Court to Hear Coleman Suit Wednesday Afternoon

The Minnesota Supreme Court will hear claims in Sen. Norm Coleman’s (R) suit seeking to halt the count of untallied absentee ballots in Minnesota’s contested Senate race Wednesday.

In an order released Monday evening, Minnesota Supreme Court Associate Justice Alan Page set an hour’s worth of oral arguments for Wednesday at 1 p.m CST.

At issue is a decision last week by the state’s Board of Canvassers recommending that the state’s 87 counties open and count more than 1,000 absentee ballots that were rejected for no stated, legal reason. The additional ballots could significantly affect Coleman’s official, though miniscule, lead over Democrat Al Franken in the race.

The notice of the hearing ordered counties to keep a record of any of the previously uncounted absentee ballots they open and count.

“[A]ny county election official or canvassing board that opens any previously rejected absentee ballots prior to a ruling by this court on [Coleman’s] request for interim relief shall implement a system by which a reviewing authority may identify and locate the specific ballot that was removed from a particular set of return and ballot envelopes,” Page wrote in his hearing order.

The state’s Board of Canvassers is also set to meet this week to decide the fate of hundreds of challenges lodged against ballots by both campaigns.

Both campaigns were supposed to submit their list of the challenges, numbering in the thousands, they have withdrawn ahead of the board’s meeting. The Coleman campaign missed that deadline, the Pioneer Press reported, and hopes to have its withdrawn ballots in by later tonight.