Franken up by 4 votes after hand count, campaign says

[Ellipsis]

Source: RAWSTORY

Al Franken's campaign says the Democratic senate challenger is up by four votes after completion of a hand recount in Minnesota.

All precincts in the state had completed their recount except for one Minneapolis polling place where 133 ballots have gone missing since Election Day. Franken campaign attorney Marc Elias said he was optimistic that the ballots would be found.

The ballots are believed to have been in an envelope marked "1/5" on Election Night, and local officials are searching for that envelope. Elections officials turned up four other envelopes -- marked 2/5, 3/5, 4/5, and 5/5 -- and 133 more people signed in on Election Day than there were ballots during the recount.

The hand recount in that precinct is still technically ongoing while the search for those ballots continues. Elias scoffed at claims from Republican incumbent Norm Coleman's campaign that the ballots might not be missing at all.

Read more: http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Franken_up_by_4_votes_aft...

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I would not want to be Al Franken's stomach right now.

[amdezurik]

1. I would love to be the Pepto Bismol supplier

to both campaigns

[rocktivity]

2. The Franken camp was predicting he'd win by 21 votes

which I thought was ridiculous, of course...

rocknation

[nykym]

3. Any one

check Colemans car? LOL

[Auggie]

4. That is just amazing

[ramapo]

5. That is crazy

Hard to imagine that it ends up like that.

[Bearware]

28. Not hard at all

Imagine each 2,400,000 votes is a grain of rice. That is something like 330 odd cups of rice. If you use a standard flat topped measuring cup and use a knife blade to smooth off the top, give the same number of cups to each candidate and you could certainly come up a 4 grain difference. At least once a century...okay once a millennium?

When you have election after election where the exit polls are very "wrong" and the end results are ridiculously close - always in favor of the Republicon, it is clear evidence of election fraud. When there is a paper trail and a recount has larger numbers of votes go to the Democrat - there should be a criminal investigation for election fraud.

The Cons take races that are close and after the polls close they move votes around in the computer until the con candidate just squeaks by. This is supported by faux "news" stories about a surge by some group of voters such as rabid fundies. They also have B.S. polls that make the race look much closer.

Exit polls significantly different from election results are the "canary in the coal mine" of election fraud.

[damntexdem]

6. None of these announcemnets mean anything.

All that will matter will be the final count. That may hinge on lost and disputed ballots; but it is possible that the actual recount could throw it to Franken even without all those ballots. If it did, it would be interesting to see whether the Coleman campaign would suddenly start calling for the inclusion of such ballots in the count, in the forlorn hope that they could turn the count around.

[JanusAscending]

7. Hmmm....

then I wonder why Yahoo has a news item that I just read, that said Coleman was up by over 200???? Who's "bamboozeling" who???

[Bjorn Against]

18. Different methods of counting...

Yahoo is not included any of the challenged ballots in their counts. Franken is basing his numbers off what the election judge rules at the table under the assumption that all of the challenges will be overturned and the vote will count as the election judge thought it should be counted. Neither method is going to be perfectly accurate in the end, but Franken actually does use a better methodology as most challenges are frivolous and will be counted as the election judge called it.

[Tempest]

8. The missing ballots are in an area that went to Franken by a big margin

Things are looking good.

[Laf.La.Dem.]

9. Who is in the lead??

Where can you find the "official" count?

Where can you find copies of the disputed ballots?

[backscatter712]

10. WOW!!!

It boggles my mind that an election could be this close.

Of course, now both campaigns are heavily motivated to fight like rabid wombats in the court over every single vote, so the final tally may not be known for some time...

[EFerrari]

11. Fight, Al!

[Piewhacket]

12. Damn. The (New) Senate may have to decide this one.

GO AL GO!

[Piewhacket]

14. MN SS Site says:

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

Statewide Recount Results for US Senate
Precincts Recounted: 99.98% (4129 of 4130)
Last update was: 12/5/2008 1:28:14 PM

Totals
Nov. 4 Ballots Cast for Norm Coleman 1210995
Nov. 4 Ballots Cast for Al Franken 1210285

Recounted Data Totals Percent
RECOUNT Number of Ballots for Coleman (as recounted) 1208344 41.41
RECOUNT Number of Ballots for Franken (as recounted) 1207657 41.38
RECOUNT Number of All Other Ballots (as recounted) 495475 16.98
RECOUNT COLEMAN and Other Ballots Challenged By FRANKEN 3280 0.11
RECOUNT FRANKEN and Other Ballots Challenged By COLEMAN 3375 0.12

Percentage of Ballots Recounted = 99.93 %

[LaPera]

13. I hope Franken is officially declared the winner by one vote. Fuck that traitor, unethical

political opportunist phony, republican slime Norm Coleman. If he lose by a single vote...I'll be so fucking happy!

And it looks like it could very easily happen.

[tblue37]

16. I prefer a safer buffer. nt

[grantcart]

27. either that or 69 -- it just has to have some comic opening.

[ksimons]

15. Hmm. Supreme Court decided our PRESIDENT / Senate picks one lousy Senator

Sounds MORE than fair to me.

besides, Coleman reminds me of a freaky used car salesman. Who needs another Bush around.

[proud progressive]

17. if this is so f'in close, why isn't the media reporting it?

i don't believe any of this shit

[Thickasabrick]

20. I agree, and the media keeps saying Coleman still has a lead....I'm

really confused.

[rfrrfrrfr]

22. It is not all that complicated

The traditional media is reporting on the numbers that the Minesota secretary of state elections office has, which does not include all of the challenged ballots. Each candidate lost a bunch of votes due to challenged ballots. So by those numbers coleman has the lead. challenged ballots are ballots that were tallied on election night, but have been challenged during the recount process. So Franken is basing his numbers off including most of those challenged ballots as most of the challenges will not stand up when they are reviewed on the 16th.

There is also the case of the county with the missing 133 ballots, if they can not be found they will revert to the election night numbers for the recount as that will be the most accurate account if the missing ballots can not be located. Either way if the ballots or found or if the election night totals are used is good for Franken.

So to recap.

Shortly the secretary of state will be certifying the recount numbers from each county, which will not include all of the challenged ballots from the recount. This number has Coleman in the lead, but and this is the important part on the 16th the election board will meet to review the challenged ballots and add those ballots back in to the count based on their review of the ballots. Almost all of the challenges to ballots during the recount will fail which is why Frankens numbers are the more accurate of the two.That being said with the small margin between the two it is still anybodies gues as to who will actually be the winner.

[minnesota_liberal]

24. Excellent summary! n/t

[NJCher]

25. thanks

I mailed that summary to some confused friends.

Post more often!



Cher

[rfrrfrrfr]

23. Where have you been

The traditional media has not done its job for the past 20 years at least and you expect them to start now?

[Pharaoh]

19. It's a Landslide!

Karl Rove might even call it a mandate!

[slackmaster]

21. I wonder if Al is calling for Mister Wizard to take him back home yet

Politics sucks.

[grantcart]

26. What do we want? A SEDATIVE!! When do we want it? NOW!!!

[alcibiades_mystery]

29. The "campaign" needs to shut up

Seriously. They sound like idiots every time they announce a margin and the official margin listed in the newspaper differs by 200. Idiots. Shut up and let the counting work.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

30. I heard the Governor yesterday saying he was behind by 200 or so votes.

[Vidar]

31. Wow, just Wow! Go, Al ,go!!!

[springhill]

32. I just saw a report about in on the news yesterday..........

and they said at this time that Franken has only gained about 23 votes, but there are about 5,000 absentee votes to be counted, and that other ballots, from both sides, are being challenged. So it doesn't sound like he is ahead at this moment.

[KurtNYC]

33. You know what the GOP would call a 4 vote lead?

A: A mandate.

Go Al.

[FriendlyReminder]

34. Come on Al....Don't back down now.....GO GO GO GO