MN-Sen: Recount Conclusion, Challenge Preview

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Friday December 05, 2008 · 4:44 PM PST

2008/12/05 · 16:44

The semi-final results of the hand recount were published today at 1:28 PM CT on the Minnesota Secretary of State's website. Of Minnesota's 4,130 precincts, 4,129 have finished reporting. The remaining precinct represents the Minneapolis' 3rd Ward where 133 Ballots have gone missing. During the ensuing search 12 sealed and uncounted absentee ballots were found. Pending the returns of these 145 ballots, here is the count:

	    Recount	    Original
Coleman:   1,208,344   -   1,210,995  =  -2,651
Franken:   1,207,657   -   1,210,285  =  -2,628

Franken Net Today:   13 (91 Yesterday, -13 day before, 41)
Total Franken Net:   23
Franken Deficit:    192
Current Margin:     687

(cross posted at VoteForAmerica.net)

There are still 6,655 challenged ballots that have not been counted that will be reviewed by the canvassing board starting next week. From the challenge pile, Coleman is responsible for 3,375 and Franken 3,280. Both sides have called the opposition's challenges frivolous, and both sides appear to be right.

On December 3rd, the Franken Campaign issued a press release regarding their frivolous challenges:

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This afternoon, the Franken campaign sent a letter to the Secretary of State withdrawing 633 challenges. The fact that we are withdrawing these challenges does not in any way have any effect on the likelihood that Al Franken will win the recount. The only practical impact of what we are doing today is that it will save the state canvassing board the trouble of looking at these challenges themselves.

Source: Al Franken For Senate

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Not to be out done, the Coleman campaign released their version of the story on December 4th:

Today, in the spirit of working to remedy an excess of challenged ballots, we will voluntarily withdraw 650 challenged by the Coleman campaign. This morning, I left a voicemail, and sent an email, to Franken campaign attorney Marc Elias regarding challenged ballots. We are doing so this in the spirit of reaching out to their campaign so we can sit down early next week and discuss what process we can agree to in order to winnow down these challenged ballots.

Source: Norm Coleman For Senate

Factoring in the 1,283 withdrawals into the challenge count yields the following result:

	    Franken:  2,647
	    Coleman:  2,725
	    Total:    5,372

	    Margin:	    78

If we assume that the 133 ballots are someway or another counted, Franken could net as many as 46 votes. If Franken also sweeps the 12 new absentee ballots, he will head into the challenge phase, of the recount, with at least a 629 vote deficit.

And I'll throw my map in for good measure. Click on it to read about the peculiarities of the shading.

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