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Minnesota Canvassing Board Punts on Rejected Absentee Ballots
FiveThirtyEight: Politics Done Right — ... The second mechanism would be to do the good, old-fashioned American thing and sue. It is quite likely that the Franken campaign will sue if the Canvassing Board does not mandate that the "fifth pile" ballots be counted; the reporters at The Uptake think such a lawsuit would have a fair chance of prevailing. ...

Franken-Coleman Recount: In Which The UpTake, Nate Silver, and MNIndy Kick the TradMed’s Butt
Firedoglake — ... The second mechanism would be to do the good, old-fashioned American thing and sue. It is quite likely that the Franken campaign will sue if the Canvassing Board does not mandate that the "fifth pile" ballots be counted; the reporters at The Uptake think such a lawsuit would have a fair chance of prevailing. ...

Missing Ballots in Minneapolis?
FiveThirtyEight: Politics Done Right — ... . And it looks, frankly, like the ballots have in fact been misplaced. The Uptake got a chance to look at registration tables for Precinct 1, and found the following: ...

Franken-Coleman: Ballot Counting Livestream
Firedoglake — Update: Livestream without commentary from The Uptake. Livestream with Star Trib commentary here. For all the times that the Coleman team keeps invoking Florida in 2000 as part of their FUD campaign against the credibility of the recount, it's rather interesting that the people most closely emulating the obstructionist Bushbots of that time and place are the ones acting on Norm Coleman's behalf.   As with the "Brooks Brothers rioters" of 2000 -- most if not all of whom were paid activists and/or Republican ...

MN-Sen: Canvass board meeting coverage
Daily Kos — Proof that I am the biggest nerd ever? I am riveted by coverage of the canvass board meeting's review of challenged ballots. You can catch it at The Uptake. p.s. And before you freak out, they've started with the Franken challenges first, so Coleman is winning the bulk of the challenges. That'll obviously flip when the commission starts reviewing the Coleman challenges. Update: And just as I post this, today's counting is over. But they'll be back tomorrow. I'll be watching. ...

MN-Sen: Quick notes
Daily Kos — Where are we in the recount? Short answer? Who the heck knows. The 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 ...

MN-Sen: Counting Votes
TalkLeft — The Uptake provides great coverage of what trying to enfranchise all voters look like. Things are looking good for Franken right now BTW. Go Al!

MN-Sen: Good morning for Franken
Daily Kos — From the Uptake: Morning numbers in total (votes, not challenges): Franken 210, Coleman 11, Other 46. %s: Franken 78.65, Coleman 4.11, Other 17.23. Remaining ballots: 733. Applying above %s to 733: Franken 577, Coleman 30, Other 126. Franken net for rest of day: 547. Current deficit: 164. Franken lead: 383. Usual assumptions re withdrawn challenges apply. That's just this morning. They started with Coleman challenges yesterday afternoon. That "withdrawn challenges" assumption refers to the hundreds of challenges pulled by Franken ...

Midday open thread
Daily Kos — No wonder the SEC couldn't get around to busting Bernie Madoff. They had more important priorities. Buffalo News wasn't impressed by Caroline Kennedy: In her first visit to Buffalo and upstate since trying to clear the field by clearing her throat on a phone call to the governor, Kennedy went on a "listening tour" by listening first to political insiders in private meetings [...] Her visit was arranged as Kennedy apparently leads the governor's shortlist to fill the seat Hillary Clinton will vacate to become secretary of state. But if the Democratic ...

Franken Up by 209 Votes So Far
Open Left - Front Page — I'm watching at The Uptake.  Franken is now up in the tally.  By the Star Tribune's count, Franken is up by 209 votes.

Coleman Not in Giving Mood on Absentees
FiveThirtyEight: Politics Done Right — UPDATE (8:45 PM): The Uptake (as usual) has better and more recent info than I do. Coleman is requesting the following: -778 absentee ballots OPENED on the basis of recommendations from local election officials. -544 absentee ballots LOOKED at more closely before they are opened (or not) -67 absentee ballots OPENED that are not currently on the list from local election officials -587 absentee ballots LOOKED at more closely before they are opened (or not) that are not currently on the list from local election officials. ...

In Minnesota, End of the Beginning Starts Today
FiveThirtyEight: Politics Done Right — UPDATE (9:48 AM): The state will now begin counting the ballots; see The Uptake for live video coverage. The Supreme Court has not yet ruled on Coleman's petition, nor was the recount team in St. Paul willing to delay the counting until it heard from the Court. ...

Even More Ballot Counting in Minnesota
The Caucus — ... the event. And the scintillating process of opening the ballots and counting them is being recorded on live streaming video , sure to whet the appetite for the movie awards season. The audio included the sound of envelopes being opened, specific counties being announced (“Two ballots for Lake County”), with occasional commentary from The Uptake’s Mike McIntee, who sounded like a golf announcer in hushed towns describing a big putt. He acknowledged that if you were watching the live stream on a Saturday afternoon, especially on a day when the Vikings were set to play the ...

Norm Coleman's Lawyer: I Will Have My Way!
Open Left - Front Page — Things are getting heated in Minnesota as officials prepare to count hundreds of wrongly rejected absentee ballots today. This morning there was quite an exchange between Norm Coleman's lawyer and a deputy secretary of state: At the start of Saturday's meeting, Coleman attorney Tony Trimble asked Deputy Secretary of State Jim Gelbmann to cease any counting today. After about an hour recess to consult the state attorney general's office, Gelbmann returned saying the decision was to "not slow down this process today, get the counting underway." "We are relying on the oral advice of ...

Franken Winning Vast Majority of Wrongly Rejected Absentee Ballots
Open Left - Front Page — Norm Coleman's lawyer's tried to stop the counting of hundreds of wrongly rejected absentee ballots and now we know they had good reason: those ballots are breaking for Al Franken who is winning nearly 60 percent of them. With another 15 percent going to "other" that doesn't leave many for Coleman. The Uptake has a live feed where the votes are now being counted and you can also check their live updated spreadsheet here. But as of right now: Franken: 270 Coleman: 160 Other/No vote: 79 So to win, Coleman must get a court to throw out these newly counted ballots and ...

Franken Jumps Out to 225-Vote Lead on Strength of Absentee Ballots
FiveThirtyEight: Politics Done Right — ... All told, Franken gained a net of 176 ballots from the 952 under review according to The Uptake's unofficial count, putting him 225 votes ahead in the recount overall. Excluding disqualified ballots, Franken won 53.7 percent of the votes counted today, Coleman 34.1 percent, and other candidates 12.4 percent. Franken's 225-vote advantage is now slightly larger than the one Norm Coleman held before the recount began, when he led by 215 votes based on the certified Election Night tally. ...

Go Franken Go!
Crooks and Liars — ... All told, Franken gained a net of 176 ballots from the 952 under review according to The Uptake's unofficial count, putting him 225 votes ahead in the recount overall. Excluding disqualified ballots, Franken won 53.7 percent of the votes counted today, Coleman 34.1 percent, and other candidates 12.4 percent. Franken's 225-vote advantage is now slightly larger than the one Norm Coleman held before the recount began, when he led by 215 votes based on the certified Election Night tally. ...

Minnesota Recount Trial Begins Momentarily
FiveThirtyEight: Politics Done Right — I've been commenting a bit less on things in the Land o' Lakes as we've moved from the counting phase to the legal phase of the process, but the court case is beginning today at 1 PM Central time and I'll be monitoring the goings on. In the meantime, click below the fold to find a live video feed from The Uptake. ...

Election contest day one
Power Line — ... By the end of the day, counsel for Senator Coleman were unable to advise the election contest panel what witnesses it might call today. At this point there is more suspense in seeing whether Senator Coleman can put in his case than in assessing the likely outcome of the proceedings, which can be viewed live online here. ...

Good job Norman
Rising Hegemon — Well, the extra ballots were just counted and after Franken started out with a 225 vote lead, the ballots Coleman fought so hard to have counted just were counted. The result? Al Franken is now up 313. (pic from here) ...