Panel nixes Coleman’s challenge effort

Election-recount officials in Minnesota have denied a request by Sen. Norm Coleman’s (R) legal team to reconsider 16 challenged ballots that went in Democrat Al Franken’s favor.

Coleman’s lawyers argued that the ballots were decided inconsistently, when compared with other similar ballots reviewed by the state canvassing board.

{mosads}The decision was the latest setback for Coleman in the razor-thin race. Franken leads by 48 votes out of about 3 million, with almost all ballots counted.

Officials were resistant to the Coleman team’s request to rehash rulings on challenged ballots that the board has already decided. After recessing briefly to pull the individual ballots and others with which to compare them, the board decided not to reconsider them.

The result is not official, as the state canvassing board still has to consider clerical challenges to its current totals.

Coleman’s campaign has also alleged that 34 withdrawn challenges considered by the board were improperly allocated.

The board will meet by Dec. 30 with the aim to finalize the vote totals.