al Franken. It’s far from over, however, as an appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court and, possibly, a Federal Court is still possible.
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