Franken Camp Claims To Be Winning Recount
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.
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.
(CBS/AP)
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.
whats the point in voting??
Funny funny. Repubs whining about a voter''s nightmare . Now you know what I felt during the Florida recount in 2000 and Ohio in 2004.
Franken is the best candidate for Minnesota. He knows the issues and will be in the majority in the Senate. That will allow him to help Minnesota more than Norm "the Bush" Coleman
Neo cons are scared because that would be one more seat for the Democrats. Democrats are scared because that would be one more seat for the Republicans.
The American people have already decided who is President and who is in control of both the house and the senate so to us it doesn''t really matter.
Now if both side moderate and work together then we will be happy if not the side that does not play well well lose next election of that this swing voter is certain.
It''s the right thing to do - no matter who it benefits. The voters - not the machines, not the human errors (like the one registrar who accidentally wrote down 24, rather than 124 as a number of votes for Franken) - should select their representative.
It does not take a genius to know who is in power in Washington and know that the ones in power get the bigger share.
I guess you are one of those that say that you shouldn''t comment on the Iraq war unless you have been there.
It all is going smoothly. We are lucky in Minnesota to have an honest Secretary Of State in Mark Ritchie.
It is hilarious to listen to the Wingnuts squirm when justice is served.
Posted by ausus at 05:34 PM : Dec 03, 2008
I have seen Franken try to be a comedian. It doesn''t work.
Although, him running for the Senate is pretty funny. More of a tragic comedy. Humorous, but tragic. There had to be another Dem more qualified than this clown.
Posted by Questionnews
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The Republicans opened the door eight years ago by putting their best man forward... George W. Bush, whose only credentials were name recognition and a product of privilege. In other words, ANYONE can be president.
Fast forward to this year''s election and what do we have? "You betcha" Sarah Palin as VP candidate who makes Bush look like a genius and Harvard scholar.
And you have the nerve to denegrate Al Franken only because he was once a comedian. At least the man has a brain. The GOP should try looking for candidates with IQ''s over 100... they just might get more respect.
Posted by ausus at 05:34 PM : Dec 03, 2008
I had no idea they did that sort of really obscure polling overseas. If Minnesota farmers are any of the one''s raking in multi-millions along-side of federal taxpayer subsidies, than as a federal taxpayer, I *** sure hope Franken get''s elected. But then again rich farmers on the federal taxpayer doll shouldn''t be getting majority representation in Congress anyway. What we definitely DO NOT NEED in Congress anymore, are representatives who represent a pork-barrel federal taxpayer subsidized minority.
Or not -- you can always continue to embarrass yourself, if you find that amusing. Your choice of course. Either way -- best wishes, however it works out for you . . .
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Posted by CBSisPravda1
Republicans have a monopoly on finding ways to make your vote not count... if you voted for the opponent. What is happening right now is an attempt to find the votes that have been hidden and ''not counted'' thanks to the efforts of the rabid right.
My comments were a distillation of remarks from overseas politicians who wanted to dump their agricultural products on the American market. Are you saying you are in favor of dumping?
Doesn''t sending US jobs overseas mean anything to you?
Haven''t you noticed that most of Europe''s economies have tanked even more than that of the US.
What name is he going by, small or fanken. What a joke.
"That''''s pretty funny, coming from someone in Ala-F-ing-bama, considering the idol-worship the Rethuglicans pay to Sarah the Moose -- and her "politics" of charging rape victims for rape kits, so as to make it difficult to obtain abortions, which Palin just so happens NOT to think is a woman''''s right -- even tho the Supreme Court has said so.
And, let''''s not forget the fact that Sarah really, really believes that dinosaurs roamed the earth with humans, 4,000 years ago -- despite all scientific (uhh-ohh, there''''s that dreaded word: "scientific"!) evidence to the contrary (not to mention common sense).
Yes, the use of the adjective, extreme, in characterizing one''''s politics, is more revealing about the wordsmith (that would be you), than the person to whom it is ascribed.
BTW, there''''s no need to post in all caps. Are you drunk or just really, really stoo-pid -- like you appear to be??"
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Ahhhh 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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
nice screen name. shows lots of love. that poor little colt.
In the case of this particular election, do believe they have come up with more than a few "strange" doings.
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by ausus-2009
December 4, 2008 6:16 PM PST
- 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.
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