coleman is screwed. it's not so much a recount, which would be just running the ballots back through the counting machines, but a reevaluation of each ballot to magically discern the voter's "intent". there is an
Official 2008 Recount Guide (.pdf) (which is actually very well done) that describes the "do's and don't" of deriving the voter's intent, but the secretary of state is a dem, and I am sure he will torture the process to any degree required to get al franken elected to the senate.
from the recount guide:
Minnesota law requires that every effort be made to accurately count all votes on a ballot. This means that a
ballot or vote must not be rejected for a technicality if it is possible to decide what the voter intended, even
though the voter may have made a mistake or the ballot is damaged. Intent is determined only from the face of
the ballot. Use the following rules to decide what a voter intended:
(several graphical examples are included)
they only have to flip one vote (disqualify a coleman vote, "manufacture" a franken vote & etc) in every 5,000 or so to reverse the results of the election. the franken campaign will have lawyers present at the recount to examine every ballot. and before the recount can take place, the allegations of undefined and unspecific "voting irregularities" will have to be resolved, most likely in court.
this is gonna suck. in a lot of ways, it's probably going to be worse than florida in 2000. the stakes aren't as high, but this is a whole state, not a few counties.