DFL gubernatorial candidate Mark Dayton Thursday took Gov. Tim Pawlenty to task for saying that felons' illegal voting "may have flipped the election" between U.S. Sen. Al Franken and Norm Coleman, decided by 312 votes in 2008.

"Before people, including Gov. Pawlenty, make wild specious claims...they really ought to have the facts," Dayton said. "This is about the integrity a Minnesota election and I would say that integrity ought to be upheld whether the DFL candidate get the most votes or the Republican candidate or the Independence Party."

Pawlenty, who appears to be prepping himself for a presidential run, went on Fox News Wednesday and said based on a conservative groups' research, that illegal felon voting may have handed Franken the win. The group, Minnesota Majority, found that more than 300 felons voted in largely Democratic Hennepin and Ramsey counties.

"I suspect they favored Al Franken. I don't know that, but if that turned out to be true, they may have flipped the election," Pawlenty said on Fox.

Dayton said such a claim is "extremely irresponsible."

"Anybody who casts wild aspersions on that without the absolute facts to back it up is being extremely irresponsible," and, he said, he "absolutely" includes Pawlenty in that.

County attorneys have said the research from the conservative group, the Minnesota Majority, is flawed.

"Overwhelmingly, their statistics were not accurate," said former DFL legislator Phil Carruthers, director of the prosecutions division in the Ramsey County Attorney's Office, which has brought charges against only 28 people so far.

In any case, even Coleman and Republican Party chair Tony Sutton say there's nothing to do now to change the course of the election. There's no way to remove votes already counted, even if they were cast illegally.

But Sutton believes Minnesota Majority's finding bear scrutiny and has asked county attorneys across the state to re-examine whether any felons who have not had their civil rights restored voted in the 2008 election.

The issue has reawakened the high passions of the close-as-nails 2008 Senate election, which went into recount and then trial. It was decided for Franken nine months after Election Day.