Welcome to The Conservative Cave©!Join in the discussion! Click HERE to register.
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
SeeHopeWin (312 posts) Tue Dec-02-08 10:18 AMOriginal message BREAKING? Franken is leading by almost 5000 votes? as of last night's SOS numbers! Advertisements [?]91.13% of votes reporting...http://electionresults.sos.state.mn.us/20081104/SenateR...
Bleachers7 (1000+ posts) Tue Dec-02-08 10:20 AMResponse to Original message 1. Interesting hmmm...
hlthe2b (1000+ posts) Tue Dec-02-08 10:21 AMResponse to Original message 2. Wake up, Nate at FiveThirty Eight! We need you to weigh in on the discrepancies! He's still talking Georgia, for the moment
Laura PackYourBags (1000+ posts) Tue Dec-02-08 10:22 AMResponse to Original message 3. I just saw it too !! Wow -- this is huge news. Yikes.
I wonder what party the SOS of Minnesota is in?
Mark Ritchie (born 1951) was elected to be the 21st Minnesota Secretary of State on November 7, 2006. He is a member of the DFL.
Minnesota Democrat Al Franken’s lead attorney said Tuesday that his count shows the comedian trailing Sen. Norm Coleman by just 50 votes with more than 200,000 left to be counted. Attorney Marc Elias held his press conference in Washington just hours after elections officials found nearly 200 ballots that had not been counted on election night. So far, the Franken campaign claims to have picked up 165 votes in the hotly contested recount. That number, Elias said, includes all ballots challenged by both campaigns, assuming any calls made by neutral election judges on the scene are accurate. Coleman’s campaign has challenged approximately 300 more ballots than Franken’s, leaving those votes off the official tally posted on the Minnesota Secretary of State’s website, which shows Coleman leading by 340 votes. The two campaigns have challenged a total of 5,952 ballots. “I’m here to tell you that the vast majority of these challenges are going to be thrown out,†Elias said. “We’re confident that we’re going to gain votes when the challenges are resolved.†He told reporters that more than 9,000 absentee ballots have been rejected, at least some of them improperly. The Secretary of State’s office, which has estimated that about 12,000 absentee ballots have been rejected, has ordered counties to report the number of such ballots and the reason for rejection. Minnesota law says absentee ballots can only be rejected based on name and address discrepancies, if the voter’s signature is not valid, if the voter is not registered to vote or if the voter already cast a ballot, either in person or by absentee ballot. Elias said the Secretary of State’s office estimates that at least 500 ballots were rejected without cause, though the Franken campaign thinks the number is closer to 1,000. Franken’s campaign intends to question the cause of those ballots’ rejection, citing some elections officials who have admitted the ballots were mistakenly set aside. “There are many, many Minnesotans who cast lawful absentee ballots who, due to no fault of their own, had those ballots rejected,†Elias said. The uncertainty of the recount was evident again Tuesday as Ramsey County elections officials found an additional 171 ballots that hadn't been counted on election night. A broken voting machine had been replaced, but those who used the first machine never had their ballots recounted. Elias said the missing ballots were an example of why the recount needed to continue, though he refused to comment further. The new discoveries are likely to shrink Coleman’s slim lead. Ramsey County, centered in St. Paul, gave Franken a 52 percent-to-34 percent margin, with Independence Party candidate Dean Barkley pulling 13 percent of the vote. The recount will continue through the end of the week, to be followed by hearings starting Dec. 16, at which the state Canvassing Board will review challenged ballots. Further steps, including getting the Senate as a whole involved, are possible, according to Elias, who refused to rule out any step. The attorney voiced optimism about Franken’s chances. “I have no doubt in my mind that Al Franken got more votes in this election than Norm Coleman,†he said. “I don’t know what that margin’s going to be. But the direction is all in one place, and we believe that’s going to continue.â€
“Saxby's re-election ends the 2008 Election for all intents and purposes,†Republican strategist Vin Weber, a former House member from Minnesota, e-mails The Note. “By Friday, with Norm Coleman having won the Minnesota recount, the enthusiasm for overturning the results of an election will deflate rapidly. The Franken Campaign’s hopes that Minnesota would be the ‘60th’ seat are no longer relevant, and I suspect that moderate Democratic voices in the Senate will begin pouring cold water on the Franken-Reid effort to drag this matter onto the floor of the United State's Senate.â€
