FDL was first to report this afternoon that Republicans had filed an ex parte motion “the effect of which would be to investigate and overturn today’s election results, should the outcome not be to Republicans’ liking.” Brian Beutler followed up and was told by the Tedisco campaign that the petition was actually filed by the state Republican party.
This afternoon and evening we had a hard time figuring out just the significance if any of this court filing even was. But now we’re hearing that it will mean the lawyers will be involved before the absentee ballots even get opened.
We’ll have a full report for you momentarily.
Late Update: State board of elections spokesman Bob Brehm tells us that 10,055 absentee ballots were issued for this election. And 5,907 were returned. When you figure that the election night total was a 65 vote margin this really is going to be all about who had a better absentee ballot operation.
Late Legalese Update: A few sources tell us that the motion is question is perhaps not routine but also not out of the ordinary if one or both of the candidates think it’s going to be close. So, the facts above stand. But I wanted to dispel any notion that such a petition is nefarious or out of the ordinary.
