Hearing on Franken absentee case set

Democrat's lawsuit over absentee ballots gets hearing on Wednesday

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updated 11:54 a.m. ET Nov. 17, 2008

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Minnesota's Senate recount will be under way before Democrat Al Franken's lawsuit over rejected absentee ballots gets a court hearing.

Ramsey County District Court Judge Dale Lindman scheduled a hearing for Wednesday morning, 90 minutes after the first counties are set to begin recounting 2.9 million ballots.

Going into the manual recount, Republican incumbent Norm Coleman leads Franken by 206 votes.

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Franken has sued to get access to a roster of voters whose absentee ballots were invalidated. The campaign says it would use the information to investigate whether the rejections were proper.

Coleman's campaign has argued that such a disclosure would violate voter privacy, a position that mirrors that of some county attorneys. He filed the lawsuit Thursday.