http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2009/01/022463.php

Minnesota Senate Recount, Update XV
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January 3, 2009 Posted by Scott at 6:09 PM

The Secretary of State's office opened and counted 952 previously rejected absentee ballots this afternoon. These are ballots that the Franken and Coleman campaigns agreed had been improperly rejcted under the Supreme Court order addressing the Coleman campaign's challenge to the procedure. After the counting of the previously rejected absentee ballots this afternoon, Franken widened his lead from approximately 40 votes to 225 votes. The recount will formally conclude on Monday at the final meeting of the Board of Canvassers that was convened to preside over this process.

We gave our take on the so-called "fifth pile" absentee ballots from which these 900 absentee ballots were drawn here. The Coleman campaign asserts that an additional 650 additional rejected absentee ballots should have been included in the recount. Given the magnitude of Franken's lead at this point, in excess of the 130 or so votes that are at issue with respect to duplicate ballots disputed by the Coleman campaign and reserved by the Supreme Court for an election contest, I wonder whether Senator Coleman may now choose not to file an election contest following the declaration of Franken as the winner of the recount on Monday.

The recount has resulted in a dramatic reversal of fortune. On the morning after election night, Senator Coleman led by more than 700 vote. That lead fell to 205 votes when final adjustments to election night totals were made by election officials. Franken's narrow lead did not materialize until the Board of Canvasssers ruled on the ballots that were challenged by the two campaigns during the manual recount. The magnification of Franken's lead today was predictable, though the size of the lead he has now achieved is surprising. My guess is that it will give rise to some sober rethinking on the part of Senator Coleman, whose only recourse is an election contest.

Just my -- who could be worse than Coleman, not even Franken. Tho the comedian is green as grass, he will help boost that majority number.


lenal

Sadly, Coleman is not that bad. But there is an ® after his name. (D) is better, IMHO.

R is bad enough even if the person themselves isn't. The Republican Party is totally corrupt even if that is not true about every Republican. Voting for the man or woman doesn't work when a Party is that far gone because the man or woman however "good" has to draw from among the cesspool. Democrats can become as corrupt but they are not there yet and if they are smart (and we are vigilant) they won't be. If I were a stubborn Republican I would advocate for purging my party of the thieves, war-mongers and shills for the corrupt super-rich and return to their legitimate conservative role of checking possible liberal excess.

More on this topic.......

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmem...ballots_cou.php

With Recount Complete And More Ballots Counted, Franken's Lead Appears To Be Insurmountable
By Eric Kleefeld - January 3, 2009, 6:54PM

Today's events in Minnesota make it appear that a Norm Coleman victory is now pretty much impossible -- and it just so happens to have occurred on the day his Senate term officially expired. A nice extra touch.

Election officials today counted through about 950 absentee ballots that both campaigns agreed had been wrongly rejected, completing the recount unless there is any new court intervention. The result: Al Franken's paper-thin lead of 49 votes has now jumped to 225 votes -- way beyond what most people crunching the numbers expected, based on the geographic spread of the newly-counted ballots.

With these new figures, it's worth examining just how slim the odds would be of Coleman finding some way to win this thing, should he follow through on his campaign's vow to challenge the result in court.

First, there's Coleman's claim that 25 selected precincts double-counted a bunch of absentee votes for Franken, netting Franken about 110 votes. During the recount, the state Supreme Court ruled that Coleman could only raise this issue after the recount concluded and an apparent winner was determined. But if courts agree with him on that and took those votes away from Franken, Coleman would still lose. Then there's the canvassing board's decision to restore to Franken a net total of 46 votes that went missing from a single precinct during the recount. Coleman's campaign has indicated that they plan to contest that decision, but winning on it would still have him behind.

One other thing: The burden of proof in any legal arguments will be on Coleman, with the assumption going in that Franken's victory was legitimate. And even if he won both of the two issues above, he'd still be almost one hundred votes behind.

What options does he have left? Coleman's only hope would be to win on his campaign's latest efforts to restart this phase of the recount and force the counting of about 650 rejected absentee ballot envelopes from red precincts, which the local officials say were tossed properly. An affidavit from a Hennepin County election official shows the Coleman campaign hasn't even supplied reasons to look at these ballots, and election officials in multiple counties, including Ramsey county, Pipestone County and others all say they've been taking the time to review the Coleman list, and they stand by their decisions.

The Coleman campaign still seems likely to file an election contest, challenging this result in court. This would bottle up Franken's victory for weeks or even months, and delay Al Franken from being able to take his seat in the Senate. But at this point it's difficult to see how they could have much of a leg to stand on. It really does look like Al Franken's lead is insurmountable.

Looks good, but it ain't over till it's over.

http://www.startribune.com/politics/nation...?page=1&c=y

Franken up 225 with recount complete; focus turns to court

By KEVIN DUCHSCHERE and MIKE KASZUBA, Star Tribune

January 4, 2009

DFLer Al Franken won an impressive share Saturday of what may be the last ballots tallied in the U.S. Senate recount, boosting his unofficial lead over Sen. Norm Coleman to 225 votes heading into a Monday meeting where the state Canvassing Board will certify the final result of the race.

At least two things, however, still stand in the way of Franken becoming Minnesota's newest U.S. senator: the possibility of a ruling by the Minnesota Supreme Court that more wrongly rejected absentee ballots should be counted, and a legal contest that Coleman attorneys all but promised should Franken prevail.

It took only an hour Saturday afternoon for election officials to count 933 absentee ballots that all sides had agreed were wrongly rejected. Franken won 52 percent of them and Coleman captured 33 percent (the rest went to other candidates or cast no vote in the Senate race). It was a surprisingly muscular margin that was reflected in the glum looks of Coleman staffers and the satisfied appearance of Franken's staff.

Franken started the day with an unofficial lead of 49 votes. He achieved a net gain of 176 votes on Saturday.

Coleman's attorneys said that depending on what the court decides, they would be ready to file a legal action contesting the recount results as early as Tuesday. Recount attorney Fritz Knaak said that he believed 300 to 400 ballots would go Coleman's way in a contest, including through the addition of absentee ballots so far excluded and the elimination of so-called "double votes" in Minneapolis.

"We are prepared to go forward and take whatever legal action is necessary to ... remedy this artificial lead that we believe is being shown now for the Franken campaign," Knaak said.

Franken recount attorney Marc Elias was somewhat restrained in his comments following the counting, expressing satisfaction that the disputed absentee votes were counted and confidence that Franken will be declared the winner Monday.

"We are confident that since there are no ballots left to count, the final margin will stand with Al Franken having won the election by 225 votes," he said.

The margin, he said, was "comfortable." Compared with previous Franken leads of four votes or 50, he said, "225 votes is a real victory ... [it's] a close election, but it's a fairly clear victory."

Absentee ballot heartbreak

After the counting, Secretary of State Mark Ritchie said he was satisfied that the recount results were as accurate as they could be, given human limitations, the scope of state law and Supreme Court directives.

But he said that the entire pool of 12,000 rejected absentee ballots "break my heart" because a complicated system disenfranchised those voters. And he said he wasn't happy at all with the court order that allowed the counting of only wrongly rejected absentee ballots that both campaigns agreed to accept.

"The two campaigns got to veto the right to vote of over 400 Minnesotans," he said.

The outcome Saturday was not a complete surprise, as the ballots counted came disproportionately from precincts where Franken did well on Election Day, according to a Star Tribune analysis. But Franken's margin was larger than expected, as Elias acknowledged.

"I told you when we were up 49 votes that I doubted we were going to lose more than 49 votes. I thought we'd gain some. ... We obviously gained more than we thought we would, and that's gratifying," he said.

Focus on the court

With the recount complete, focus immediately shifted to the Supreme Court, which continued to consider a request from the Coleman campaign to alter the process and add more absentee ballots to be reconsidered. But there was no word Saturday from the state's highest court as to when it would rule or hear arguments.

The state Canvassing Board is scheduled to meet Monday (and Tuesday, if necessary) to review the tally of the previously rejected ballots, then certify the final result.

Under state law, an election certificate formally naming a winner cannot be issued until all legal disputes are resolved.

The new Congress convenes Tuesday in Washington.

The Franken campaign, Ritchie and various county officials filed responses with the Supreme Court on Saturday morning. Franken, Ritchie and Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman all argued forcefully against the Coleman petition. They said the process for identifying wrongly rejected absentee ballots had worked as intended and should be completed.

The Franken brief argued that the Coleman campaign had missed deadlines to request reconsideration of additional ballots, and added that all rejected absentee ballots have now been reviewed at least twice by local officials.

But it appeared that the rules for handling added ballots were understood and applied differently from one county to another. While officials in Hennepin, Ramsey and Rice counties said they had refused to consider additional ballots, officials in Anoka, Stearns and Pipestone counties said they had done so, even without agreement from the campaigns.

Much of the day Saturday was spent conducting a preliminary sorting of the ballots. At one point, state officials painstakingly separated the secrecy envelopes from the ballots.

Gelbmann, in announcing the move to reporters and lawyers, said it was another step to preserve the secrecy of individual votes and to "preserve evidence for possible future litigation."

Drama at day's start

The day began with a moment of drama when Tony Trimble, a lead recount attorney for Coleman, formally asked that the counting not begin until the Supreme Court made its ruling. "This procedure should not continue until the Supreme Court has acted," Trimble said, reflecting Coleman's dimming hopes of winning the recount without the addition of more ballots.

For much of the past week, the Coleman campaign had tried to force the secretary of state's office and local election officials to add 654 absentee ballots to the total, saying they, too, needed to be reviewed. The ballots came disproportionately from precincts where Coleman fared well in the election.

As meetings were held last week across the state to review the absentee ballots, Coleman's lawyers were largely unsuccessful in trying to get local election officials themselves to add the 654 ballots to the official count.

In Hennepin County, as elsewhere across the state, local election officials told Coleman that the two campaigns would have to first agree to adding more votes before local officials would consider doing so. Throughout the week, however, Franken officials repeatedly rejected attempts by Coleman to add more votes.

On Saturday, Trimble said the campaign would drop its objection to starting the count -- if the 654 ballots were included, along with several dozen ballots Franken wanted to add.

But after conferring with the Minnesota attorney general's office, Deputy Secretary of State Jim Gelbmann said the counting would continue.