More encouraging news:
DAY 3: FRANKEN CUTS COLEMAN LEAD DOWN TO DOUBLE DIGITS
Each night, the Secretary of State will update its count at 8 pm Central Time at this address: http://electionresults.sos.state.mn.us/20081104/SenateRecount.asp
But because we have observers in every precinct (many of which counted into the night), our internal data is more up-to-date. In addition, whereas the Secretary of State removes all challenged ballots from his tally, we are able to report the election judge’s actual calls from the table.
Thus, we believe that Norm Coleman’s margin has been cut down into double digits, below 100 votes.
That, and all following data, is as of the end of counting last night:
- 51.1% of the ballots were hand-counted - and the ballots counted have tended to be from redder piles. In the subset of ballots that have been counted, Al Franken got 48.5% of the two-way vote. In the subset of ballots that have yet to be counted, Al Franken got 51.5% of the two-way vote.
- In Hennepin County: 54.4% of the ballots have been counted. Al Franken has gained a net of 34 votes. And in the precincts of Hennepin County not yet counted, many of which are in the city of Minneapolis, Al Franken got 66.5% of the two-way vote.
- In Ramsey County: 30.7% of the ballots have been counted. Al Franken has gained a net of 36 votes. And in the precincts of Ramsey County not yet counted, Al Franken got 56.3% of the two-way vote.
- In St. Louis County: 35.9% of the ballots have been counted. Al Franken has gained a net of 47 votes. And in the precincts of St. Louis County not yet counted, including the city of Duluth, Al Franken got 63.3% of the two-way vote.
The rest of the release is after the jump.
PATTERN EMERGES OF FRIVOLOUS COLEMAN CHALLENGES - ANYONE WHO VOTED FOR MCCAIN HAD TO HAVE ALSO INTENDED TO VOTE FOR COLEMAN
Today, the Franken campaign presented reporters with a stack of ballots from southeastern Minnesota which had been challenged by the Coleman campaign on the grounds that the voter’s intent was not clear - despite the fact that the ballots clearly indicated a vote for Al Franken. The reason? These voters had also voted for John McCain. The Coleman campaign even claimed that two ballots cast for McCain that clearly had no Senate vote should be counted for Coleman.
Judge for yourself: http://www.alfranken.com/page/-/docs/ballots.pdf
COLEMAN CREDIBILITY ALERT - COLEMAN ATTORNEY STILL BRINGING UP DISCREDITED “TRUNK BALLOTS” MYTH
In an interview with Fox News this week, Coleman attorney Fritz Knaak once again raised the specter of the 32 mythical “trunk ballots” in Minneapolis. Knaak said - and this is this week, after even Republican surrogates like Governor Pawlenty had given up the ghost - that Minneapolis elections director Cindy Reichert had told the Coleman campaign on the Friday night after the election that she had found some ballots in the back of her car. According to the City of Minneapolis, she did not do anything like that: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2008/11/18/coleman-campaign-questions-ballots-close-race-franken/.
KEY POINTS - RACE TOO CLOSE TO CALL
It is clear that the Coleman campaign’s strategy, executed with the help of its surrogates and allies, is to undermine the process and disenfranchise just enough voters so that they can win. Minnesota law, fortunately, doesn’t allow them to do that. And, for our part, we’re going to see to it that those laws are applied to protect Minnesotans’ right to choose their Senator. The race is the closest Senate race in Minnesota history and the closest race anywhere in the country this year; it is too close to call, and we do not yet know who won. The recount is an automatic process used in Minnesota to more accurately determine the outcomes of extremely close races. Candidates don’t get to decide when an election is decided - voters do. We expect the recount to be orderly, fair, and conducted with one goal: To ensure that every vote is properly counted. We may have to wait a little while to learn who won the election, but we will know that the voice of the electorate was clearly heard.
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So why do Democrats have so much trouble voting correctly?
DtM:
Not all Democrats, surely. How many ballots, really, are we talking about? Several hundred out of 2.9 million cast? A fraction of a percent.
Turn it around: Why do so many who have trouble voting correctly, vote for Democrats?
Maybe their troubles in life, the troubles that contribute to their making mistakes on their ballots, also lead them to choose candidates who talk about inclusiveness and making the world a better place. Democrats often appeal to those who are downtrodden.
DtM
IIRC, Coleman is losing more ballots than Franken. It would seem that your meme is completely contrary to reality.
I love the newest urban legend — that if a voter voted for McCain that voter surely meant to vote for Coleman, regardless of how the ballot is actually marked.
Haven’t republicans ever heard of split ticket?
If we apply the same logic to Obama votes belonging to Franken, then Franken wins by a huge margin. No need for a recount. Why even place the Senate race on the ballot?
Is it safe to assume that this will be decided by the rulings on the challenged ballots? If so, it would be interesting to have an estimate on the ratio between ballot challenges made by Franken and Coleman.
Some ballot challeges have more merit than others. The challenges were made because one of the campaigns disagreed with the unbiased decision of the election judge, so most of the challeges will be rejected by the canvasing board. Probably the most accurate approach is to track the recount based on the assumption that all challeges will be denied.
There are two types of challenges.
1. Challenging the validity of a ballot that was counted for Franken or Coleman.
2. Challenging that a ballot not counted for Franken or Coleman should be counted.
The first type of challenge reduces the running total of the recount, but the 2nd type of challenge doesn’t, so just knowing the total number of challenges from each campaign doesn’t tell you enough information to know how each challenge would impact the count. Each of the campaigns knows the breakdown of the type of challenges, so I would trust the numbers released by the campaigns.
“I love the newest urban legend — that if a voter voted for McCain that voter surely meant to vote for Coleman, regardless of how the ballot is actually marked.
Haven’t republicans ever heard of split ticket?”
I heard that one too. I wonder if it is true. If so, it is asinine. Minnesotans are famous for loving the split ticket. I surely hope that the other votes on a ballot have absolutely no effect on how they determine the intent of the Senate vote.
The frivilous vote challenges are about even. A wash. Franken is toast.
Maxus
Nice to see that you can cut/paste your way all across Ted Stevens’ tubes of net. Bravo.
Colemans lead is now triple digits
Coleman now has a wider margin than when the original vote was finalized. It’s looking good for the Minnesota Moderate.
COleman’s lead is because of spurious challenges. I wouldn’t count your chickens. Given a strict vote count (excluding chalenges) Franken is down by only double digits.
I also wouldn’t characterize Coleman as “moderate” given his voting record.
Franken is down about 150 minus the challenges
LOLOLOLS!!!
“Minnesota Moderate”
Rightwingers should wonder aloud, since they like to cast aspersions:
Gosh local FOX affiliate
had a report Thursday evening about the self-identified “moderate?”
Who had a funny home remodeling project run over the $300K estimate -
by about the same $75K “allegedly” funneled to him around the same timeframe.
Suspicious right wingers should wonder about those coincidences!!!!!
If anyone has trouble finding that prelude to a Coleman expose:
http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/myfox/
I Normy prevails:
Should we wonder if Norm could spend his term in jail?