Recount lawyer: Careful what you wish for
by Daniel J. LaRocque
Monday’s Minnesota Lawyer will contain an article about some of the lawyers behind the Franken-Coleman recount. For some background on recounts, we talked to Minneapolis attorney Brian Rice, whose father, former state legislator Jim Rice, represented DFL gubernatorial candidate Karl Rolvaag during the recount that followed the 1962 election.
Rice also has been involved in about 15 recounts, including the one stemming from the 2002 state Senate race between Dan Sparks and Grace Schwab, in which he represented Sparks. In that race, the final recount actually took votes away from Sparks in his race over Republican candidate Grace Schwab, but did not change the outcome — Sparks still won by a grand total of seven votes.
It’s not surprising that Rice, a lawyer for the Senate DFL Caucus, feels confident that Franken will prevail in the recount and any subsequent legal battle over the final tally. But he does have mixed feelings about Franken’s determination to include rejected absentee ballots in the final count.
Rice said Franken might especially regret asking to have rejected absentee ballots counted if he’s ahead of Coleman at the end of the recount.
“That would be like hitting on 20 in Blackjack,” he said.
