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Norm Coleman (R) extended the Minnesota Senate race for weeks and perhaps months on Tuesday, filing a lawsuit to challenge his loss to Democrat Al Franken.
The Republican also beat back calls from some, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), to concede the race.
“This race will be decided by Minnesota voters, not by Harry Reid,” Coleman (R) said defiantly to the cheers of supporters in St. Paul, where he served two terms as mayor.
On Monday, Franken (D) was declared the winner of Minnesota’s Senate race by a recount panel, which handed him a 225-vote win out of nearly 3 million ballots cast. The former Saturday Night Live star would succeed Coleman, who has served one term in the seat.
Coleman’s lawyers said they were filing suit even as Coleman spoke Tuesday afternoon.
“Something greater than expediency is at stake here,” Coleman said, adding: “We will not permit the full process to be short-cut. That would only cast greater doubt and uncertainty over the final result.”
In Minnesota, losing candidates have seven days to file after an election contest, and by challenging the outcome, Coleman delays the certification of Franken’s win.
Franken’s win won’t be certified until the case is resolved, which could take months.
Franken has labeled himself a “senator,” and his attorney, Marc Elias, called the lawsuit a Sisyphean task in which “the Coleman campaign takes a very heavy rock and tries to push it up a very steep hill.”
“It is essentially the same thin gruel, warmed-over leftovers, that we’ve all been served over the last few weeks,” Elias said, discounting Coleman’s arguments. “When you lose by 225 votes, you have to go mining for votes somewhere.”
While the margin is razor-thin, Coleman faces an uphill battle in getting it overturned in the courts.
The suit will head to a three-judge panel, appointed by Minnesota’s chief justice, with the trial set to begin within three weeks. Coleman attorney Fritz Knaak said the campaign has already begun the discovery process, which will involve statements and depositions of local election officials across the state.
Though he voiced optimism at the campaign’s prospects in state court, Knaak did not rule out eventually taking the case to federal court.
“I would not be surprised if this went a month and a half or two months out,” Knaak said. “Let’s be realistic, maybe two months out — hopefully sooner.” Later, Knaak told a reporter the two-month estimate was “very optimistic.”
Coleman’s lawyers are disputing about 650 absentee ballots they say were improperly rejected, about 150 ballots they say were counted twice and 133 votes they say were counted without ballots to back them up.
They also have said ballots that were challenged by the campaigns were not handled by the state canvassing board in a uniform manner.
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