The Never-Ending Election

This is only a crushing verdict for Norm Coleman if you think he's still in this to win the election, which I don't.

In a potentially decisive ruling, a panel of three judges today ordered up to 400 new absentee ballots opened and counted, far fewer than Republican Norm Coleman had sought in his effort to overcome a lead held by DFLer Al Franken.

The ballots appear to include many that Franken had identified as wrongly rejected as well as ballots that Coleman wanted opened. About half come from Hennepin, Ramsey and St. Louis counties, places Franken won by significant margins.

Spokespersons for Coleman and Franken were not immediately available for comment.

The panel emphasized that some of the nearly 400 ballots might not be counted, but were included in the order because their eligibilty was unclear.

Apparently these will be counted next week. With Franken holding a 225-vote lead, 400 ballots, especially when half of them were requested by Franken, will not make a difference. One hopes that the three-judge panel will swiftly rule on the victor after that, with a quickie appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court resulting in a certificate of election, and then Democrats can scream bloody murder to get Franken seated. This has really gone on long enough.