Alright already!! Let's Seat Senator Franken NOW! Are you WITH ME?!

we cannot start seating elected officials on the basis of a precieved or possible win.

They can not seat anyone til they have a clear winner and it has been certified by the state. That is how the process goes. 312 votes is very close. But I do think the state should have solved this problem by now. As for the state of Minnesota.... they do have two votes in teh senate. The last senator has not left. He won't leave until the election is finalized. So until then the state is still represented. Minnesota needs to look at how they handle their elections and how they handle the processes for re counts. IT should have been done faster and with fewer issues. You would think after Florida that all states would be looking at how to handle these kinds of problems correctly.

As I understand it it is the same issue as it was with Bush vs Gore in 2000. Senator Coleman wants all the ballots counted in the same manner. In some precincts absentee ballots were counted with out a witness signature or with a different address that the voter registered with and ballots like this were not count in other precincts. In the Bush vs Gore decision the Supreme Court ruled that the state had the right to determine the procedure to count ballots but it must be the same state wide. The commission that oversaw the recount did not address this issue and Senator Coleman wants the Court to rule on it. This could go to the US Supreme Court. There is still the unresolved issue of the precincts that had more votes than registered voters and the "Lost" absentee ballots that were found a couple of days later in the trunk of a car, or a back room or a storage building that went overwhelming for Franken even though he tracked closely to the President in the regular votes cast in each of the precincts. There are some who are calling for a new election to resolve the issue.

Seating Franken would be a complete breakdown of the electoral system in place in the United States. This vote has been manipulated multiple times with varying decision on which votes count and which don't. A court ruling, documenting detail by detail which votes should be counted and which are in violation of the election rules and a coinciding vote tally is the only way to adequately solve this. The worst that can happen is that one party will have a fillibuster proof majority in the Senate, and that my friends, is a travesty to the checks and balances. I am neither Republican nor Democrat, but I am a conservative and a constitutionalist. I don't believe a 60th seat for either party is beneficial to our country in any aspect.

I agree, Minnesotans deserve their two Senate seats and it really doesn't matter what people from other states think, it's those of you who live there and will be represented by either Al Franken or Norm Coleman who count here. I've found it interesting how several people were of the impression Coleman has remained in office. His term expired in January. The one remaining Minnesota Senator has been deluged with extra work because she's the only one. I'm also amused that this story of the 32 ballots being found in a car trunk is still going around. I'd heard it had been debunked back in November! http://www.minnpost.com/davidbrauer/2008/11/12/4565/minneapolis_election_director_speaks_ballots_in_my_car_story_false http://beltwayblips.dailyradar.com/story/minneapolis_election_director_speaks_ballots_in_my_car/ I'd like to add that I know the right really HATES Senator Franken but the politician from Minnesota I'd REALLY like to see gone is Michelle Bachmann. Where did you guys dig her up from...lol? Annie

No, I'm not with you. Franken is a left wing extremist who makes jokes about helping al Quaeda assassinate the president. Scum like that has no place representing the citizens of this country in the senate. Pair that with the fact that there were far too many problems with the recount in Minnesota and that this country would fall right in the crapper if the Democrats actually had a filibuster proof majority. We're borderline being run by a dictatorship already since one party has rammed through their agenda for the last 5 months with no input from the other. The only thing that would fix the garbage in Minnesota for me would be a runoff vote. The recount was garbage and some districts ended with more votes than voters. If you actually look at the disputed ballots you'd also see completely inconsistent standards which consistently benefited Franken over Coleman. Finally, seating Franken now would violate the law and the Minnesota constitution which clearly states that he can not be seated until all legal battles have been concluded. Since that has not happened, he can't and won't be seated since both the governor and secretary of state have made it clear they are going to follow the constitution on this issue.

I agree, it has been drawn out WAY too long. It's annoying how they always find ways to draw out the process. By the time they get done, we'll be appointing a NEW senator into office (OK..A bit of an exaggeration, but still). And by the way, you're a Minnesotan too! YAY! Go us! I personally didn't vote for Franken (neither Coleman, actually, I think I voted for Barkley? Or whoever the independent guy was), but I'd appreciate it if he got his butt into office already (although there's nothing he could do about it). Coleman's kind of annoying and I think it's safe to say he's pissing EVERYBODY off by all of these lawsuits and re-counts and what not. It's certainly annoying ME. He should just admit that he lost; fair and square.