Tick tock on the Senate clock…
It looks like Minnesota's long-running U.S. Senate race will continue to run.
Attorneys for Republican Norm Coleman say an appeal of the election contest is likely now that the three judge panel has ordered the review of just a third of the ballots Coleman's camp was seeking. The panel wants to review and possibly open 400 ballots next Tuesday (read the ruling here). Coleman attorney Ben Ginsberg said an appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court is likely and argued that valid votes aren't being counted. He said it would be difficult for Coleman to make up Democrat Al Franken's 225 vote lead.
"You never give up hope. It becomes a much longer shot. We were pretty confident with the 1,358 ballots, that if they would have been opened that we would have prevailed. The odds get a little longer this way but it's still a mathematical possibility."
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Ginsberg would not say whether the Coleman campaign intends to appeal in federal court. While Coleman's team isn't confident that the ballot review will work in their favor, Franken attorney Marc Elias is playing it cool.
"We feel pretty good about where we stand but we're going to wait until Tuesday for these ballots to be opened and counted because we don't know what's in the envelopes."
No one is certain how long it will take for the court to issue its final ruling. Some are speculating that an appeal to the MN Supreme Court could run into May.