MN senate recount update : Franken leads by 50

[Wretched Excess]

this is looking pretty grim . . . 

Franken leads by 50

With only mistakenly rejected absentee ballots left to tally in Minnesota's U.S. Senate recount, Democrat Al Franken has a 50-vote lead over Republican U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman.

The lead, Franken's largest since Election Day, buoyed the Franken campaign.

"We are absolutely thrilled with where we stand," said Marc Elias, Franken recount attorney.

The Coleman campaign was less than thrilled.

"We're faced with an artificial Franken lead," said Coleman recount attorney Tony Trimble. The Coleman campaign has all but promised it will contest the election results in court because it believes more than 100 votes from Franken-friendly areas were double counted.

The 50-vote lead is provisional because there are still rejected absentee ballots to count.

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[DumbAss Tanker]

Dammit.

 

[Wretched Excess]

fascinating email from a powerline blog reader

I was a "floor lead" for the entire Dakota County recount, all seven days, from morning until all left in the evening. I watched the rules change through the process. The first changes appeared on day 1. At first counters were to count duplicate ballots; then originals; then a couple of days later, the two parties were to agree on which ballots to count: duplicates or originals. So the system was inconsistent from the beginning.

It appeared that the communications between the Franken team and the Secretary of State was very good. It also appears that no one in the Coleman camp challenged this. I said from the beginning, "If they count the ballots that were done on election night, Coleman will win." Once the rules started changing, I lost confidence in the process.

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[Wretched Excess]

in a related story, the race for "most embarrassed state" is now a tie between  illinois ("our governor is so crooked that when he dies, they are gonna hafta screw him into the ground") and minnesota ("yes, we really are sending a washed up comedian that wasn't ever really funny in the first place to the US senate").

which one of these wonderful choices would you prefer?  the convict, or the retard?

[DumbAss Tanker]

which one of these wonderful choices would you prefer?  the convict, or the retard?

I think I'd go with the crook, he would at least go along with most of the sane stuff, as long as he could see what was in it for him.

[Wretched Excess]

stuart smalley came very close to claiming victory yesterday. 

Even with the recount still occurring, Franken released a statement Tuesday in which he predicted he would win. "Today, the state canvassing board completed an important step in this process," Franken said, "and as it appears that we're on track to win, I want Minnesotans to know that I'm ready to get to work for them in Washington on Day One."

Duncan, however, took exception to Franken's statement, saying, "Al Franken's declarations of victory are as inaccurate as they are premature. This recount has taken some time and we won't know a winner for weeks to come. And, when a winner finally does emerge, we are confident it will be Norm Coleman."

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[Atomic Lib Smasher]

Coleman was supposed to be the winner as of November 5th! But some lady in St. Paul found 500 Al Franken votes in her toilet and now we got this mess. Great.

[Wretched Excess]

ritchie is not just a dem, he's a former ACORN activist.  he could just have his panties in a wad because franken's premature exclamation could have upstaged all of the media attention that he is getting because of the recount.

Minnesota Secretary of State: Franken Pseudo-Declaration of Victory 'Premature'

We just finished a podcast interview with Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie about the Senate recount going on in that state of 10,000 lakes.

Mr. Ritchie had lots to say about the continuing process to recount the 2.9 million ballots in that state -- as you may know, on election night, incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., lead Democrat Al Franken by 215 votes, or .007%, kicking in an automatic recount of the state's ballots.

ABC News Shuffle podcast producer Huma Khan is working right now on posting the audio and writing up some of the more interesting bits.

But one thing seemed immediately interesting: Of Franken's declaration that "it looks like we’re on track to win. The state canvassing board has completed its job of reviewing all the ballots -- and at the end of this important step in the process, we're ahead," Ritchie, a Democrat, not only called it "premature," he seemed almost offended.

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