MN Senate Race:The Latest News

LA Times sez: Either Coleman or Franken has won. Gee thanks.

Minnesota Recount Likely to End Up in Court, Regardless of Winner

This analysis comes from a post on Digg by ThoughtLover (love the name):

After browsing around trying to figure this out, it appears that Minnesota state law does not allow rejected absentee ballots to be included in a recount, of which there are estimated to be about 6-12k. Many estimations expect Franken to gain votes in the 3000+ contested ballots (currently Coleman has ~100 more contentions). Even with Franken's expected gains, generally people seem to think Franken will lose the recount by about 50 votes. At this point, everything is within the margin of error.

As Minnesota's Canvassing Board doesn't feel they have the authority to make a ruling, this will go to the courts, no matter who wins the recount, to see if the rejected absentee votes can be counted. According to arguments made before Minnesota's Canvassing Board, according to an article in the Wall Stree Journal by John Fund...

Read the WSJ article here

... the court case will likely revolve around:
1) A Minnesota law requiring "complete voting activity be reported."
- Sounds weak to me. Ballots that are legally disqualified and legally denied recount could be reported as "discarded".
2) Equal Protection argument from Bush v Gore (I'm no expert on this ruling)
- This infamous Supreme Court ruling that decided that the different standards of counting ballots across Florida violated the equal protection clause. Similarly, Minnesota's rejected absentee ballots (vs other rejected ballots) are being treated differently. However, similar cases since Bush v Gore have failed because of Bush v Gore's controversial “limited to the present circumstances” ruling that has limited it as being a precedent.
3) Washington State's disputed 2004 governor's race
- A controversial ruling which released names and led to a scramble to obtain written oaths from people declaring how they had intended to vote. The Democrats won because they started their efforts sooner.

All very confusing... my brain hurts.

Minnesota Recount Updates Nov 25

From RawStory: Franken Finds 6,400 Uncounted Absentee Ballots

With the recount in the razor-thin Minnesota U.S. Senate race continuing into its second week, Democratic candidate Al Franken's campaign says it has uncovered 6,400 rejected absentee ballots and will ask a state board to count at least some of those votes.

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From CQ: Norm Coleman Gains Votes in Today's Recount

But with about a fifth of the total votes still to be re-tallied after six days of hand-counting — and each side poised to challenge close to 2,000 ballots when the state canvassing board reconvenes in mid-December — a decision in the year’s closest Senate contest still is likely weeks away.

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Challenged Ballots in Minnesota Recount

This site shows a few of the challenged ballots and lets you vote on who gets the vote for each example.

It is worth your time. Check it out.

Video: Humorous Take on the Minnesota Recount

Minnesota Recount: Friday Nov 21st

Recount details: Friday's results

For People Who Want to Follow the Recount Moment to Moment

Recount Blog

Most Minn. Senate 'undervotes' are from Obama turf

By BRIAN BAKST – Associated Press
21 hours ago

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — An Associated Press analysis of votes in the tight, still-to-be decided race for a U.S. Senate seat in Minnesota shows that most ballots lacking a recorded choice in the election were cast in counties won by Democrat Barack Obama.

The finding could have implications for Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken, who are headed for a recount separated by the thinnest of margins — a couple of hundred votes, or about 0.01 percent.

About 25,000 ballots statewide carried votes for president but not for the Senate race. Although some voters might have intentionally bypassed the race, others might have mismarked their ballot, or optical scanning machines might have misread them.

A recount due to begin Nov. 19 will use manual inspection to detect such ballots.

Meanwhile, Coleman is using the state's open records law to ask Minnesota and all 87 counties for access to voting data and other records, questioning gains Franken has made since Election Day.

Coleman campaign manager Cullen Sheehan complained of "statistically dubious and improbable shifts that are overwhelmingly accruing to the benefit of Al Franken."

The Coleman campaign cited a 100-vote gain that Franken picked up from Mountain Iron, in St. Louis County, on Thursday night.

The rest of the story

Coleman Fails in Attempt to Block Counting of Absentee Votes

Coleman Tried to Block Some Votes from Senate Race Recount
Sen. Norm Coleman has failed in an attempt to block some absentee ballots from being counted in his close race with Democrat Al Franken. Franken was at last count trailing by about 220 votes.



An Associated Press analysis of votes in the tight, still-to-be decided race for a U.S. Senate seat in Minnesota shows that most ballots lacking a recorded choice in the election were cast in counties won by Democrat Barack Obama.

The recount is scheduled to begin on Nov 19.

Al Franken's Razor-Thin MN Senate Race Counted on Flawed Opt

UPDATE: A typo brings the race closer. The race is only 221 votes apart, triggering an automatic recount.

PLUS: Details on 'What in the Hell Happened in Alaska' and Georgia and Oregon...

read more digg story