Minnesota Supreme Court Narrows Tom Emmer's Ability To Disqualify Votes

ST. PAUL, Minn. — A Republican official tells The Associated Press that Republican Tom Emmer will concede the Minnesota governor's race to Democrat Mark Dayton.

The official with knowledge of the decision says Emmer planned to make a public announcement Wednesday from his home in Delano. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak ahead of an official announcement.

Emmer's decision comes just hours after the Minnesota Supreme Court closed off a potential avenue for an election lawsuit.

Emmer trailed Dayton by nearly 9,000 votes heading into a recount that has changed little. The state canvassing board was to meet Wednesday to begin the process of certifying the recount results.

Comments

[rain33]

07:20 AM on 12/08/2010

oh my the gop contender should concede now coz its wasting his time as well taxpayers' money!

[harhar2]

04:13 AM on 12/08/2010

Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Impaler]

03:09 AM on 12/08/2010

Courts "elect" another corrupt Democrat in Minn. what is going on in this state?

[SPQR1052]

04:00 AM on 12/08/2010

Courts "elect" another corrupt REPUBLICAN as president in 2000 and corrupt OHIO secretary of state  tosses 250K VOTES giving 2004 election to BUSH.  What is going on in the united states?

[tbrnotb]

04:25 AM on 12/08/2010

I was living in Ohio in 2004 and what was strange was that the exit polls differed dramatically from a 2.4% Kerry win to a surprise 2% Bush win. It's the only place where the exit polls were so far off.

They overthrew the election in the Ukraine a couple of years ago for the same reason. Exit polls were too far off from the election.

Love those Diebolt voting machines!

[ZeraLee]

12:42 PM on 12/08/2010

The courts enforced the written law. Laws that were updated just this past summer. Laws that the republicans defy when inconvenienced.

For example, one law was designed to minimize the impact of frivolous challenges. The GOP made thousands of frivolous challenges and neutralized the new law with threats of endless litigation.

They also demanded that the recount use documents that do not exist, and have not been generated by the election process for many years.

The problem is not in the courts or the Democrats, it is in the part of the republican party that works to undermine the electoral process when it does not work to their advantage.

All across the country, conservatives are telling lies to feed distrust in the mechanics of democracy, even to attacking one of their own.

Minnesota voters rejected the republican attempt to load up the courts with theocratic partisans, and endorsed the work of Mark Ritchie during the Coleman/Franken recount by re-electing him.

Today, Tom Emmer officially conceded to Mark Dayton. We will have a desperately needed check on the republican legislature. In the end, Emmer did not have the votes to win and admitted that he could not litigate a victory in defiance of the will of the people.

[Ronnie Avatar Dixon]

02:18 AM on 12/08/2010

NIIICE! Now we don't have to worry about an extended Pawlenty governorship, especially because the Republicans won back the Minnesota House and Senate.

I am wearing my Dayton pin to school tomorrow.

[Tyrione]

02:09 AM on 12/08/2010

About time.

First line of Action: Rezone Bachmann's district and get her the hell out of Congress, for all our sakes, but more for the sake of Minnesotans.

[jbvbwysu]

10:07 AM on 12/08/2010

Don't worry, her district will be axed because none of her constituents filled out their census form!

(Let's hope...)

[ZeraLee]

10:56 AM on 12/08/2010

Unfortunately, the republicans will control the redistricting. Spoils of war for winning control of the state legislature. They will not touch Bachmann's district because it is already insanely republican.

They will work to marginalize the Democrats in Ellison's district.

[Razzer]

01:37 AM on 12/08/2010

I will personally help Governor Pawlenty pack, if he wishes.

[Ronnie Avatar Dixon]

02:18 AM on 12/08/2010

You can handle the luggage, I can grab his suitcase. XD

[bobncar]

01:32 AM on 12/08/2010

a small ray of sunshine

[Talossa]

01:16 AM on 12/08/2010

Have the Republicans blamed ACORN yet?

[joewantstoknow]

01:01 AM on 12/08/2010

Congratulations! (I hope). Please let it be a democrat who can stand up for what he believes in and leads. We sorely need more people like that in the wings.

[nateroth]

12:04 AM on 12/08/2010

Republicans never give up ... they are so annoying!

[yorkie]

11:55 PM on 12/07/2010

It's very clear this one's over,,,and Dayton on all counts is the next GOV OF MINNESOTA period! Just wish more Dems ./independents would have gotten out to vote in bigger numbers to give DAYTON a bigger win that would have stopped need for any recount and perhaps also given the DFL more seats in the legislature that big money virtually stole ie propaganda to misinformed voters !!!

[LeftRight]

11:33 PM on 12/07/2010

What IS it with MN and recounts taking forever??

[soisay]

11:50 PM on 12/07/2010

The MN GOP Candidates taking positions on vote exclusions that are ridiculous.

BTW, see Joe Miller as well.

[Talossa]

01:16 AM on 12/08/2010

And Bush 2000.

[Razzer]

01:21 AM on 12/08/2010

Here's an example of a ballot challenged by Emmer's legal team: there was no vote for governor on the ballot. The Emmer camp declared that that ballot was obviously a vote for Emmer.

[jonzbonz]

10:59 PM on 12/07/2010

Ya ever notice how republicans always complain about so-called "frivilous" lawsuits, but yet they seem to file so many of them.

[nateroth]

12:06 AM on 12/08/2010

Well said!

[DemsRock]

09:40 PM on 12/07/2010

Why are Republicans such sore losers in each and every category and walk of life? Because they are on the first rung of evolution. Me is all I see. They do not see or care about others because they are not able to see beyond themselves.

[REASON2010]

09:30 PM on 12/07/2010

The dems won an election?????

[jbvbwysu]

10:09 AM on 12/08/2010

We won quite a few actually. With only rare exceptions (Feingold and Grayson), true progressives did just fine on election night. It was the Red Dogs who got their clocks cleaned.