Now this is odd. At a briefing with reporters just now, Coleman attorney Ben Ginsberg said that the Coleman case is not about complicated legal language or doctrines, but is instead about voters like Gerald Anderson and Wesley Briest, who were brought in yesterday to talk about how their ballots are still not counted.
Gerald Anderson sure seems compelling. He’s a septuagenarian who says his signature on the ballot envelope didn’t look right because he is now too blind to fill things out perfectly. But Briest is one of the two clear problem witnesses they brought in yesterday.
Briest’s testimony went as thus: He initially said that he voted at the polls, and not by absentee. Then a Coleman lawyer showed Briest his absentee ballot envelope, and reminded him that he did not go to the polls, too. Upon cross-examination by Franken lawyer Kevin Hamilton, Briest admitted that his wife didn’t fully complete the witness section of the absentee ballot, regardless of the confusion over whether he showed up at the polls or not.
It could have been worse. Ginsberg could have mentioned Douglas Thompson, the friendly Coleman witness who wants his ballot to be counted even though he obtained it through his girlfriend forging his signature.
(Special thanks to The Uptake for carrying the presser.)
