Al Franken’s team has filed its brief in response to Norm Coleman’s state-supreme-court election challenge. Marc Elias, Franken’s attorney, argued in a conference call this afternoon that Coleman’s case is without merit, particularly with respect to his substantive due-process and equal-protection claims. Because part of Coleman’s case revolves around varying treatment of ballots from county to county, Elias remarked: “What they’re left with is complaining about local control of elections.”
One of the Franken team’s requests in the brief is that the court direct Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) to sign a certificate of election for Franken the moment the state supreme court rules in his favor, instead of waiting for federal appeals to be exhausted.