by Damozel | According to The Minneapolis Star Tribune, he is now ahead by 150 votes.
The intense scrutiny of "voter intent" resumed this morning by the
five-member board charged with directing Minnesota's recount in the
U.S. Senate race between incumbent Republican Norm Coleman and
Democratic rival Al Franken, and the first 90 minutes of ballot rulings
turned the challenger's slight deficit into a growing triple-digit
lead.
The Coleman camp still has a few objections up its sleeve, of course. There's a controversy brewing over allegedly twice-counted ballots. Politico says:
The dispute revolves around damaged ballots, for which election
officials created duplicates so they could be processed through the
counting machines. Both the original and duplicated ballots are
supposed to be kept together. The Coleman campaign doesn’t have any
evidence that votes were counted twice, but it points to precincts
where the number of recounted votes was larger than the original
Election Night number....
Before the board can rule on the issue, it must determine whether it even has jurisdiction to make a ruling.
Either way, more litigation is all but certain. Coleman’s campaign already has disputed the decision to include 133 ballots in the recount that appear to have missing from a heavily Democratic Minneapolis precinct. The ballots were originally counted on Election Night, and the canvassing board has agreed to revert to the precinct’s pre-recount tally.
“Litigation is inevitable,” said Schier. “If Franken loses — he’ll argue legitimate votes were not counted. If Coleman loses, he’ll argue illegitimate votes were counted.”
Before the board can rule on the issue, it must determine whether it even has jurisdiction to make a ruling.
Either way, more litigation is all but certain. Coleman’s campaign already has disputed the decision to include 133 ballots in the recount that appear to have missing from a heavily Democratic Minneapolis precinct. The ballots were originally counted on Election Night, and the canvassing board has agreed to revert to the precinct’s pre-recount tally.
“Litigation is inevitable,” said Schier. “If Franken loses — he’ll argue legitimate votes were not counted. If Coleman loses, he’ll argue illegitimate votes were counted.”
At FiveThirtyEight.com, Nate Silver---though with caveats--- is calling it for Franken. He predicts that Franken's lead will grow to 430, then shrink back down to 40 when all of the withdrawn challenges have been processed. Kevin Drum: " Shall we just start calling him "Landslide Al" now?"
I think I'll hold off till all the lawsuits are over, if ever.
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