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COLEMAN FOR U.S. SENATE PRESS RELEASE: “A STATEMENT FROM SENATOR NORM COLEMANâ€
By Michael Brodkorb | January 6, 2009
ST. PAUL – Senator Norm Coleman today issued the following statement at a news conference in St. Paul:
Our Declaration of Independence states that government “derives its just powers from the consent of the governed.â€Â Our government of laws is only as just as the elections that determine who make the decisions that affect us all. So we all have responsibility to make sure each vote counts in every election so the purity of democracy in our nation can be preserved and enhanced on our watch.
On November 4, 2008, nearly 3 million Minnesotans cast their votes for the United States Senate. The vast majority of those votes were clear and validly cast. Obviously, it was an extremely close vote, so Minnesota law required an automatic hand recount.
I want to express my deep appreciation to all of the election officials and volunteers who helped to make this election successful. I also want to thank the hundreds and hundreds of people who have been involved in this recount process for their work during a busy family time of the year for doing the work to get us to this point in the process.
But in the wisdom of Minnesota’s excellent election law, the local recount actions to date and those of the canvassing board are steps in the process of reaching a clear and unambiguous result all the people can accept as final. But as of today, not every valid vote has been counted and some have been counted twice.
So today I am announcing that I’ve instructed my legal team to file an election contest according to Minnesota law. Until these issues are settled, any attempt to seat someone who is not properly certified ignores the law, violates Senate precedent and usurps the will of the people of Minnesota.
There are several vital issues that must be resolved for the sake of this and future elections. Let me be very specific.
When double counted votes are included in a recount, an accurate and valid count cannot be obtained. When there are more votes counted in a single precinct than votes cast on the night of the election, an accurate and valid count cannot be obtained. When hundreds, if not thousands, of absentee ballots were wrongly rejected and still not included in the recount, an accurate and valid count cannot been obtained.
We are filing this contest to be absolutely sure that every valid vote was counted and no one’s voted was counted more than anyone else’s. The only way to do that is to guarantee that clear standards were applied fairly and uniformly throughout every single precinct of this state.
Under Minnesota Law there can be no valid election certificate issued if an election contest is filed. An election contest is the exact remedy the law provides to ensure that this recount and the associated inconsistencies that come with it are properly examined and properly resolved.
That’s what the Supreme Court said when it ruled the wrongly rejected absentee ballots that have still not been counted should be part of a contest. And it’s what members of the Canvassing Board communicated when they said they did not have the power in a recount to deal with the double counting of original and duplicate ballots.
While I understand there is a desire by a small number of people to simply move on, something greater than expediency is at stake here. As Americans we believe that every valid vote should count and that everybody’s vote is equally to everyone else’s.
Democracy is not a machine. It’s run by people working to obey the law as best they can.  Sometimes it’s messy and inconvenient, and reaching the best conclusion is never quick because speed is not the first objective: fairness is. I’ve directed my team to move as quickly as possible to resolve these issues. But we will not permit the full process to be shortcut. That would only cast greater doubt and uncertainty over the final result.
A six year term is a long, long time. Crucial decisions will be made during that period on the economy, national security and the rights of all Americans. Minnesotans deserve 100% confidence that their Senator was fairly elected by all the people.
Speaking personally for just a moment: it has been an enormous privilege for me and my family to be involved in serving the people of Minnesota for over 30 years, the last six in the United State Senate. I hope to keep doing so. I have been humbled by the privilege given to me, but I want to make it clear: nobody is indispensible. It’s the will of the people that really matters.
This is not just about me. The eyes of the nation are on the state that  we love and we need to show them that Minnesota has done everything we can to make sure that we protect every voter’s right. At this moment, I may not have a working office in D.C. or in St. Paul, but I still have my voice in Minnesota, and I certainly plan to use it.
We need to get this right for all of us:Â a true, accurate and valid result of the Minnesota United States Senate Recount so all Minnesotans can have a Senator with the full credibility to lead and serve.
Thank you and God bless.
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34 Responses to “COLEMAN FOR U.S. SENATE PRESS RELEASE: “A STATEMENT FROM SENATOR NORM COLEMAN—
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January 6th, 2009 at 6:26 PM
“I want to express my deep appreciation to all of the election officials and volunteers who helped to make this election successful. I also want to thank the hundreds and hundreds of people who have been involved in this recount process for their work during a busy family time of the year for doing the work to get us to this point in the process.”
And now, I will slander your name and denigrate your work because I am a slimy, philandering weasel who can’t stand the thought of losing to a wrestler AND a comedian. How will I ever bed down another waitress now?
January 6th, 2009 at 7:04 PM
Let’s move on to the Governor’s race while the courts hash this out. Marty is in. I hear Priscilla Lord Faris is taking a hard look and if she goes she will start very early.
January 6th, 2009 at 7:28 PM
You mean “FORMER Senator Coleman.”
January 6th, 2009 at 7:51 PM
Norm Coleman may have left the party, but I think all democrats can agree, he is the best thing happening in the DFL right now. His pathetic refusal to leave the stage with grace, followed by his likely indictment and conviction on criminal charges related to his shady dealings with his Iranian sugar daddy are making every democrat look so much better than they normally would look.
I have talked to many republicans in the past few days who are embarrassed by Norm’s actions, and afraid he will do mortal damage to the party itself for elections to come. Only the hard core republican partisans seem to think Norm is doing the right thing here.
So, finally, after six years in office, I have found something to thank Norm for.
Thanks for just being you, Norm!
January 6th, 2009 at 8:18 PM
“Yesterday the voters spoke. We prevailed,” Coleman said Wednesday at a news conference. He noted Franken could opt to waive the recount.
“It’s up to him whether such a step is worth the tax dollars it will take to conduct,” Coleman said, telling reporters he would “step back” if he were in Franken’s position.
http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/287606/36/
It’s all over but the crying. Welcome Senator Franken (DFL-MN).
January 6th, 2009 at 8:36 PM
How many hundered thousand votes would Normy have won by if the ass didn’t vote for the bailout.
January 6th, 2009 at 8:54 PM
I have talked to many republicans in the past few days who are embarrassed by Norm’s actions
Sure you have.
January 6th, 2009 at 9:15 PM
Don’t you all mean, FORMER SENATOR Norm?
January 6th, 2009 at 10:07 PM
Senator Al Franken….HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
January 6th, 2009 at 10:13 PM
I truly thought Noem had the class to concede this afternoon. Obviously, I was wrong.
Stuart Smalley and King Hussein will be a great pair of leaders for all Americans.
January 6th, 2009 at 10:13 PM
I thought Norm had class too.
January 6th, 2009 at 10:14 PM
Do you think Senator Sturat Smalley will have any “deep thoughts” in the next 12 years?
January 6th, 2009 at 10:15 PM
How about Stuart Smalley?
January 6th, 2009 at 10:44 PM
I don’t know what is the bigger joke, that so many Minnesotans screwed up their votes to swing an election in a recount by almost 1000 votes (including double votes), or that not enough people can see that this recount is being manipulated (lets find some “lost” votes after our guy lost on election day) or that Democrats actually want a Sen. Stu Smalley or that they would want him to win this way or… Any way you slice it it’s a joke.
The joke is on those celebrating right now an Al Franken win. Even if he wins, everybody loses. Typical of the libby left though. Idiots.
This is the best comedy Al Franken has ever produced.
January 6th, 2009 at 10:50 PM
Minnesota Political Trivia for 1000:
Name the only politician to lose to BOTH Al Franken AND Jesse Ventura?
A: Dick Franson
B: Ole Savior
C: Norm Coleman
D: Dean Barkley
ANSWER: (For those of your republicans in denial) C
January 7th, 2009 at 12:06 AM
dan, who is Noem? Who is Sturat?
Angry Al didn’t write “Deep Thoughts” – it was Jack Handey.
dan brome: Worthless high school dropout.
dan brome: Dumber that Tommy Johnson
dan brome: “Deep Throats about Ashin Madia”
dan brome: Can’t Count, Can’t Spell
January 7th, 2009 at 12:06 AM
Right is WRONG:
The real joke is that you can’t handle the truth. More Minnesota voters put their faith in Stuart Smalley than Ole Smokescreen. Can you blame them?
Quit crying you baby!
January 7th, 2009 at 12:19 AM
You are correct… i type too fast at times and my spelling shows it.
As you know, I am not a high school dropout. I graduated from St. John’s University with a degree in mathematics, and have had the same employer for 19 glorious years.
Who is Ashin Madia?
Why would Al be angry if he just won a seat in the United States Senate? Can you explain that?
Oh well, at least I know how to pick a winning Senate candidate. What were all you Coleman supporters thinking?
I was shocked when Norm dod not concede the race this afternoon… I really thought he had the class to do it, but I was wrong. His political future is officially and undeniably over in Minnesota. We don’t like crybabies and sore losers here.
January 7th, 2009 at 12:24 AM
A little birdie told me that I could be dumber than Tommy Johnson and STILL be really smart. That dude must be solid as a rock in the intellect department.
Too bad Norm didn’t choose to save himself by doing the right thing. Even though I like Norm, and actually voted for him for Governor, now I hope he goes down for the count, never to return to Minnesota politics. He had his chance and blew it.
January 7th, 2009 at 1:13 AM
dan brome
Madia is that guy with really bad acne, who you have a school girl crush on.
dan brome: Predicted Madia would get elected.
Madia: His ass was rimmed by Bromelkamp and kicked by Paulsen.
Tommy Johnson lives in his mother’s house. It’s true, ask him. Tommy’s I.Q is somewhere around 75. That means legally, you’re mentally retarded.
January 7th, 2009 at 5:26 AM
Election results be damned…I have never been more ashamed to be a Minnesotan. The fact the we actually count votes from morons that cannot figure out how to fill in a blasted oval is beyond me. Maybe we should let people drive if they can just get to the drivers examine station. Why should they actually be able to function behind the wheel? Are we not disenfranchising those we actually ask to drive by the rules? This state and the voting process has descended to anew low and I for one am embarrassed and disgusted. Mark these words here. Our voter turn out for years to come will be very LOW. We were always proud of our high voter turn-out. No More. Wasn’t some nay-sayer on this blog who kept exclaiming the final coun would be Franken by 503?
January 7th, 2009 at 5:45 AM
That “Franken by 503″ nay-sayer was Dan Bromelkamp. You’ll have to forgive it because it’s retarded.
We should have put Tommy Johnson in charge of counting. Tommy’s reward could have been a free Cheeto for every ballot he got right. That would be such an incentive for him to do a good job!
January 7th, 2009 at 7:38 AM
Has former senator Coleman at least.hired better lawyers yet? Here’s hoping he sticks his current team which have been dominated at every juncture by Franken’s counsel.
January 7th, 2009 at 10:30 AM
[...] line from the Senator’s statement struck me as particularly meaningful, “At this moment, I may not have a working office in [...]
January 7th, 2009 at 2:15 PM
I think it’s a classy statement, and if the Franken camp is wise — they’re clever, certainly — they’ll go along with the Coleman camp to get a full counting. At this point, Franken would be a heavy favorite, even if the indentifiable double votes are taken away and all of the disputed uncounted absentees are added in.
If, as appears likely, what they’ll do is what both sides have done — try to shout “Stop!” when they were ahead — I think they almost can’t fail to get Franken in the Senate, and serve for six years under a cloud.
Those folks who remember the cries about how George Bush was “selected, not elected” with fondness should love that, but, well, nobody on either side remembers the cries about how George Bush was “selected, not elected” with fondness.
January 7th, 2009 at 3:35 PM
“Those folks who remember the cries about how George Bush was “selected, not elected†with fondness should love that, but, well, nobody on either side remembers the cries about how George Bush was “selected, not elected†with fondness.”
Who do you know that fondly thinks of peoples’ false belief that Bush was “selected” as President? Look up the “Bush Gore recount” on wikipedia and read all of it very carefully. Notice that there was first a 7-2 vote stating that the Florida counties did not have a Constitutional uniform standard in place. This vote was taken almost at the end of the “Safe Harbor” cut off date for Florida Federal elections. The law was to ensure Presidential elections didn’t drag on forever and therefore be stolen. This was in Florida’s Constitution. When the Florida Supreme Court overruled the Florida’s State Constitutional law this was deemed unlawful by the High Supreme Court. Courts don’t have the authority to make new laws that’s for the legislative branch. The vote before the end of the “Safe Harbor Day period” by the U.S. Court is all that everyone seems to remember. That decision didn’t end the election upheld the Florida Constitution. Four of those justices (two of who still agreed at the time that there was no Constitutional standard in place yet for counting ballots) had voted that the counties still had no uniform Constitutional method in place. The complexity of a consistent standard for these punch cards are mostly to blame for the recount mess.
In the 5 to 4 decision basically the 4 minority justices who dissented wanted to allow the over-ruling of the “Safe Harbor Law” by the activist meddling Florida Supreme court (It could be strongly argued that were trying to select a President).This would have extended the election past December 13th if I recall correctly. Which would have been past the “Safe Harbor period.†Remember almost a month and half had past since election day.
The problems had mostly to do with the outdated punch card ballot and the many complexities it added to a hand count. Not at all like States using higher tech voting tabulators, like optical scanners in MN here. The famous Butterfly ballot was created and designed by a Democrat (supposedly to simplify the ballot) and all precincts using this ballot were overwhelmingly liberal.
How this could be seen as a “Selection”? This opinion that it was is just common plain ignorance (top Liberals have even conceded this).
To top it off this final fact is the real killer. If Gore had gotten his way only three heavily voting Democrat counties would have been recounted in the hand count. These were all under votes since over-votes weren’t ever considered). A detailed bipartisan study of all the ballots showed that if indeed Gore had gotten what he wanted then Bush ironically would have gained hundreds of additional votes. People who still claim the Supreme Court selected a President are uneducated or too stupid to comprehend the matter. I may have not gotten every detail perfectly correct since I wrote this from memory (check for yourself) but it is close. Many people say there were other problems that could have thwarted the election for either side. I’m only addressing those morons who keep saying over and over that the United States Supreme Court “appointed†a President. People….grow up.
January 7th, 2009 at 4:01 PM
“Four of those justices (two of who still agreed at the time that there was no Constitutional standard in place yet for counting ballots) had voted that the counties still had no uniform Constitutional method in place. The complexity of a consistent standard for these punch cards are mostly to blame for the recount mess.”
Typo and mistake. I meant: “Two of the four dissenting judges in the last 5-4 court decision still held that there was still no Constitutional uniform standard for a hand count. At the end only two of the nine held that there was one in place. The four dissenters in the final 5-4 ruling wanted the election tied up in the courts until somehow finally a uniform standard was created that would be accepted as Constitutional. This extra time would have broken a Florida State Constitutional law passed to protect the State from having elections manipulated stalled and stolen. Only the legislative branch can change Constitutional laws.
January 8th, 2009 at 2:19 AM
StupidrepubliCon, you obviously weren’t listening to your hero, Dumbya.
“The legislature’s job is to write law. It’s the executive branch’s job to interpret law.” –George orWell Bush, Austin, Texas, November 22nd, 2000
And that’s exactly how the misAdministration of Boy Blunder And The Plunderers ruled over these last eight years.
In less than two weeks, the inauguration of President Elect Barack Obama marks The End Of An Error.
Getting rid of FORMER Senator Norm “Fourth Most Corrupt” Coleman will take a little longer.
January 8th, 2009 at 8:00 AM
“In less than two weeks, the inauguration of President Elect Barack Obama marks The End Of An Error”
And the beginning of a national nightmare…
January 8th, 2009 at 10:02 AM
And the beginning of a national nightmare…
Silly little rePete, you forgot to finish the sentence.
Fortunately for you, I’m here to help!!!
And the beginning of a national nightmare…for angry white males in the GreedOverPrinciples party!!!
January 8th, 2009 at 12:21 PM
Pete..
With all due respect, it is in YOUR best interest that King Hussein has a successful term as our President.
I trust that your realize this, but are too hard headed to admit it in public.
If the national nightmare begins on January 20th, then what has the last 8 years been?
Can we agree that it has been a catastrophe?
January 8th, 2009 at 12:28 PM
The legislature’s job is to write law. It’s the executive branch’s job to interpret law.†–George orWell Bush, Austin, Texas, November 22nd, 2000
This quote by Bush is a minor error…what Bush obviously means is just what he says, but uses improper language so it’s confusing. The executive branch as in any other policy making and guiding authority of any scope must interpret the laws on the books. He did not mean interpret as in how the courts interpret the law…Give me a break Tommy…not everyone is a trained lawyer and we all know Bush uses a common voice of the people when speaking. I think it’s good communication skills in general. In this situation, yes, you did cut and paste a speaking error from Bush in 2000.
Finally George Orwell’s 1984 was a book condemning Communism and extreme socialism. It was an ant-leftist book (I’ve actually read the book it’s not that thick). How the left has lay claim to this book is just another sign of their irrational exuberance. Also, the electing of President elect Obama will not correct any error (yes I know it’s a play on the word era) since the 2008 Presidential election was a fair one and just election not like here in Minnesota. You couldn’t mean the 2000 election since that has been determined by history to have been decided justly by the Supreme Court.
January 8th, 2009 at 3:43 PM
A few typos, my friend.
since that has been determined by revisionist historians to have been decided justly by the Supreme Court; many accurately maintain Bush was selected and NOT elected.
As to “orWell Bush” – that’s because Orwell wrote “war is peace” and Big Brother constantly re-wrote history; as does/did the current administration.
And I’m not just talking spin.
January 8th, 2009 at 7:59 PM
Tommy (you can stand up now) & danbrome (you can back away now). It is in everyones best interest that the President do a good job. Unfortunately we have a big goverment president that feels only the goverment is capable of fixing problems.
Like I said boys, just the beginning of the national nightmare (except for greedy little pussies like Tommy who are dependent on having the goverment take working peoples money).
Nice job to have Tommy, paid in cash, no taxes. Wonder how the IRS would do with that information.