A (hopefully) running update on the state of the recount between incumbent Senator Norm Coleman and DFL challenger Al Franken.
Hello there everyone. I am currently at work, and will be for much of the day, and so I am not able to devote the level of attention to the MN senate recount that my obsession demands.
I still intend to try, though.
As of 2:18 pm Central time, the first pebbles of what I dearly hope to be a landslide have started rolling down the hill.
Al Franken has apparently picked up (insert drum roll here) 1 VOTE! His deficit is now 214 votes, according to the Star Tribune...this is not yet reflected on the Secretary of State page, but I don't expect those results to be reflected in realtime. More interestingly, a Ramsey County (Saint Paul and immediate suburbs) judge has granted an injunction to the Franken campaign requiring the county to release all written information on rejected absentee ballots (source: Star Trib). This will hopefully enable DFL volunteers to try to track down these voters and get more information on how they voted.
I hope to update this diary throughout the upcoming day(s), but with my work schedule I will probably need some help. I entreat any and all Minnesota Kossacks...and any other interested parties...to post updates in the comments if I'm missing something.
UPDATE: According to Minnesota Public Radio, the Secretary of State will be updating the new vote totals at about 8:00 pm CST. There was no mention of whether this would be standard procedure each day during the recount, but I'd say it's a good bet.
Unofficially, Al Franken gained an additional 28 votes in some St. Louis County (Duluth) precincts owing to an older model of optical scanner unable to read fainter marks. As I understand it, there are several more precincts that use the same type of machine though these are by far the minority.
Progress was slower than expected in several of the Twin Cities Metro counties, as SecState Mark Ritchie puts his money where his mouth is about accuracy. Very good to see, no matter the result.
At this point I am not 100% sure how the SecState tallies will reflect challenged ballots -- my best guess is that the totals for both candidates will go down, pending the final ruling of the state commission. This final verification of challenged ballots will not start until mid-December, so if the results remain tight it's going to be a stressful month.