Franken Wins?! - Ya Shure, You Bet’chya

And you thought the election ended back in November--Wrong! For those students from the great state of Minnesota the election has yet to end. You may have heard about the MN senate race. You know, the former funnyman (and Harvard grad!) versus the former Democrat. You probably just thought to yourself…oh silly Minnesota. Well, today  judges have declared Alan S. Franken '73 the new senator, but  knowing Minnesota, the drama isn't over yet.

Let's hear from the denizens of the "Land of 10,000 Lakes" themselves after the jump.

Let’s play catch-up for a moment. After election night, Senator Norm Coleman was ahead by 215 votes, a marginal “victory” triggered an automatic recount according to state law.

This recount took a few months to complete, resulting in a Franken lead of 225 votes. What caused the change? Over 300 rejected ballots were added. You may have seen on CNN and Fox in December and January that some absentee ballots voted for Franken but also wrote in (but without marking the write in choice option) for “Lizard People.”

All over right? Even some students who hail from the land of 10,000 lakes think it should be. “I think that’s over now right? Didn’t Coleman concede that?” Says Richard Liu ’11. Not so fast. Another pesky Minnesota state law does not allow the secretary of state to issue a certificate (granting formal victory) until all lawsuits have run their course. Senator Coleman has filed several lawsuits, the most recent of which actually resulted in increasing Franken’s lead to 315 votes. Now that the lower court has declared in favor of Franken, Coleman is going to the state Supreme Court, and if that fails, he may continue to the federal court system.

So why should you care? For going on 6 months, the state of Minnesota has not been given their right to representation. Now don’t discount this fact because you think Minnesota is the “boonies” or a “flyover” area. Minnesota has the highest voting rate in the country. 78% of eligible Minnesotans voted in the 2008 election. Garrett J. Augustine ’10 feels that the whole process of judges deciding the election is to blame. “Whichever way it gets decided by the judges does not seem like the will of the people,” says Augustine. Clearly Minnesotans care about their elections.

The Minnesota senate race is the deciding factor in the Senate. It will make or break a Democratic super-majority. So, whatever party to root for, this race has clear salience. Plus, enough time as passed for the era of the 2008 presidential elections to be hip again.