Coleman Wins Recount, Too, But Race Not Over

The recount of the Minnesota Senate race between incumbent Republican Norm Coleman and Democratic comedian Al Franken has concluded, with Coleman still slightly ahead.   Still up in the air, though, is the fate of 133 “missing” ballots (which are almost certainly an accounting error) and a passel of “challenged” ballots that will have to be adjudicated by the state Canvassing Board on December 16.

Wright County Sheriff's Deputy Ron Smith looked on as Wright County treasurer Bob Hiivala and maintance engineer Allen Buskey pack up the last of the ballots to be recounted in Wright County. (Jim Gehrz, Star Tribune)

Wright County Sheriff's Deputy Ron Smith looked on as Wright County treasurer Bob Hiivala and maintance engineer Allen Buskey pack up the last of the ballots to be recounted in Wright County. (Jim Gehrz, Star Tribune)

Pending the fate of the missing ballots, the Star Tribune calculates that Republican Sen. Norm Coleman leads Democrat Al Franken by 192 votes — a margin 23 votes narrower than the 215-vote lead that Coleman was awarded by the state Canvassing Board just before the recount began Nov. 19.

The Secretary of State’s Office, leaving out the disputed precinct altogether, shows Coleman ahead of Franken by 687 votes.

The Franken campaign reached yet another conclusion — Franken ahead by four votes — by including a projection on 6,655 ballots challenged by both campaigns.

Franken looks like an idiot for continuing to claim he’s ahead when he’s been behind from the get-go.  It’s politically shrewd, however, because it keeps his partisans revved up and will allow him to perpetuate the idea that the election was somehow stolen from him if and when Coleman is finally judged the winner.

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James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. MichaelB says:

    He lost the first count, and the second, but somehow is shrewdly convincing people that the election was stolen from him?

    Either he is only convincing a very small number of people, or Minnesota has a disproportionate number of innumerate citizens.

  2. markm says:

    Norm Coleman leads Democrat Al Franken by 192 votes

    According the the Minneesoter Secretary of State Coleman leads by 792 votes. Give all the 133 “missing” ballot votes to Franken, re-run the numbers through the State abacus and call Coleman the winner by 659 votes (+/-10% for a safety factor)and be done with it.

    What a farce.

  3. Tano says:

    markm,

    What is farcical is your attempt to explain a situation that you do not understand.

    The 792 lead is based on NO votes from the disputed precinct being counted – i.e. they have simply not counted that precinct at all until the dispute over the 133 missing ballots is resolved.

    Setting aside the 133, Franken leads in that precinct amongst all the other undisputed votes. Thus the margin will shrink down to the <200 range irrespective of what happens with the 133 – once that precinct is counted.

    The 6K+ challanged ballots will obviously break one way or the other. The Franken campaign’s best guess (self-interested no doubt) is that they will win enough of the challanges to close the gap and leave them 4 up.

    It is certainly a plausible outcome. And no candidate in their right mind would concede the election before those challenges were examined.

  4. Gustopher says:

    Let’s see, if there are still the issue of the precinct with 133 missing ballots to be decided, and five or six thousand challenged ballots, then Coleman hasn’t really won the recount yet, has he?

  5. Bithead says:

    He lost the first count, and the second, but somehow is shrewdly convincing people that the election was stolen from him?

    Well, be mindful of whom it is he’s convincing.