Franken campaign says recount margin down to 50 votes

[Roland99]

Source: RawStory

Democratic Senate candidate Al Franken's campaign says he trails Republican incumbent Norm Coleman by just 50 votes as the recount of ballots in Minnesota nears its conclusion.

Marc Elias, the Franken campaign's lead attorney, told reporters the margin was based on tallies from observers in recount locations. Elias also said he's optimistic at the prospects to have some of the more than 9,000 rejected absentee ballots re-added to the count as elections officials begin sorting through the ballots based on the reason they were rejected.

Whatever happens, Elias vowed to fight on "until every vote has been fairly and accurately counted," even if that means asking the US Senate to intervene. Of the rejected absentee ballots, Elias estimate as many as 1,000 represent legitimate votes that should be counted.

...

While the 50-vote tally separating the candidates was far narrower than estimates from local newspapers, Elias acknowleged, he said it sought to correct for "frivolous" ballot challenges from Coleman's team.

Read more: http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Franken_campaign_says_rec...

[opihimoimoi]

1. Yeah.....way to go

..."and heres to you Sen Franken.....whoa whoa "...

[Eric J in MN]

2. This will probably end with a lawsuit.

We can help with the legal fees by donating at Al Franken's website:

http://www.alfranken.com

[Phred42]

4. Certainly of Franken comes out ahead it will

[Eric J in MN]

5. Whichever candidate is trailing after the "Challenged Ballots" are counted...

...will probably sue to have "Rejected Absentee Ballots" counted.

Challenged Ballots - someone filled in one oval but also partially filled in another oval, for example.

Rejected Absentee Ballots - unopened envelopes which have an issue (the voter didn't seem to be registered, the voter didn't sign, etc.)

[lifesbeautifulmagic]

9. I hope the rejected absentee ballots get counted

On our absentee ballots, we fill it out, and sign and put it in another envelope and sign that, I am almost certain I have missed the second signature at some point in the past.... it seems pretty easy to do,

[EFerrari]

12. Thank you, Eric.

[bdamomma]

3. I hope he beats Coleman good.

[tridim]

6. Just revote MN, It's the only way to be sure. nt

[rfranklin]

7. No need for that expense and bother, just count the votes...

Why waste taxpayer money?

[awoke_in_2003]

11. Their state laws...

do not allow for it. One thing that needs to be changed, at least in regards to federal level voting, is having a standard procedure for the whole country. If the state wants to do it differently for state level elections, so be it. But federal elections should be standardized (and on paper).

[pacalo]

8. I like this part...

Regarding the rejected absentee ballots, Elias cheered the decision to begin sorting through them. Minnesota law provides just four reasons to reject an absentee ballot -- if a voters name or address is different on the ballot than on the application form, if the form lacks a signature or if the signature does not match the voter's, if the voter is not registered or if a voter already cast a ballot in the election.

Elias said Minnesota's secretary of state has instructed local election officials to sort the rejected absentee ballots into five piles, one for each of the four legal rejection reasons and a fifth pile of ballots that were rejected for reasons that are unclear or improper. It is this "fifth pile" of ballots that the Franken campaign hopes to have included in the recount.

I would think that the majority of questionable ballots would be in this fifth pile, & that the majority of these early-vote ballots are for Franken, since the Democratic party encouraged voters to vote early.

[bertman]

10. The first paragraph says "four" but gives "five". New math.

[Mister Ed]

13. Than fifth pile is for ballots that didn't meet any of the four legal rejection criteria...

...but were somehow rejected anyway.

[rgbecker]

14. Signature reasons combine as one.

Not signed or incorrectly signed equals one reason, I guess. Just saying.

[Dr.Phool]

15. Down to 13 votes now!

Franken netted 37 votes when uncounted ballots were discovered.


www.talkingpointsmemo.com

[progressoid]

17. Whoa. Cool!

[ooglymoogly]

16. Al Franken will become one of the few true dems in the senate

something the DLC'ers are not looking forward to.

[weeve]

18. Not looking good

Granted I don't understand the different ways the numbers are being reported, but looking at the Star Tribune chart ( http://ww2.startribune.com/news/metro/elections/returns... )of the four counties that recount today (Wed Dec. 3) Coleman really trounced Franken in the two big ones ( Scott and Wright counties ). In the original count he won those by about 27,000 votes. Factor that into the current SoS numbers posted ( where Franken is up by a few thousand ), and it looks like Coleman will come out far ahead bu the end of the day today. Even with the challenges and absentees, I don't see how Franken can make up ~ 25,000 ?!

Please someone, tell me I'm reading this all wrong ?

[Hassin Bin Sober]

19. Keep in mind there was only a 215 vote difference going in to the re-count.

Your calculations are off, I think, because you are comparing the SOS and StarTrib numbers that are being tabulated differently.

The StarTrib is, I think, more up to date as they do a running total.

The number to go by is the Star's "change number" that shows Coleman up by 303 votes...........then subtract the differential of the campaign's challenges (Coleman @ 3093 minus Franken @ 2910) for a number of 183.........this "183" number assumes ALL challenges are frivolous.

Only a very small number of challenges will be upheld. The "X" factor is who made the most frivolous challenges.

My bet is the Coleman campaign made more frivolous challenges in an early attempt to artificially hold a several vote lead. This could be my bias because I hate rethugs but I think the campaign's number of 50 was probably closer to correct as the Franken campaign's initial challenges were of under-votes NOT obvious Coleman votes (this was before they BOTH started a tit-for-tat game). Challenging an obvious under-vote may be frivolous but it doesn't artificially subtract a vote from Coleman.

The above numbers don't include the 37 found ballots.

[struggle4progress]

20. SOS site shows Franken up by 2535

Last update was: 12/2/2008 8:00:01 PM
Precincts Recounted: 95.30% (3936 of 4130)

RECOUNT Number of Ballots for Coleman (as recounted) 1119878
RECOUNT Number of Ballots for Franken (as recounted) 1122413

RECOUNT COLEMAN and Other Ballots Challenged By FRANKEN 2910
RECOUNT FRANKEN and Other Ballots Challenged By COLEMAN 3093

Percentage of Ballots Recounted = 92.69 %

http://electionresults.sos.state.mn.us/20081104/SenateR...