The American Spectator : The Spectacle Blog : Minnesota Recount Update

Text Size

Minnesota Recount Update

By Philip Klein on 11.21.08 @ 9:59AM

Via the Star Tribune, here is the latest:

With about 46 percent of the 2.9 million ballots counted by Thursday evening, the gap between Republican incumbent Norm Coleman and DFL challenger Al Franken continued to close. Coleman was leading by only 136 votes, a drop from his unofficial lead of 215 that was confirmed Tuesday by the state Canvassing Board.

There are several ways of viewing the data so far. On the one hand, the consistent trend toward Franken is clearly good news for the Democrats, and Franken has gained 39 votes in Ramsey County, which is only 31 percent in. On the other hand, 67 percent of St. Louis County and 43 percent of Hennepin County -- both high population Democratic strongholds -- are in, so things could be a lot worse for Coleman than they currently are. Furthermore, Franken has gained 30 of his 79 votes in 17 precincts with older "Eagle" vote-counting machines, and only one of those precincts remains. But this thing is certain to come down to decisions made by the Canvassing Board, which reviews all the ballots being challenged by both campaigns. Right now, there are 823 ballots being challenged (414 by Franken and 409 by Coleman). Many of the challenges are frivolous and unlikely to succeed, but of course we're dealing with an unusually narrow gap here so every step in the process is crucial.

View all comments (3) | Leave a comment

Big Elk| 11.21.08 @ 5:21PM

democRATs are crooks and thieves. Any Republican knows that Republicans have to win at least 4% more of the vote just to offset democRAT criminal ballot box stuffers. Typical of the Minnesota left-wing fascists (fascism always comes from the left, right socialist Hitler?) are are the bold-faced voting crimes democRATS commit with blessing from crooked Minnesota judges. democRATS will do anything to support a black racist pig like Obama.

Gary Gross| 11.22.08 @ 6:07PM

As someone who's participated in the recounts, I can tell you from firsthand experience that the media, Sean Hannity especially, is overhyping what's happening.

Yes, Team Franken is pushing the envelope. Yes, many of the ballots they're challenging are frivolous.

NO, that doesn't mean Coleman-Franken is Florida 2000.

I'm putting together a post on this very subject. Stop past www.letfreedomringblog.com Sunday to read this post. I've titled the post An Outsider's Guide To The Coleman-Franken Recount.