2106 of 4130 | Original Total | Recount total | Gain/ Loss |
Coleman | 534687 | 534475 | -212 | 129 | Current Margin |
Franken | 494930 | 494804 | -126 | 86 | Franken Gain |
Below the fold:
Coleman Camp Shows Persistent Paranoia!
Colman Heavy Wright County Auditor/Treasurer Didn't Think he had to do the Recount!
Team Franken Seeing Great Volunteer Turnout!
Are Al Franken's Volunteers Under a Campaign Imposed Gag Order?
County Officials Giving Challengers "Wide Latitude"!
Date | Precincts Reporting | Original Coleman | Recount Coleman | Diff. Col. | Clg. Col. | Original Franken | Recount Franken | Diff. Fra. | Clg. Fra. | Franken Margin |
11-19 | 957 of 4130 | 195708 | 195638 | -70 | 115 | 180950 | 180923 | -27 | 106 | 43 |
11-20 | 1149 of 4130 | 338979 | 338837 | -142 | 259 | 313980 | 313881 | -99 | 254 | 43 |
Total | 2106 of 4130 | 534687 | 534475 | -212 | 374 | 494930 | 494804 | -126 | 360 | -129 |
Methodology:
All Numbers are from the official Minnesota Secretary of State Nightly Reports
Diff. is the difference in votes between the recounted total and the canvas results from 11-18.
Clg. is the number of ballots challenged by Colman and Franken's camps.
Franken Margin is the number of votes Franken gains or losses each day assuming no other changes to the totals.
Coleman Camp shows persistent paranoia!
"I (Houston County auditor Char Meiners) get home at midnight, go to bed, and at 2 o’clock in the morning, Coleman’s rep. is on the phone wanting me to come up (to the courthouse) and prove to him the ballots are secure," Meiners said. "I didn’t come in. I told him I wasn’t going to. I didn’t think that was appropriate."
"How is that going to look if the Coleman guy and I are down in the vault with the ballots in the middle of the night?" she added.
The staffer from Coleman’s office found a sheriff’s deputy at the courthouse that evening and asked him to lock up the ballots. Houston County Chief Deputy Scott Yeiter said all his office did was try and find contact information for the auditor so she could attest to the ballots’ security.
"We did not ask the deputy or the auditor to stand guard over the ballots," Erickson said. "That’s what our volunteers would do."
And that’s what they did. According to Meiners, Coleman staff, for the next couple days, camped down by the vault to make sure no one went in it without their knowledge. Those volunteers were still there as of Monday, said Yeiter, who received an email saying they’d be there until the recount starts.
And that’s what they did. According to Meiners, Coleman staff, for the next couple days, camped down by the vault to make sure no one went in it without their knowledge. Those volunteers were still there as of Monday, said Yeiter, who received an email saying they’d be there until the recount starts.
This was a strong Coleman County (5,028 to 4,596) so imagine how paranoid they are in Franken Counties.
Wright County Auditor/Treasurer Bob Hiivala didn't think he had to do the recount!
Just one day after doing a post-election canvass of three county precincts and expecting to be one of nine counties not taking part in the recount of the senatorial election battle between incumbent Republican Norm Coleman and Democratic challenger Al Franken, after discussions with the Secretary of State's office, Wright County will have its nearly 65,000 votes recounted.
Hiivala, who initially turned down an initial request from the Secretary of State's office immediately after the Nov. 4 elections.
Coleman won Wright County by a substantial margin. He received 32,989 votes - more than 13,000 votes more than Franken received (18,664). Independence Party candidate Dean Barkley of Annandale finished third, but had a strong showing with 13,010 votes.
(Tin Foil Warning) Franken's team might want to think about placing guards there.
The Recount Plan (PDF) includes all 87 Counties.
Team Franken seeing great volunteer turnout!
Team Coleman showed up early Wednesday, but Team Franken arrived in greater numbers and was able to rotate fresh sets of eyes in and out between precincts.
"This morning, we needed five volunteers to help out with the recount, and instead we got 15," said Jess McIntosh, Franken spokeswoman. "It’s illustrative of the amount of support we’ve been receiving throughout the campaign and the recount."
Franken’s volunteers carried clipboards and manila envelopes, with each precinct’s official vote totals, to compare with the recount totals.
This, along with the next item, are anecdotal reports, so if you can volunteer to help with the recount effort, check with your local DFL office.
Are Al Franken's volunteers under a campaign imposed gag order?
When approached by a reporter, a Franken supporter showed a slip of paper indicating a gag order by the campaign, referring all questions to the Franken campaign in St. Paul.
About 15 official Franken observers and a half dozen Coleman observers were in the group that had credentials checked at the door, registered and allowed entry into the County Board Room.
"We’ve got six here now and about 30 total volunteers," said former state Rep. Doug Fuller, R-Bemidji, who with Washington, D.C., attorney Andrew Miller, were serving as leads for the Coleman campaign. "I’ll be here all the way through."
See the Republican spin! (We have twice as many people as they do, they are just imaginary)
County officials giving challengers "wide latitude".
The county officials have the power to question challenges they consider frivolous, but (Deputy Secretary of State) Gelbmann said the secretary of state's office has directed them to give monitors wide latitude to insist such ballots get sent to the canvassing board anyway.
"We have seen examples of challenges that clearly are non-meritorious and will not be upheld by the canvassing board. Where that winds up going, we'll see," said Franken's legal chief, Marc Elias. "Maybe the Coleman campaign was a little overexuberant on Day One."
Coleman's top lawyer, Fritz Knaak, said he expected the number of challenges to be greater. Still, he's on the lookout for "no-brainer Coleman votes" that are winding up in the disputed stack.
Both sides are expressing outrage and innocence but from the look of some of those challenges both sides have overzealous screeners.