Extra: Minnesota's US Senate race - How we got here

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November 4, 2008

Little did we know, on the Election Night when Barack Obama declared "change has come to America," Minnesota was about to make history, too.

It marked the beginning of what would turn into Minnesota's longest recount ever.

After the polls closed that night, incumbent Republican Sen. Norm Coleman was leading Democratic challenger Al Franken by just 715 votes.

"What, you thought this was going to be easy?" Franken joked in front of a thinning crowd in Saint Paul.

Coleman told his supporters the night was going to be a long one.

"We're not there yet," Coleman said, shaking his finger cautiously. "I came to say we're going to be here a little bit."

Early the next morning, he was asked if Franken should concede. That's when Coleman would say the words he now wishes he never did:

"I can only speak for me," Coleman said. "If you ask what I would do, I would, I would step back."

Before long, Franken would be the one asking Coleman to step aside.

"This has been a long campaign," Franken said that same day. "And it's going to be a little longer before we have a winner."

First, the candidates braced for the recount, a process required by Minnesota state law when an election is this close - within a margin of less than one-half of one percent.

November 8, 2008

The drama began before the recount did. As county officials reviewed their election-Night totals, Coleman's lead shrunk, and his supporters began crying foul.

In one case, Minneapolis election officials said they needed to add 32 ballots, which were discovered after Nov. 4, to the vote total.

"I mean, you have somebody driving around with 30-40 ballots in their car?" Gov. Pawlenty protested at a news conference. "How does that happen?"

In truth, it didn't happen. The governor later admitted the story about those 32 ballots being found in an election official's car was a myth. They had been stored in a secure facility at Minneapolis City Hall.

Franken's campaign called the ballots-in-the-car allegation a "Saturday sneak attack," and similar charges, and then counter-charges, would come from both sides almost every day.

Experts called the adjustments normal.

"None of this is unusual," said Prof. David Schultz of Hamline University. "If you look at past elections in Minnesota, the difference of what happens on Election Day and what's eventually certified can be, in some situations, differences of several thousand votes."

November 18, 2008

Two weeks after Election Day, the recount started officially. Coleman's lead was down to 215 votes.

Counties picked their way through each of the nearly 3 million ballots cast on Nov. 4, and the state canvassing board reviewed ballots that had been challenged by lawyers for both sides.

Then, there was a serious development.

December 18, 2008

The Minnesota Supreme Court helped the Franken campaign clear a major hurdle by ruling that improperly rejected absentee ballots must be included in the final vote count.

That meant 1500 absentee ballots that were thrown out because of mistakes made by someone other than the voter should now be considered.

Coleman's lawyers tried to block the absentees from being counted, arguing the process of reviewing those ballots would create the kind of chaos seen in Florida during the Bush-Gore 2000 recount.

The argument didn't go over very well.

"This is not Florida," Justice Paul Anderson said, reprimanding Coleman lawyer Roger Magnuson. "And I'm just not terribly receptive to you telling us that we're going to Florida, and we're comparing to that."

It turned out to be just the first supreme setback for Coleman.

December 24, 2008

On Christmas Eve, the high court dismissed Coleman's request to make counties re-check their recount numbers to see if some votes had been counted twice.

This would become a central argument in Coleman's case: the allegation that many votes were "double counted."

"They have taken a number of desperate measures since then to try to create uncertainty around this election," said Franken lawyer Marc Elias.

January 5, 2009

Twelve days later, the state canvassing board declared Al Franken the winner of the recount and said the Democrat had pulled ahead of Coleman by 225 votes.

"I am proud to stand before you as the next senator from Minnesota," Franken said.

Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, the only identified Democrat on the canvassing board said the process, "has been so accurate and been done so carefully."

The other members of the canvassing board were Supreme Court justices Eric Magnuson and Barry Anderson, both appointed by Republican Gov. Pawlenty; Ramsey County District judge Edward Cleary, appointed by Independence Party Gov. Jesse Ventura; and Ramsey County Chief Judge Kathleen Gearin, who was elected in a non-partisan election.

But lawyers for Norm Coleman called the board's fairness into question, and the day after the recount ended, the Republican sued.

January 6, 2009

"As of today not, every valid vote has been counted," Coleman said. "And some have been counted twice."

Now officially a former senator, Coleman said he wanted more absentee ballots counted, he argued as many as 150 votes had been counted twice, and he questioned the counting of 133 ballots that mysteriously disappeared during the recount in Minneapolis.

That same day, the U.S. Senate convened with one senator, Democrat Amy Klobuchar, representing Minnesota

January 26, 2009

Coleman's election contest began 20 days after the new Congress started working.

His lawyers argued the standards for rejecting absentee ballots were inconsistent from county to county, and therefore unconstitutional.

"If John A. Jones votes in Koochiching County, they wouldn't count it, but in Hennepin County they would, and that's the definition of a violation of equal protection under the law" said Coleman attorney Joe Friedberg.

The three-judge panel overseeing the trial didn't buy it.

April 13, 2009

As spring rolled around, the judges upheld Franken's victory and raised his lead to 312 votes.

In their ruling, the judges wrote, "The overwhelming weight of the evidence indicates that the November 4, 2008 election was conducted fairly, impartially, and accurately."

It was Franken's turn to ask Coleman to step aside.

"I would call on Sen. Coleman to allow me to get to work for the people of Minnesota as soon as possible," Franken said.

Larry Jacobs, the director of the Humphrey Institute's Center for the Study of Politics and Governance, called the court's ruling stunning.

"It argued there was no evidence for the Coleman argument, there's no remedy for some of the arguments presented, and the case is so weak that appeals courts should take a cautious eye to it," Jacobs said.

April 20, 2009

But one week later Coleman appealed to the Minnesota Supreme Court, sending his case back to the same justices who were not very receptive to his arguments during the recount.

"Listen, I understand folks want to get it done," Coleman said. "I say this is not judicial fast food."

The stakes became even higher nine days after he appealed. Sen. Arlen Spector's (D-Pennsylvania) defection from the Republican Party, means Franken would give Senate Democrats a filibuster-proof majority

"It took a race that was already important and just put it on steroids," said Hamline's David Schultz.

Coleman now will face pressure from outside Minnesota to go to federal court, if Minnesota's high court rules against him.

And now, the man who asked Al Franken to step aside in the fall is asking for patience heading into the summer.

"I'd say, patience, Al," Coleman said. "Let's --whoever wins this is going to govern with the consent of the governed."

By Scott Goldberg, KARE 11 News   Read Scott's Blog

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