Franken Camp Claims To Be Winning Recount

By: Brian Montopoli
Topics: Election 2008

After Saxby Chambliss' convincing victory in the Georgia Senate runoff yesterday, the only remaining undecided Senate seat belongs to Minnesota, where Democrat Al Franken and Republican Norm Coleman are battling for the upper hand in a recount that remains exceedingly close. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that Coleman's lead stood at 303 votes at the end of the day Tuesday, with 93 percent of the total vote recounted.

(CBS/AP)

But Franken has gained some momentum: He picked up an unexpected 37 votes thanks to "a combined machine malfunction and human error on Election Day," and, perhaps more importantly, the secretary of state's office has asked local election officials to reexamine roughly 12,000 rejected absentee ballots. The Franken camp has been pushing to add to the recount about 1,000 ballots that it believes were improperly rejected, and the Star Tribune reports that the move appears "to give at least some new life" to that effort.

Franken's team, in fact, claims its candidate has moved ahead: On a conference call today, Franken campaign attorney Marc Elias said its internal count has Franken up by 22 votes. As Politico notes, Franken's side says the 303 figure is misleading because it does not include roughly 6,000 ballots disputed by both sides, ballots which are not included in the official tally.

Franken's side says its calculations result from an inclusion of these disputed ballots; the Coleman camp, unsurprisingly, characterizes its opponent's math as "false." Franken's campaign is now withdrawing 633 ballot challenges, and Elias says they will likely withdraw many more; the Coleman camp says it will probably follow suit, perhaps next week. Any remaining challenges will be resolved by the state canvassing board starting December 16th.

Brian Montopoli
Brian Montopoli is the senior political reporter at CBSNews.com.
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by ausus-2009 December 4, 2008 9:16 PM EST: In the end it is a choice of a Senator who has a proven record of working for the farmers of Minnesota or a person who is most likely to be a party hack, pushing through some of Obama''s more radical measures.; Reply to this comment


by antoniof123 December 4, 2008 5:48 PM EST: I would love to see Franken win this just to hear the neo cons screaming and yelling and crying foul. But you know what I really don''t care because next election there are many neo cons in battle ground states in the senate up for re-election and that should pretty much take care of the neo cons for a generation.; Reply to this comment


by michig32 December 4, 2008 1:52 PM EST: As far as I''m concerned Republicans have no right to complain about recounts. Even after the 2000 recount proved Gore had more votes the Supreme Court just decided to ignore this and declare victory for Bush. Look where that got us. Better to get it right or else what''s the point of a recount? And WTCMEDIC, maybe you don''t realize the hypocrisy of your statement but you come off as much more condescending than ImprisonRove. (The sarcasm and the grandstanding "Ladies and Gents".) And truly I''m surprised you don''t consider being meaner, nastier, and more arrogant a virtue. If you want hypocrisy all you need to do is look at the Republican party. Far more of these conservative, "family values", politicians are having gay affairs with interns and looking for affection in bathroom stalls. They are for the troops yet our troops have had their benefits cut over and over. They want to go to war but don''t want to accept the cost and want to make future generations pay for it. They love democracy but their for torture and extra-judicial trials without evidence. Many republicans also want help paying their mortgages from the government but still think socialism is completely and utterly evil.; Reply to this comment


by xlib December 4, 2008 1:40 PM EST: You know, after reading your posts on this site I am constantly amazed at the level of hate you people have. It''s just amazing. There isn''t any discussion, nope, just name calling and hate speech. Good God people, give it up.; Reply to this comment


by xlib December 4, 2008 1:38 PM EST: hatesthecolt-didn''t know acorn worked for the Republicans. Hmm, do tell. NOw, you need to explain your post. If you are referring to way back in 2000, don''t believe any wrong doing was provem. In fact, your very own ny times did it''s own study and found no wrong doing. Look it up yourself. Also, going back to 2000 and Florida, just why didn''t the dems want the military vote counted.
In the case of this particular election, do believe they have come up with more than a few "strange" doings.; Reply to this comment


by wtcmedic911 December 4, 2008 11:54 AM EST: -hatesthecolt-
nice screen name. shows lots of love. that poor little colt.; Reply to this comment


by badbrown126 December 4, 2008 11:50 AM EST: The more recent news is that another county found more votes for Coleman. He now leads by a larger count ... mind you still a very small number. Check drudge ... he has the link.

If CBS is going to post a political blog it should be at a bare minimum timely. The folks who respond to these postings get there news off the net. Meaning we know what the latest is. There should never be a high profile political link on such a mainstream profile site that lost it''s relevancy almost 16 hours ago.

Who is the webmaster ... the turtle from the DSL commercials?; Reply to this comment


by hatesthecolt December 4, 2008 11:50 AM EST: Yep, winning with whatever it takes! Keep finding those "lost ballots". Yep, whatever it takes.
What name is he going by, small or fanken. What a joke.

Posted by Xlib

Win by whatever means necessary? If true, Franken learned it from the Republicans.; Reply to this comment


by hatesthecolt December 4, 2008 11:48 AM EST: Ahhh
h another condescending democrat. This ladies and gent is a gleaming example of the non judgmental, open to any and all ideas, sexes, and creeds. Of course us narrow minded republicans are the only ones that should use such hate speech. Often it seems with this example the new generation of democrats are meaner, nastier, arrogant then us republicans.

Posted by wtcmedic911

Ahh another narrow minded republican willing to tar everyone because of one individual. Nice try but the truth of the matter is that for the last 30 years in general and the last 8 years in particular it HAS been the Republican party that has been the party of intolerance. And that has played itself out to to a large extent on this website. There is a significant number of foulmouthed race baiting McCain/Palin supporting posters. So maybe you could skip the generalizations next time.; Reply to this comment


by louiville2 December 4, 2008 11:43 AM EST: "Dish out a lot of groceries and coal.
Get my boys to bring the voters out.
Then count the votes again till they added up right,
and he was elected."-Johnny Rocco Chicago Gangster-Key Largo 1948

Gracious democrat don''t exist.; Reply to this comment