Frankin Senate race not so Funny, 100 Ballots found to be scanned inappropriately
By Albert N. Milliron, Editor Politisite.com, Iron Mill Interactive Media, inc
Could it be that that nearly a month after the general election that more ballots have been found. We live in a country that prides itself in having the results are read on the evening news and all the votes counted within three hours of the polls closing. Is is not a laughing matter that the election numbers are still in contention between these two candidates. This would be laughable but then again one of the candidates is the Man who was Saturday Night Lives, "Al Frankin Decade" How appropriate for us to be sitting here still wondering who is the winning senator. The Minnesota Board of Elections has the results listed below. Hopefully Al Frankin isn't hoping for another decade to celebrate his greatness.
Is this over? Has Coleman really won. Frankin is heading to court in Albert Gore Fashion to have the court to decide that the voters really didn't mean what they meant when 215 folks sided with Coleman in the end. In Minnesota the winner is the candidate who gets the most votes, Frankin doesn't think so. He is looking for a remedy that goes beyond the will of the people.
100% Reportig
Colman (R)- 1,211,590- 42% + 215 Vote
Frankin (D) -1,211,375- 42%
Barkly (I) - 437,404 - 15%
Democrat Al Franken's campaign lodged a protest today over 133 votes that it said could not be accounted for during the U.S. Senate recount of a precinct in Minneapolis, at a potential cost to the candidate of as many as 46 net votes.
Campaign officials sent a letter to the Secretary of State's office and Minneapolis elections director Cindy Reichert demanding that the votes in one city precinct not be officially reported until a search is conducted for the ballots.
Late Wednesday, Reichert said she had decided to keep the results in the precinct open until all of the discrepancies could be resolved, by reviewing all of the precinct’s election materials at City Hall on Thursday.
“Several mistakes were made in the precinct and we need to verify all of the numbers we looked at [Wednesday],” she said.
In the first precinct of the city's Third Ward, the recount showed Franken with 1,010 votes, 80 fewer than the Election Day count. It showed Republican Sen. Norm Coleman with 34 votes fewer than on Election Day. Only two votes were challenged in the precinct, one by each campaign.
Reichert said the disparity in the numbers sent officials searching for the possibility of a missing ballot envelope. When none could be found, she said, the belief was that write-in ballots at the precinct, which were diverted on the side of the ballot box on Election Day, may have been fed through the ballot counter twice on Nov. 4.
Minnesota Senate Race: Typo Fix Gives Franken 100 More Votes
The vote gap between Senate candidates Norm Coleman and Al Franken fluctuated throughout the day Thursday, with Franken closing to within 236 votes by Thursday evening.
The fluctuations are normal, said a spokesman at the Secretary of State's office, as county's double check their work and report minor changes.
A typo in Pine County got fixed Thursday, giving Al Franken 100 more votes and tightening Minnesota's unresolved Senate race even tighter.
Republican Sen. Norm Coleman's lead over Democrat Al Franken stood at 236 votes Thursday night.
Norm Coleman, Biography
Norm Coleman, a handpicked candidate who helped the Republicans take control of the U.S. Senate, has set an active pace during his first term. He defeated former Vice President Walter Mondale in 2002 and quickly went to work investing his political capital.
Coleman started a leadership PAC to help fellow Republican candidates. In 2004, he ran for the chairmanship of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, but lost by one vote to Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole.
During the 2004 presidential election, Coleman went on the offensive against Democratic nominee John Kerry, telling reporters on calls organized by the Bush campaign that Kerry was a flip-flopper. Democrats retorted that Coleman, a former Democrat, was in no position to make that accusation.
Some critics complained that Coleman, who campaigned on a promise of changing the tone in Washington, had been far more partisan than advertised. Coleman moderated his positions after the 2004 presidential election, voting against Bush's proposed budget cuts to Medicaid and the Community Development Block Grant program. He has also consistently voted against efforts to allow drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
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