Franken, If Up In Votes, Should Be Seated Before Legal Battles End: Klobuchar

With concern rising in Minnesota that the state could be without a Senator for the crucial early months of the next Congress, Sen. Amy Klobuchar weighed in with a significant proposal this weekend: seat the unofficial winner until all legal challenges are finalized.

"If the Canvassing Board declares a winner, that should be our senator," said the Minnesota Democrat. Even if a court challenge were to follow, she added, "[The Senate] could seat a senator pending the litigation."

Should Klobuchar's vision bear out, it would likely result in Al Franken taking over the Senate seat on a temporary basis. Democrats would get a 59th caucus member and a potentially important vote on key legislative matters.

The Minnesota canvassing board is set to certify the vote total from the election sometime in early January (a date is not yet official). As it stands know, Franken should emerge ahead in the count by a scant 47 votes. Sen. Norm Coleman would then have seven days to challenge the board's conclusion, a course of action his campaign has said it will almost certainly pursue.

The legal gridlock that would ensue could mean that there is no official Senate winner for weeks, if not much longer. Thirty-four years ago in New Hampshire, a similar situation took place, and the state was short a representative in the Senate for ten months.

At this point, there seems to be little political will from the Governor's office to resolve the problem. Republican Tim Pawlenty's office has said he only has the authority to appoint a replacement in the case of a permanent vacancy. So Klobuchar's statement, reported by the Minneapolis Star Tribune, carries particular weight.

There is, moreover, historical precedent for seating Franken on a temporary basis. In 1996, Mary Landrieu won the Louisiana Senate seat in a hotly contested race. But her opponent, State Representative Woody Jenkins, alleged that massive election fraud had contributed to his defeat. The Republican-controlled U.S. Senate agreed to look into the charges but allowed Landrieu to serve in the interim, pending investigation. The Rules Committee ultimately discovered that Jenkins had coached and paid witnesses to testify, thus discrediting his complaints of corruption and securing Landrieu's place in the Senate.

Comments

[Okieborn]

Amen Brother !!
Senator Al Franken !!!
Now this is a winning situation !!!

[swiss-ski]

Please advise, what drugs are you taking? I would like to be as zoned out as you are.

[kornix]

It's great you can vote in this country. Too bad it has no meaning, since it's theoretically impossible for 1 (one) vote to like, get this, actually decide anything. Because if it did that, means you'd actually have to like, get this, count the votes to a precision of +- 0.

[LeftLeaner]

Read the following link about how Brian Bilbray of CA stole the election of '06 when he got sworn in as a member of the House BEFORE the votes were certified as there were several irregularities as to the outcome of that election, some due to the right leaning DIEBOLD machines.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0608/S00316.htm

[swiss-ski]

Al Franken is so happy. ACORN is working for him.

[doctorkeys]

Could we please keep elections out of courts? The people are sovereign in a democracy! Elections are to be decided by voters!

[BlueStateMan]

welll... that's what the COURTS are trying ascertain now, aren't they?

[lunchlady]

Except that there is plenty of evidence of criminal activity in our elections. The penalties for proving election tampering should be stiffer, IMO.

[lunchlady]

Oops, I meant to say "proven" not "proving".

[Beachrunner]

That would be nice. But the reality is, they're decided by the vote counters.

Which is why Christine Gregoire won in Washington State in 2004. When it's close, just keep counting . . . until your candidate wins.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123068520570944301.html

So, yeah, Frankin will "win." But everyone will know he stole the election.

Hollow victory.

[Kassandra]

Talk about a photo finish. We NEED Al in the Senate,,,,,big time.

[KarlaElisa]

Do it.

[reelcobra]

Big of Amy to suggest this now that Mark Ritchie has caused Al to take a tiny lead. Actually big and selfless.

[MysticInd]

Sounds good enough for me a Minnesotean!

[doublebell]

Al Franken should be seated!! He's good enough, he's smart enough, and by gosh, people like him.
The Republicans have ruined this country almost beyond repair. Let's get on with it and seat Franken.

[Cowboylove]

One has to ask why does America have so many problems with our elections? Billions of transactions are processed by Visa every day with not a penny error. Why not let someone's social security card be their voter ID, and turn over elections to Visa, and let people vote at ATMs. You would be registered to vote where you last paid taxes or received government aid. Seems a logical and simple solution to what is a silly problem to begin with.

Hopefully Obama will move past the partisan BS to move toward fairer and more accurate elections. One can only hope.

[zeotrope]

Well said, better than what you have now.

[jbeach]

I disagree with tracking voters by Soc Sec ID, and with turning elections over to Visa. But I agree with having:

- hand-operated ballots, either optical scan or other
- votes counted by ATM-like machines, run by trained accountants
- these ATM-like machines to make 3 copies of all votes. One to the voter, with an anonymous identification number for that vote only; one to that state's Sec of State, to count the vote; and the third set to be sealed up and set aside.
- absolutely **no** electronic access to any of these machines.

Banks lose billions to online piracy; I don't want the leaders of my nation even possibly selected by online criminals.

[motamanx]

I am all for intelligence in the Senate. Franken is smarter than Coleman, who is a mere empty suit hand picked by that con man Rove to fill Wellstone's seat. It's astonishing to me that the vote was even close, and it appears that the Rove characters were up to their old vote cancelling tricks. It didn't work this time, thank goodness.

[lunchlady]

Mr. Rove's name just keeps popping up in interesting places. Why does he seem to be at the scene of every event that might benefit the GOP? Guess its all that high paid strategizing he does.

[swiss-ski]

Senator Al Franken? With all the clowns we have in the Senate we sure don't need another loser!

[motamanx]

Senator Al Franken? Sure. He is more qualified than the empty suit dingbat that Rove selected to fill a real hero's shoes.

[Cowboylove]

It should be noted that Franken graduated cum laude from Harvard University and has written five NYT's best selling books. Franken is a master of political and social satire, which requires intelligence. Just because someone is funny does not mean they are stupid. It is a common misconception.

Of course, George W Bush was funny and stupid, but Bush's humor was never deliberate. Once we have gotten beyond the disaster the Republican party has created, I am sure Republicans will become the laughing stock of the nation. Unfortunately the country is in too much pain to laugh right now.

[fiftysomethingMO]

Well said!!

[stoppartisanship]

Wow, I didn't know that all Republicans are as manipulating as Rove and as dumb as Bush. You have really opened my eyes. Are all Democrats as corrupt as Blagojevich? It seems a little short-sighted to generalize a whole party based on the worst of the bunch. Many mainstream Republicans are jokes but, then again, so are many mainstream Democrats.

[gonbald]

we sure don't need another loser like Coleman

[Okieborn]

Senator Al Franken !!
Story Over !!!

[lunchlady]

Coleman will continue to obstruct this, I don't doubt. "Possession is 9 tenths of the law." I don't remember where that comes from, but psychologically it seems true. That's why people don't return things they borrow, especially books; that's why Israel settlers keep moving into Gaza. So if I was Coleman I wouldn't agree to letting Franken go start being Senator. I would wait for the certification, which he might also fight. The RNC and others will pay all his legal costs.

[Cowboylove]

The Senate may seat whomever it likes whenever they like. It is not up to Mr. Coleman, who as I recall had a questionable election his own the first time around. Diebold antics put a lot of republicans in office illegally in the first part of this decade, Saxby Chamblis for example. Republicans are on a downward spiral and the last thing they can afford to do is open up investigations of election improprieties. If the truth were known about what has gone on during the last eight years, our prisons would be overrun with republican politicians and their friends.

I am not a fan of Mr. Franken's, but he is certainly less corrupt than his challenger. Let Franken be seated, and Mr. Coleman can thank his lucky stars for the six years he served.