WASHINGTON (JTA) — Norm Coleman will appeal a three-judge panel’s ruling in Minnesota that said Al Franken is the winner of the Minnesota election for U.S. Senate.
A lawyer for Coleman, the Republican, announced Tuesday that he would appeal Monday’s lower court ruling to the Minnesota Supreme Court within the allotted 10 days. The panel had ruled that Franken, the Democrat, won a 312-vote victory and rejected Coleman’s arguments that errors or irregularities in the vote counting had violated equal protection standards.
Franken urged Coleman "to allow me to get to work for the people of Minnesota as soon as possible" in remarks to reporters on Monday evening. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, though, said that Coleman was entitled to take his case to the Minnesota Supreme Court before the state’s Republican governor, Tim Pawlenty, certifies the election.
