Coleman rests case in Minn. Senate race

ST. PAUL, Minn., March 2 (UPI) -- Lawyers for Republican Norm Coleman rested their case Monday in his recount trial battle with Democrat Al Franken for Minnesota's vacant U.S. Senate seat.

Franken's attorneys will begin presenting their side of the election case Tuesday, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.

The Coleman side rested after winding up its interrogation of state elections director Gary Poser and Republican election judge Pamela Howell.

Howell's testimony was interrupted last week after it was learned she had given the Coleman team documents that were not shared with the Franken side.

Howell testified she heard a judge at her south Minneapolis precinct say some duplicate absentee ballots had been mistakenly fed into a vote tabulator without being labeled. That could mean unmarked duplicate absentee ballots could have been counted twice, Coleman's attorneys contend.

It is not clear how long Franken's attorneys will take to present their case but it is not expected to be the five weeks Coleman took. Franken said at a fundraiser Saturday he expected the trial to go on another two or three weeks.

Franken, a long-time comic writer and satirist, has a 225-vote lead following the certified recount. Coleman, a career politician who held the seat the past six years, had led by about 215 votes in unofficial returns following the Nov. 4 election.

With the seat up in the air, Minnesota has been under-represented in the Senate. Democrat Amy Klobuchar is the state's other U.S. senator.