It will make a good story if in the end he actually wins and just add more to the story that would be Franken as a Rep.

The canvassing of the tally sheets will wrap up by the middle of next week. If that hasn't already put Franken ahead, the next step is a full manual recount of all the ballots. And now AP reports this:

AP: Most Minn. Senate "undervotes" are from Obama turf

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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.
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Three counties — Hennepin, Ramsey and St. Louis, which contain the population centers of Minneapolis, St. Paul and Duluth — account for 10,540 votes in the dropoff between the presidential race and the Senate race. Each saw Obama win with 63 percent or more of the vote.

Larry Jacobs, a University of Minnesota political science professor, said the AP analysis of the dropoff between the two races creates a "zone of uncertainty" that could become a focal point for the campaigns and election officials — and agreed the numbers favor Franken.

"These numbers present a roadmap for a Franken challenge," he said. "It suggests there are about 10,000 votes in the largest Democratic counties that are potentially going to tilt in Franken's direction."

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In the end, I believe Franken will pull through. And in what a dramatic fashion! The right-wingers will be gnashing their teeth!

[ 07 November 2008: Message edited by: robbie_dee ]

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Originally posted by robbie_dee:
In the end, I believe Franken will pull through. And in what a dramatic fashion! The right-wingers will be gnashing their teeth![/QB]

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Originally posted by ElizaQ:
That's even closer then it was yesterday.... and people are giving Franken flack for refusing to concede until all the votes are in as well as demanding a recount. I sure would in this case.

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In any case, why would anyone "concede" if there was still going to be an automatic recount? The result wouldn't be certain yet?

[ 07 November 2008: Message edited by: robbie_dee ]

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Originally posted by robbie_dee:
I believe at one point Coleman did specifically suggest that Franken waive his right to a recount, so as to allow Minnesota to "heal."

In any case, why would anyone "concede" if there was still going to be an automatic recount? The result wouldn't be certain yet?

[ 07 November 2008: Message edited by: robbie_dee ]

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Ha, he wants there to be 'healing'. Coming from a guy who basically shovelled turds on Sen. Wellstone's grave.

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In the end, I believe Franken will pull through

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Originally posted by BetterRed:

Ha, he wants there to be 'healing'. Coming from a guy who basically shovelled turds on Sen. Wellstone's grave.

Looks like Franken would win.
In which case, can someone clarify his stance on Iraq and Afghanistan?

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From his campaign page:

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After leading us into war under false pretenses, the Bush administration has dug us a deep hole in Iraq. The litany of mistakes is endless: the failure to send enough troops, the botched de-Baathification, the refusal to stop looting in the aftermath of the invasion, the firing of the Iraqi army (essentially telling hundreds of thousands of young Iraqi men, “You’re fired, get out of here, we’re not going to pay you, and take your weapons with you!”) – and especially the Republican Congress’s refusal to do any oversight of the war.

Norm Coleman, as chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, didn’t even hold a single hearing into contracting by Halliburton and other corporations – while waste, fraud, and the misappropriation of billions of dollars torpedoed the reconstruction of Iraq. Every dollar that didn’t go towards getting up the electricity and the water, taking care of the sewage, and putting Iraqis to work alienated the population and fueled the insurgency, making a difficult mission impossible and sending the country into total chaos.

And today, Senator Coleman continues to vote against bringing our troops home.

Here’s where I stand:

I say it’s time to leave Iraq. Our troops have served magnificently, but even General Petraeus has stated that military action alone cannot fix Iraq.

It’s been clear for years that this war was a mistake, and that mistake after mistake has been made in the conduct of it. And in my books, on my radio show, and all over this country, I’ve been speaking out for years about this sad, tragic mess. Now it’s time for all of us to come to terms with the truth about the situation there.

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Originally posted by Michelle:
Well, if Coleman is so altruistically concerned about Minnesota "healing", then clearly the best thing for Coleman to do would be to graciously concede the election to Franken.

Then everyone can "heal". Aww! I have the warm fuzzies just thinking about all that healing!

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What will be really interesting is if the canvassing of results, which has already cut the margin by 500 votes, eventually ends up putting Franken ahead even before the recount. Then Coleman's words could really come back on him - although I am sure by then he will change his tune. In the article I linked above, Coleman has already started questioning some of the totals that have come back from the (heavily democratic) Iron Range. Now that doesn't sound too "healing," does it?

[ 08 November 2008: Message edited by: robbie_dee ]

CNN: Franken sees boost in nail-biter election

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In a move that could be seen as a benefit to Democrat Al Franken, a Minnesota judge Saturday denied a request from incumbent Republican Sen. Norm Coleman's campaign to block certain uncounted absentee ballots from being counted in a race separated by–at latest tally–just over 200 votes, in Coleman's favor. That margin has narrowed since the first tallies earlier in the week. Almost 3 million ballots were cast.

According to the court request, the Coleman campaign sought an "emergency temporary injunction" preventing election officials from unsealing, opening, or tallying any absentee ballots that were not inside an official ballot box by midnight election night. Specifically, the campaign was looking to block 32 uncounted ballots from the city of Minneapolis that, according to the campaign in the request, they were notified of late Friday night and that were to be counted the next day.

In a statement, Coleman recount attorney Fritz Knaak said the purpose of the request "was to secure those ballots until we could receive some kind of testimonial assurance, some proof, that they hadn’t been tampered with, that they had been secured and that there will be no question in the mind of the electorate that there had been any wrong doing."

Ramsey County District Court Judge Kathleen Gearin turned down the request "for lack of jurisdiction."

Franken spokesman Andy Barr called it a "sneak attack" on the part of the opposing campaign, because he says his campaign did not find out about this motion until an hour before the court hearing on Saturday.

"They are, to us, pretty clearly trying to do whatever they can to cast doubt on this extremely routine process of canvassing and checking the tabulations and trying to freeze the votes where they were election night where coleman had a lead," Barr told CNN.

Minnesota law mandates a recount when election results are this close.

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