Secretary of State Mark Ritchie weighed in on his and Gov. Pawlenty's shared responsibility to sign an election certificate in the Coleman/Franken Senate race saying "as soon as he signs it, I'll co-sign it, that's what the law requires."
Ritchie made the comments at a broader election process briefing for reporters saying "my responsibility is to uphold the constitution and to perform my duties, in Minnesota law it clearly states at the end of appeals process which the Minnesota Supreme Court has stated ends with Minnesota Supreme Court, the certificate shall be issued. If a higher court chooses to step into Minnesota politics and to try to change Minnesota law, declare our law unconstitutional or something like that there's no way to predict that. The Minnesota Supreme Court also said to the U.S. Senate you don't need a certificate from Minnesota because the U.S. Constitution says the Senate is the judge of it's own members."
The state's top election official added that he believes the U.S. Senate has been listening to Minnesota because his office got a lot of requests for copies of judges' rulings from U.S. Senate staffers.