Posted: February 3, 2009

MN contest court rules on Franken’s motion in limine at the end of Day 7

The court ruled today on Franken’s motion in limine denying it in part and granting it in part.  The motion had sought to limit consideration of rejected absentee ballots to the 650 ballots that Coleman specifically mentioned in his notice of contest.  The Coleman campaign, on the other hand, wanted to possibly revisit all 11,000+ rejected absentee ballots.  See Coleman’s opposition to the motion here.  The court limited the pool of ballots that might be reconsidered to just under 4,800 ballots including: 1) those absentee ballots that Coleman’s side claims comply with 203B.12 subd. 2 and 2) those absentee ballots that may not comply with 203B.12 subd. 2 but whose non-compliance, Coleman claims, was not the fault of the voter.  This second group probably includes those absentee ballots cast in person by the voter and then rejected because of the election workers error in, for example, not requiring the voter to complete a ballot application.  It also likely includes absentee ballots whose envelopes have official stickers on them that obscure or partially obscure instructions to the voter.  The order seems to concentrate on Minnesota law’s statutory requirements for accepting and rejecting an absentee ballot without appearing to leave room for a constitutional equal protection argument.  Check back for more analysis on this point soon.  See the order here and the Star Tribune coverage here.