Follow BeltwayBlips on Twitter
New Ballots Found in Minnesota
Taegan Goddard's Political Wire —
... suddenly turned up and "apparently had been uncounted because of a
ballot-counting-machine malfunction on Election Day."
Al Franken (D) made a net gain of 37 votes from the ballots, as
he got 91 of the total, to 54 for Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) and 26
for other candidates. The Secretary of State's office gives Coleman a 305 vote edge, however, this assumes all challenged ballots will remain uncounted. The Franken campaign insists Coleman's lead is about 50 votes. Nate Silver, who previously projected Franken would win in the recount, now calls ...
Chambliss wins in Georgia, Coleman maintains lead in Minnesota
The Reaction —
... 171 votes were found to have been uncounted "due to a combined machine malfunction and human error," according to the Star Tribune. Still, with 93 percent of votes recounted (and with more than 6,000 ballots challenged), Republican incumbent Norm Coleman leads by 303. (The Franken camp claims Coleman's lead is just 50.) According to Eric Kleefeld at TPM Election Central, the momentum may be swinging back to Coleman. However, Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight says that his "statistical models," which recently projected Franken the ...
No. They Can't.
RedState: Conservative News and Community —
... It should be noted as well that in the battle of the surrogates,
John McCain and Sarah Palin overcame Bill Clinton, Al Gore and
Barack Obama--all of whom campaigned for Chambliss's opponent, Jim
Martin. With the win, Republicans will officially prevent Democrats
from reaching 60 seats in the Senate. The only contest that remains
is the one in Minnesota where Norm Coleman
is doing well enough that Al Franken is trying to get the
Senate to come and save him. ...
No. They Can't.
A Chequer-Board of Nights and Days —
... and cocked eyebrows in Punditland, where many of the residents seemed to think that the race would be closer. It should be noted as well that in the battle of the surrogates, John McCain and Sarah Palin overcame Bill Clinton, Al Gore and Barack Obama--all of whom campaigned for Chambliss's opponent, Jim Martin. With the win, Republicans will officially prevent Democrats from reaching 60 seats in the Senate. The only contest that remains is the one in Minnesota where Norm Coleman is doing well enough that Al Franken is trying to get the Senate to come and save him. So ...
Minnesota Model
Opinionator —
... . Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight.com sees Norm Coleman with the advantage in Minnesota : With in excess of 90 percent of Minnesota’s votes now having been recounted, our statistical models now show Norm Coleman as the favorite to retain his senate seat, although with a high degree of uncertainty and without accounting the effects of potential rejected absentee ballots. The basic process behind our projections is as follows: using precinct-level returns available from the Minnesota Secretary of State, we use regression analysis attempt to predict the number of ballots that a ...
