Court Doesn't Stop Counting Of Absentee Ballots...Yet. Opening And Counting Starts 9 AM Saturday

UPDATED Friday 1/2/2009 2:15PM- Minnesota's Supreme Court is unwilling to immediately stop the counting of previously rejected absentee ballots.  Instead it wants more information from local election officials on why they have or have not rejected absentee ballots the Norm Coleman campaign wants counted.  The court's ruling this afternoon set a deadline of 9 AM Saturday for the counties and the Franken campaign to send information to the court.  After that the court may or may not hold a hearing on the case.

That 9 AM deadline happens to coincide with the Secretary of State's opening and counting of the previously rejected absentee ballots.

Point your browsers here on Saturday starting at 9 AM CT to watch the opening and counting of those previously rejected absentee ballots in Minnesota's extremely close US Senate race.  Unofficial State Canvassing Board totals put Democrat Al Franken ahead by 49 votes over Incumbent Republican Senator Norm Coleman.

Of course, that could all change depending what Minnesota's Supreme Court does. Minnesota's Secretary of State's Office announced the opening and counting time before the Coleman campaign filed a request for the court to halt the absentee ballot review process and essentially start over with new rules.  The Coleman campaign says the standards for rejecting or accepting absentee ballots vary too widely by county.  The counties have found about 1,350 absentee ballots that were wrongly rejected.  The Coleman campaign would like to count an additional 654 some ballots it says deserve another look.

Most of the additional absentee ballots the Coleman campaign wants counted are from areas that lean Republican.  Coleman lawyer Tony Trimble calls that a "coincidence".

Related: Below is a wrap up of Wednesday morning's absentee ballot review in Dakota County from The UpTake's Noah Kunin: