Coleman keeps promise, files appeal
The self-described Sen.-elect Al Franken can keep the champagne on ice.
As promised, Minnesota Republican (and former senator) Norm Coleman is taking his case to the state's Supreme Court.
A lower state court ruled last week that Franken had won the election by 312 votes out of nearly 3 million cast in November.
"As promised, we are filing our notice of appeal today," Coleman attorney Ben Ginsberg told reporters this afternoon. "We do believe that the district court got it wrong on the law."
The two sides have been duking out the election results for more than five months. Coleman's lawyers will argue in court that voters were denied equal protection and due process because different standards were applied in the counting of absentee ballots across the state.
No one is sure when the case will get started -- or when it will wrap up -- but one of Coleman's lawyers, Jim Langdon, ventured a guess that oral arguments could get underway within two weeks to two months. State statute requires the court to take the case up on an expedited schedule.
Ginsberg offered no clue about whether the Coleman campaign will file a federal lawsuit if things don't work out in their favor. "We're just thinking about the Minnesota Supreme Court for now," he said.
Update at 6:07 p.m. ET. Franken's response, via his attorney Marc Elias: "When it comes to disenfranchisement, no one holds a candle to the legal team put together by former senator Coleman." Elias argued that many of Coleman's claims involve ballots that the Coleman camp suggests should not have been counted, meaning fewer votes would be included, not more. "What we have now is the death throes of the Coleman legal fight."
Judge for yourself. Here is a statement required by the court that accompanied Coleman's appeal.
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