Al Franken’s lead in the Minnesota Senate race grew Tuesday after absentee ballots were counted in court, but the election still is not over because his opponent, Norm Coleman, the incumbent Republican, plans to file an appeal.

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Minnesota’s Senate trial is starting to pick up speed.

The judges set out a schedule Thursday for the next three days that indicates they will rule soon on some of the main arguments. Later Thursday, lawyers for Republican Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken will argue over the validity of 19 distinct reasons for rejecting voters’ absentee ballots.

The judges’ decision whether or not to count ballots in those categories is expected as early as Monday. Once that happens, Coleman’s lawyers should be able to go much faster through a process that has involved arguing over ballots one by one.

Coleman’s lawyers say thousands of rejected ballots should be counted as they try to overcome Franken’s 225-vote lead. Franken’s lawyers say most of the ballots were lawfully rejected.

MINNEAPOLIS  – The morning after the Nov. 4 election, Norm Coleman stood before TV cameras, declared victory in Minnesota’s U.S. Senate election and said that if he were opponent Al Franken he’d “step back.”

Two months later, Coleman finds himself down by nearly the same margin he appeared to hold over Franken that day. His lawyers said Coleman – who later expressed regret at that post-election remark – is not ready to step back, promising a lawsuit that’s likely to keep the race in limbo for several more months.

Minnesota’s Canvassing Board on Monday certified that Democrat Franken won 225 more votes than Republican Coleman, out of almost 3 million cast. Franken took his own opportunity to declare himself the victor.

“I am proud to stand before you as the next senator from Minnesota,” the former “Saturday Night Live” personality told reporters in brief remarks outside his downtown Minneapolis condominium. But Franken’s ability to claim the seat immediately is in doubt. Minnesota law prohibits final certification of a winner until a legal challenge is resolved, and Senate Republicans have indicated they would filibuster if necessary to block Franken from participating when new senators are sworn in Tuesday.

Franken took no questions during his brief appearance Monday, and his campaign aides refused to reveal if he would be in Washington on Tuesday to try to participate in the swearing-in. A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said there would not be any effort to seat Franken on Tuesday.

Coleman, whose term in office ended on Saturday, was in Washington when the Canvassing Board declared him the loser of the recount. His campaign said he would speak publicly in Minnesota on Tuesday.

The Canvassing Board’s certification of the recount results started a seven-day clock for Coleman to file a lawsuit. His attorney, Tony Trimble, said Monday afternoon that the challenge would be filed within 24 hours.

“This process isn’t at an end,” Trimble said. “It is now just at the beginning.”

When the smoke cleared after the election, Coleman appeared to hold a 215-vote lead. But Franken made up the deficit over seven tortuous weeks of ballot-sifting, in part by prevailing on more challenges that both campaigns brought to thousands of ballots.

Franken also did better than Coleman when election officials opened and counted more than 900 absentee ballots that had erroneously been disqualified on Election Day.

Coleman’s lawyers have argued that some ballots were mishandled and others were wrongly excluded from the recount, giving Franken an unfair advantage. Such claims are likely to be a major feature of any lawsuit.

Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, a Democrat, was careful to note that the board was simply signing off on the numbers found by the recount: Franken, with 1,212,431 votes, and Coleman, with 1,212,206 votes.

“We’re not doing anything today that declares winners or losers or anything to that effect,” Ritchie said.

All five members of the canvassing board – Ritchie, plus two state Supreme Court justices and two Ramsey County judges – voted to accept the recount results. And the four judges, including two appointees of Republican governors, praised Ritchie and his staff as being fair and diligent.

A lawsuit would extend the fight over the seat for months. Any court case would open doors closed to the campaigns during the administrative recount. They would be able to access voter rolls, inspect machines and get testimony from election workers.

The case would fall to a three-judge panel picked by Chief Justice Eric Magnuson of the Supreme Court. Magnuson served on the Canvassing Board, but declined to say Monday if he would remove himself from the selection process as a result. Magnuson was an appointee of Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

Costs of the election lawsuit fall to the campaigns. But there is a provision in state law that exposes the government to costs if prior results are reversed due to an irregularity in election procedure.

MINNEAPOLIS – The state Canvassing Board was poised to certify the results of the recount in Minnesota’s grueling Senate election in Al Franken’s favor – but that doesn’t mean the race is definitely over.
 
The board was to meet Monday and was expected to declare which candidate received the most overall votes from nearly 3 million ballots cast. The latest numbers showed Franken, a Democrat, with a 225-vote lead over Republican Sen. Norm Coleman, who led Franken on election night.

But after the announcement, there will be a seven-day waiting period before an election certificate is completed. If any lawsuits are filed during that waiting period, certification is conditional until the issue is settled in court.

Lawyers for both campaigns have laid the groundwork for lawsuits through public comments and legal maneuvering. In recent weeks, as Franken clung to a small lead, Coleman’s lawyers promised a lawsuit over their claim that some ballots duplicated on election night wound up being counted twice in the recount.

The Coleman campaign also has a petition pending before the state Supreme Court to include 650 ballots that it says were improperly rejected but not forwarded by local officials to St. Paul for counting.

The court has not said when it would rule in that case.

New York Sen. Charles Schumer, who until recently was the head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said Sunday that Franken had won the election.

“While there are still possible legal issues that will run their course, there is no longer any doubt who will be the next Senator from Minnesota,” Schumer said. “With the Senate set to begin meeting on Tuesday to address the important issues facing the nation, it is crucial that Minnesota’s seat not remain empty, and I hope this process will resolve itself as soon as possible.”

Sen. John Cornyn, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, called Schumer’s comments premature and troubling, since Schumer is the new chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, which has jurisdiction over contested elections.

“Senator Schumer will likely play a key role in determining who ultimately assumes this Senate seat,” Cornyn said. “Pre-judging the outcome while litigation is still pending calls into question his ability to impartially preside over this matter when it comes before the Committee, as it most certainly will.”

Coleman’s term as senator officially expired Saturday.

Senate Republican leaders have said the chamber shouldn’t seat Franken until all legal matters are settled, even if that drags on for months.
 
Franken campaign spokesman Andy Barr said in an e-mail Sunday: “In terms of future planning, we’re taking it one step at a time. The next step is the canvass board’s meeting tomorrow, where we have every expectation they will declare that Al won the election.”

ST. PAUL, Minn.  – A top Senate Republican said Friday his caucus would block any attempt to seat the winner of Minnesota’s close election until an anticipated court case is finished and an official election certificate is issued.

Pending the counting of hundreds of unopened absentee ballots, Democrat Al Franken holds a 49-vote lead over incumbent Republican Sen. Norm Coleman, whose term expires at noon EST Saturday.

Minnesota’s other senator, Democrat Amy Klobuchar, has said the man with the most votes after the recount concludes should be seated while legal matters play out. Franken hasn’t discussed his intentions.

The new Congress convenes Tuesday. A court challenge and possible appeals could keep the Franken-Coleman contest unsettled for several months. Hundreds of uncounted absentee ballots are due to be opened and examined Saturday, and the Canvassing Board had hoped to wrap up its work by Tuesday.

Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the incoming chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told reporters Friday that Republicans would object to seating anyone before the already lengthy process is finished.

“I can assure you that there will be no way people on our side of the aisle will agree to seat any senator provisionally or otherwise unless there is a valid election certificate and all legal issues about who got the most votes is finally decided,” Cornyn said.

If even a single Republican were to object to a bid to seat Franken, Senate Democrats would have to come up with 60 votes to call the vote. Counting two independents who align with them, Democrats will have 58 or 59 seats in the incoming Senate, depending on the resolution of the Minnesota race.

On Friday, counties were finishing sorting envelopes containing previously rejected absentee ballots that could still tip the race. Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, declined to comment on what lies ahead. He would only say, “It’s important that we wait for the Canvassing Board decision.”

The Supreme Court said Friday it needs more information before it can rule on a Coleman petition to add more ballots to the recount. The justices asked several county auditors, the secretary of state and Franken’s campaign to supply data by Saturday morning on unopened absentee ballots that might have been mistakenly left out of the counting. The justices said they hadn’t decided yet whether they will give the petition a full airing.

Election officials around the state have spent the week conferring with campaign representatives about 1,350 sealed ballots that didn’t get counted Nov. 4 but which may have been excluded in error. Under a Supreme Court order, all sides had to agree that an absentee ballot was incorrectly rejected before it could be forwarded to the state for counting.

Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty said during his weekly radio show that the process may be flawed because the campaigns have so much power to keep ballots out.

“It seems odd that you would turn over somebody’s legal right to vote to the campaigns,” he said.

Any lawsuit challenging the outcome must be filed within a week after the state board declares the count over. Once a lawsuit is filed, there is a 20-day window for a special three-judge panel to hear the case. There is no deadline for the judges to rule. Appeals would add weeks or months.

Coleman attorney Fritz Knaak said such a lawsuit is certain.

“An election challenge here is inevitable. Whether we bring it or the Franken campaign brings it, there is no doubt in my mind,” he said.

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Jesus, Bob Dylan and Mickey Mouse will play a part in determining Minnesota’s next senator. So will voters who scrawled the same name for every local race. And so will people who marked their choice not just with a darkened oval but with an X, too – maybe for emphasis, or maybe for a do-over.

Those ballots by people who took creative liberties, as well as thousands of others being challenged, are critical in the tight battle between Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and his Democratic challenger, Al Franken. A state board begins meeting Tuesday to decide their fate.

But an Associated Press analysis of the more than 5,000 challenged ballots found that most of the votes have clear intent and no deficiencies for which they would be disqualified under Minnesota law. The AP’s cataloguing includes many challenges that were later withdrawn by the campaigns and the roughly 3,500 that remained up in the air as of Saturday.

Of the 2.9 million votes already recounted, Coleman leads Franken by fewer than 200. But the AP’s analysis of the 3,500 challenges found that nearly 300 wouldn’t benefit either man because the voter clearly favored a third-party candidate or skipped the race.

The AP also found that of the 3,500 challenged ballots that easily could be assigned, Franken netted 200 more votes than Coleman. But Coleman has withdrawn significantly fewer ballot challenges than Franken – that is, the pool of challenges that can now be awarded to Franken is larger, and both campaigns announced Sunday that they would withdraw more challenges by Tuesday.

Of the remaining challenges, the AP found that only about 1,640 couldn’t reliably be awarded to either candidate. More than 400possible Franken votes were being held up on grounds that those voters identified their ballots through write-ins, initials, phone numbers or some other distinctive marking. At least 300 possible Coleman votes were in limbo for the same reasons.

Franken could also get a boost because a few more of his potential supporters than Coleman’s were among the nearly 600 ballots that had two filled-in ovals as well as crossed-out votes, an X above or below their darkened oval, or different-size partial marks in more than one oval.

The state’s laws on voter intent offer latitude when a person fails to cleanly mark an oval or connect an arrow on the two types of optical scan ballots used by the state.

Voters who use an X outside the oval can still have that vote counted if it’s close to a candidate’s spot. They can use checks for some offices and fill out ovals for others. And voters who change their minds can try to erase a mark in favor of another choice as long as the remaining vote is apparent.

Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, who heads the state Canvassing Board with four judges, has set a goal of completing the challenged ballot reviews by Friday. The AP analysis suggested that the process could move fast once the board shows its mind on the challenge types that occurred most frequently.

Ohio State University election law expert Edward Foley, who is closely tracking Minnesota’s recount, said the board’s early rulings could set patterns for the rest of the review. Foley said the campaigns won’t want to lose the goodwill of board members by forcing them to rule on the same question repeatedly.

Several members made clear in a hearing Friday they wouldn’t have patience for weak challenges.

“The danger for both candidates is that meritorious challenges are going to get swamped in a sea of frivolous challenges,” Ramsey County Judge Edward Cleary warned. “You know when they’re frivolous; we know when they’re frivolous. Don’t make us tell you that.”

Foley didn’t expect challenges based on oddball write-ins for cartoon characters, musicians and athletes to fare well.

“I think that will be looked on with disfavor,” he said of the voters who wrote in Mickey Mouse or his pals Donald Duck and Goofy on ballots where there was a clear Senate vote. Tiger Woods, Bob Dylan and The Beatles got a few votes for local offices, and Jesus was several voters’ pick for president. Others scribbled or put smiley faces near their choices.

Though ballots can’t be rejected if they are slightly soiled or defaced, voters can put their ballot at risk with a distinguishing characteristic that is seen as an attempt to identify it. But determining what constitutes an identifying mark is tricky.

Ritchie, a Democrat, said a ruling in the state’s 1962 gubernatorial race recount found that the mark had to have been made with the voter’s intent to identify the ballot.

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Democrat Al Franken withdrew 633 challenges to ballots Wednesday in Minnesota’s U.S. Senate race in what could be a first step toward a quicker conclusion to the recount.

Franken’s attorney, Marc Elias, said many more withdrawals are likely. An attorney for Republican Norm Coleman said he may follow suit soon.

Any reduction in the pile of challenged ballots – more than 6,000 so far – will alleviate work for the canvassing board that meets Dec. 16 to begin examining those ballots.

Coleman defeated Franken in the election by 215 votes, a margin so small that it triggered an automatic recount. By Wednesday night, Coleman led by 316 votes, according to recount totals posted by Minnesota’s secretary of state. But that apparent lead was far overshadowed by the thousands of ballots challenged by the two campaigns.

Each candidate has challenged about the same number of votes. The Franken campaign mailed a letter to Secretary of State Mark Ritchie on Wednesday with a list of specific challenges to discard.

“If there are challenges that are without merit, it doesn’t do either side any good to have them considered,” Elias said.

Coleman’s attorney, Fritz Knaak, said the Republican’s campaign has also been considering a withdrawal of some challenges but wouldn’t do so until after Friday, the deadline for the recount to end.

“We don’t want to send the wrong message to our volunteers still working at the recount sites,” Knaak said.

Challenges range from ballots with votes for more than one candidate to many that simply had a pen scribble somewhere on the ballot. The number of challenges far exceeds the margin between the two men, making it difficult to pin down which candidate the recount is favoring.

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Minnesota’s U.S. Senate showdown is veering down a path toward the courts and possibly the Senate itself after a panel’s ruling on rejected absentee ballots dealt a blow to Democrat Al Franken’s chances.

For the first time, his campaign on Wednesday openly discussed mounting challenges after the hand recount involving Franken and Republican Sen. Norm Coleman concludes. That includes the possibility of drawing the Senate into the fracas.

The state Canvassing Board denied Franken’s request to factor absentee ballots rejected by poll workers into the recount. He sought to overturn the exclusions in cases where ballots were invalidated over signature problems or other voter errors. Coleman’s campaign maintained the board lacked power to revisit those ballots.

Franken entered the recount trailing Coleman by 215 votes out of 2.9 million ballots. As of Wednesday night, Coleman was up 292 votes, including results from Nov. 4 and recounted ones.

All told, 86 percent of the ballots have been recounted. However, about 4,740 ballots have been challenged by the two campaigns that could fall to the canvassing board to rule on.

The ruling wasn’t a complete victory for Coleman. The board left

open the possibility of examining ballots that were set aside for errors outside of the voter’s control.

Secretary of State Mark Ritchie estimated that 12,000 absentee ballots were rejected for various reasons – some legitimate, some not. That represents between 4 percent and 5 percent of all the absentee ballots cast.

Franken’s campaign had made the push to factor in rejected absentee ballots key to its recount strategy, even going to court to force county officials to turn over data on voters whose ballots didn’t count.

Marc Elias, the legal chief for Franken, said the campaign won’t appeal the board’s ruling but it could seek intervention of another kind once the recount wraps up.

“Whether it is at the county level, before the Canvassing Board, before the courts or before the United States Senate, we don’t know yet. But we remain confident these votes will be counted,” Elias said.

The board’s decision drew a response from the Senate’s top Democrat, Majority Leader Harry Reid, who called it a “cause for great concern.”

“As the process moves forward, Minnesota authorities must ensure that no voter is disenfranchised,” Reid said in a statement. “A citizen’s right to have his or her vote counted is fundamental in our democracy.”

The Senate has in rare cases inserted itself into elections, including a 1996 Louisiana race and a 1974 New Hampshire contest.

The body has the power to determine its members’ qualifications. Along with the Dec. 2 runoff in Georgia, the Minnesota race is one of two unresolved contests and could determine if Democrats build a majority large enough to fend off GOP filibusters. Coleman campaign manager Cullen Sheehan objected to the notion of Senate involvement. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell joined in the criticism.

“The recount process in Minnesota is being handled by Minnesotans, not D.C. politicians,” McConnell said. “And while neither side will agree with every twist and turn or every decision, I would hope that Washington partisans would refrain from injecting themselves into what is, by design, a non-partisan process.”

The board’s vote followed a discussion where some members expressed frustration over the possibility that some ballots were disqualified improperly. But even they acknowledged the matter fell outside the board’s duties. Two Supreme Court justices, two district judges and the secretary of state make up the board.

Supreme Court Justice G. Barry Anderson said Franken’s request for an absentee ballot review would have to wait for a court challenge that is likely to follow the recount. The loser can file what is known as an election contest.

Board members agreed to seek legal advice and meet again soon to decide whether local election officials should sort through the rejected ballots. That would help determine whether any that were actually accepted didn’t get counted and whether any rejections fell outside the rules for disqualification. But the board didn’t address what would happen with those ballots.

Coleman attorney Fritz Knaak said the campaign would not take issue with the counting of absentee ballots that were wrongly disqualified or overlooked, but he said he thought that such ballots comprised “an extraordinarily small number.”

ATLANTA – Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will be stumping with Georgia Sen. Saxby Chambliss on the eve of his Dec. 2 runoff.

Palin, who was a hit with the conservative GOP base as she ran for vice-president, will join Chambliss at four rallies across Georgia.

Chambliss is running off against Democrat Jim Martin in a race that could help determine whether Democrats have enough votes to block GOP filibusters in the U.S. Senate.

Responding to the Palin announcement, Chambliss said, “We’ve got the wind at our backs.”

Georgia is one of two unresolved contests. The other is in Minnesota, where a recount is under way in the race between Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken.