Posted: January 28, 2009

Day 3 of MN U.S. Senate trial complete

The day began with the court denying a motion in limine filed by Coleman which had sought to exclude evidence of Coleman’s former position that improperly rejected absentee ballots should not have been revisited in the recount. The court has not yet ruled on Franken’s motion in limine which seeks to limit evidence on absentee ballots to only the 654 that Coleman mentioned in his notice of contest. So far, the judges seem willing to allow in much of the evidence that the two sides want to introduce while pointing out that they will only assign such evidence the weight it deserves ultimately. Deputy Secretary of State Jim Gelbman was back on the stand for the entire day. Coleman’s attorney finished his direct examination before lunch and Franken’s attorney began an extensive cross examination. Both sides’ attorneys painstakingly reviewed with Mr. Gelbman the events that took place from election day through the end of the recount. There was some discussion of a relatively new category of ballots during the Gelbman direct examination. These are the “Pile 3A” ballots that were sent out to non-registered voters who may have returned their ballots with their registration card inside the secrecy envelope instead of inside the outer envelope. These ballots have not been opened and counted and Gelbman thought they would probably number less than 50. The state has both card stock registration forms in circulation, which are easy to recognize through an envelope, and regular paper weight forms, which are harder or impossible to feel inside a secrecy envelope. The trial will resume tomorrow at 9 a.m. CT.