Breaking news: Court rules for Franken in Senate ballot case

A three-judge Minnesota court this afternoon has rejected 13 to 17 of the 19 categories of absentee ballots at the center of the case brought by Republic Norm Coleman in his attempt to erase a narrow vote margin favoring Democrat Al Franken in the U.S. Senate race.

Al Franken (AP File Photo)

Democrats hope Franken will prevail in the race to move them closer to the 60-seat threshold needed in the Senate to stop the Republican filibusters that for years have thwarted Democrats from enacting their agenda.

The core of the dispute is that Democrat Al Franken’s legal team wants the state of Minnesota to count every absentee ballot legally cast by registered voters. In contrast, Republican Norm Coleman’s legal team has wanted the state to count almost every absentee ballot, including those with legal problems, such as faulty voter registrations or improper signatures.

Saying election law cannot make exceptions on what ballots can legally be counted, the court today wholly rejected counting 13 categories of faulty ballots, and another four categories of ballot are likely to be rejected by Monday on the  same grounds.

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