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Hold Your Horses, Minnesota
FiveThirtyEight: Politics Done Right —
... The Star Tribune has logged 391 challenges made by the Franken campaign. Among these, 225 ballots were counted for Norm Coleman (57%), 56 for Al Franken (14%), and 110 (28%) either for a third-party candidate or for nobody. (The Star Tribune did also identified dozen or so challenges apparently made by the Coleman campaign that had somehow found their way into Franken's pile; these challenges are not included in the totals above). ...
MN-Sen: Quick notes
Daily Kos —
... slightly longer answer: Oh noes! Coleman's lead has increased to 330 votes! But don't sweat it too much. The canvassing board has been reviewing Franken challenges, which were expected to tilt heavily toward Coleman. The same thing should happen when the board reviews the much larger pile of Coleman challenges -- the majority should end up on Franken's column. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune crunches some numbers and projects that Franken will win by 275 votes. But Nate argues it's pretty tough to make such projections. ...
Why Not Him?
Eschaton —
Franken gonna pull ahead any minute now...
Minnesota Supremes Decide (Mostly) For Coleman On Absentee Ballot Lawsuit
TPM Election Central —
... What effect does this have on Franken's chances of winning? Not much, in that the current running vote count projecting a Franken win has as one of its basic assumptions that none of these votes would get counted, anyway. But it can be seen as a provisional win for Coleman in the sense that Franken's chances would have gone from likely to near-certain if the court had gone his way. ...
MN-Sen: MN Supreme Court complicates things
Daily Kos —
... p.s. Coleman's lead is down to five. Franken should pull ahead by several hundred tomorrow, and then the rest of the withdrawn ballot challenges will be thrown into the pile. So it's still impossible to tell where things really stand. ...
Franken Senate Victory Projected
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com —
... The gains came as the canvassing board sifted through hundreds of ballots that Coleman had contested during the recount process. On Friday, the canvassing board will consider another 400 or so Coleman challenges. If the pattern remains consistent, Franken should vault past his opponent to a projected lead of approximately 89 votes, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. ...
Franken Senate Victory Projected
The Huffington Post | Full News Feed —
... The gains came as the canvassing board sifted through hundreds of ballots that Coleman had contested during the recount process. On Friday, the canvassing board will consider another 400 or so Coleman challenges. If the pattern remains consistent, Franken should vault past his opponent to a projected lead of approximately 89 votes, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. ...
Coleman’s lead over Franken now down to … two votes
Hot Air » Top Picks —
... ; the Strib puts it at five . Either way, the distinguished gentleman from Saturday Night Live is within single digits of the Senate. Between this and the fait accompli of Caroline Kennedy’s appointment, we’re on the brink of a perfect ending to an utterly wretched year. Let’s get on with it. All we’re doing is delaying a court battle anyway. Sen. Norm Coleman saw his lead over Al Franken in Minnesota’s U.S. Senate race dwindle to just two votes Thursday. Meanwhile, a key court ruling put hundreds of improperly rejected ballots in play and promised the recount would drag into ...
You Can Watch Stuart Smalley Become A Real Senator
pandagon.net - we are the public option —
... You can participate in a rather fascinating ballot-by-ballot look at the challenge process in Minnesota, courtesy of the Star Tribune. If you ever wanted to vote on whether or not a vote is a vote, now is your meta-chance. ...
Franken-Coleman Recount Update, 12/18/08: Now You Know Why Norm Didn’t Want A Recount
Firedoglake —
... Bear in mind that all of the Franken challenges have been dealt with and added to Norm's totals; what's left are Norm's challenges, and since he made more ballot challenges than did Al Franken, and a ton of frivolous ones, expect to see Al Franken take the lead tomorrow, most likely for good. Even the Strib is currently projecting Franken leading by eighty-nine votes once all the challenges are dealt with. ...
AP: Franken Up By 2 Votes; Strib: Will Win by 89
The BRAD BLOG —
... That said, as all of the challenged ballots are finally counted over the next several days (and weeks), the lead could go back and forth a bit each night. The Star-Tribune, which puts today's margin at 5 votes in favor of Coleman, currently projects that Franken will ultimately win by 89 votes. ...
There’s Hope For Franken Yet
Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines —
... That said, as all of the challenged ballots are finally counted over the next several days (and weeks), the lead could go back and forth a bit each night. The Star-Tribune, which puts today’s margin at 5 votes in favor of Coleman, currently projects that Franken will ultimately win by 89 votes. ...
Minnesota Recount May Drag Into 2009
Taegan Goddard's Political Wire —
Though the Canvassing Board examining disputed ballots in Minnesota's U.S. Senate race "is close to wrapping up its
decisions on challenges," a key court ruling "has practically guaranteed that the recount drags into the new year," the Associated Press reports. As of this morning, challenger Al Franken (D) is just a few votes behind Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN). The latest Minneapolis Star Tribune projection suggests Franken will ultimately win by 89 votes. "But the final outcome of the recount will
also depend on some 5,000 withdrawn ...
Al Franken closes the gap on Coleman
Crooks and Liars —
... spent a third day ruling on disputed ballots. There are hundreds of challenges yet to decide, as well as thousands of withdrawn challenges that have yet to be tallied.
Coleman had entered Thursday's session leading Franken by 360 votes. But that lead eroded all day as the board considered a pile of challenges brought entirely by the Coleman campaign. The pile included a big chunk of withdrawn challenges, many of which went quickly to Franken's column.
Here's where it is now.
...
Franken-Coleman Recount: Franken Takes the REAL Lead
Firedoglake —
... game, using ballot challenges as the tool. But Coleman's challenges were, in addition to being more plentiful, more bogus -- which is why, now that the challenged ballots are being dealt with by the state canvassing board, Al Franken has, finally and officially, taken the lead. It's at 46 ballots as I type this (62 per ...
Franken Erases Coleman's Lead, for Now
The Caucus —
... morning as Democratic challenger Al Franken moved ahead of Republican Senator Norm Coleman on day four of the state canvassing board’s review of challenged ballots The vote count was expected to remain in flux throughout the day as the board, which is headed by Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, continues its deliberations. Board members were working to complete the review of challenges before the weekend. (The Minneapolis Star Tribune is keeping track of all the challenges and the current ballot count. ) Mr. Franken’s lead, which reached the high double-digits this morning, ...
Friday's campaign round-up
Political Animal —
FRIDAY'S CAMPAIGN ROUND-UP.... Today's installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn't generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers. * As I type this, Al Franken leads Norm Coleman in Minnesota by 123 votes . It is Franken's first official lead since the process began six weeks ago. According to a projection by the Star Tribune , Franken will win by a margin of 80 votes. * The ...
Nightmare on 34th Street
The Hollywood Liberal —
... it’s currently a 2 vote race in favor of Franken. That said, as all of the challenged ballots are finally counted over the next several days (and weeks), the lead could go back and forth a bit each night. The Star-Tribune , which puts today’s margin at 5 votes in favor of Coleman, currently projects that Franken will ultimately win by 89 votes. ...
With Key Phase In Recount Now Over, Franken Looks On Track To Win
TPM Election Central —
... Franken has a nominal lead right now of 252 votes, according to the Star Tribune's tally. But that number is inflated because more officially-withdrawn Franken challenges of Coleman votes are still uncounted, versus the smaller number of withdrawn Coleman challenges. This is basically a mirror image of where things were during the hand count, when a surplus of Coleman challenges made it seem like he was ahead or that his "lead" was growing. ...
Franken is Winning, and Coleman Knows It
FiveThirtyEight: Politics Done Right —
Minnesota's Canvassing Board this afternoon completed the bulk of its review of challenged ballots. The Canvassing Board ruled upon 1,325 challenges, according to numbers prepared by the Star Tribune, including 852 challenges brought by the Coleman campaign and 472 brought by the Franken campaign. Among these 1,325 ballots, 758 were allocated to Franken, 319 to Coleman, and 248 ballots were assigned to third-party candidates or deemed to be illegal. This resulted in a net gain of 439 votes for Franken, giving him a nominal lead of 251 ballots. ...
Confidential to Sen. Norm Coleman: You might want to heed the advice of a knowledgeable observer of the Minnesota Senate race
DownWithTyranny! —
... The Minneapolis Star-Tribune has a team handicapping the ballot challenges, and they're projecting an ultimate 78-vote margin in favor of Franken, still reckoning without the uncounted absentee ballots ones, which seems likely to boost the margin. ...
Saturday reading.gov
Ben Smith's Blog —
Obama rolls out his science team in his video/radio address.
Franken seems really to be winning.
Blago pardons 22 people, not himself.
Ron Brownstein describes the danger a hardening Republican rump poses to itself.
Hillary uses her list to fundraise for Media Matters, moving her that much closer to owning their content.
Tom Watson defends Change.gov's .gov.
A prominent Republican web guy dies in a plane crash.
And Mike Duncan makes the case for the Center for ...
Franken Camp: We Win By 35-50 Votes
TPM Election Central —
... The Star-Tribune's analysis of the challenged ballots currently has Franken winning by 78 votes once they're all processed, actually somewhat higher than the Franken camp thinks. With any luck, we could know the truth as soon as Monday. ...
The Rude Pundit — ... That flat-faced fuck up there is former Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman (no, seriously, that is a disturbing damn profile - who the fuck hit him with a frying pan?). As the current vote tally of his race against Al Franken stands, Coleman is still behind by 225 votes. This, of course, leaves out the ...
