MN Supreme Court says Franken "entitled" to election certificate

Seems, according to AP, that the Minnesota Supreme Court has decided that the voter intent of legally submitted, but improperly rejected, absentee ballots in the 2008 Minnesota Senate race, is unimportant, and that Franken is "entitled" to an election certificate, but stopped short of ordering the Governor, Repubican Tim Pawlenty, to sign it. So the initial certified winner, Norm Coleman, is near out of options as the Dems counted until they were ahead, and now have closed ranks at all levels in Minnesota to keep Franken ahead.

From the AP article:

The unanimous court wrote that "because the legislature established absentee voting as an optional method of voting, voters choosing to use that method are required to comply with the statutory provisions."

They went on to say that "because strict compliance with the statutory requirements for absentee voting is, and always has been required, there is no basis on which voters could have reasonably believed that anything less than strict compliance would suffice."

Coleman's apparent only option left is in the Federal courts, on equal protection grounds. Wonder if Bush v Gore could come into play as a precedent? What one must wonder where the whole "voter intent" standard the left championed has gone?

Ed Morrissey of HotAir has this:

As I wrote before, the equal-protection argument Coleman used for this appeal had more chance of success in federal court rather than state court.  The state court kept itself to the issues of state law, rather than the more expansive federal issue of equal treatment of votes.  No one who followed the arguments at the court can be surprised by this decision, which was unanimous.

Coleman could push this into the federal courts, but he has yet to commit to doing so.  Tim Pawlenty indicated that he would follow the state Supreme Court’s direction in handling the election certificate, which means Franken will probably take his seat this week in the Senate.  If Coleman appeals to the federal court, he will have to also deal with Franken’s status as a seated Senator.

I wouldn't count on this if I were Coleman. Does he stick it out knowing he was the rightful winner? Did Dino Rossi, who had the 2004 Washington Governor's race stolen on the 3rd count, benefit by not contesting it? Nope, he lost by a good deal in his 2008 rematch with Christine Gregoire. From this point, there is nothing to lose by fighting on. If Pawlenty won't sign as long as there is litigation pending, then Franken stays out of the Senate longer, which is a good thing for the country.

4pm Update: ABC Radio's top of the hour news reported that Coleman has conceded. NRO has the concession speech here.