The first day of the Minnesota election trial has come to a close, and it couldn’t have been a fun day for Norm Coleman, who was present in the courtroom to watch everything that happened.
It’s not a good day when the court throws out your evidence and tells your legal team to submit it all over again.
Earlier today, Franken attorney Marc Elias raised serious questions about the Coleman campaign erasing sections from photocopies of rejected absentee-ballot envelopes that they’re attempting to get put into the count. Later questioning by Elias of Coleman legal staffer Gloria Sonnen revealed that the submitted copies also include written notes added on to the envelopes by the Coleman team, and it’s impossible to tell what writing was there originally and what was added by the Coleman camp.
The judges have now ordered Coleman’s legal team to subpoena and submit the original ballot envelopes themselves, if they want them to be reviewed and potentially counted.
In a briefing with reporters held after today’s hearings, Coleman lawyer Ben Ginsberg declared: “What you’ve just seen now is a very active effort on the part of the Franken campaign to not count Minnesotans’ votes.” Ginsberg also blamed the Franken campaign for slowing down the trial as a result of their objections to the photocopies.
It could have been worse — the judges have bent over backwards by giving Coleman another chance to submit this evidence, instead of striking the claim entirely.
