 On January 6 , 2009 , Coleman 's campaign filed an election contest , which led to a trial before a three @-@ judge panel . The trial ended on April 7 , when the panel ruled that 351 of 387 disputed absentee ballots were incorrectly rejected and ordered them counted . Counting those ballots raised Franken 's lead to 312 votes . Coleman appealed to the Minnesota Supreme Court on April 20 . On April 24 , the Minnesota Supreme Court agreed to hear the <unk> and oral arguments were conducted on June 1 . 
