Things are looking up for Al Franken in the Minnesota senate race recount. According to the Star Tribune's website as I write this, Norm Coleman's lead in the recount has dropped to just five votes. While Coleman still has the lead, I believe the contested ballots the canvasing board is currently contemplating are the ones that the Coleman campaign challenged. I would guess that a lot of the challenges were to keep Franken from getting a vote. Of course there are other reasons, but I think Franken will gain more votes from these ballots than Coleman will, although I could be wrong.
And in another bit of good news for the Franken campaign, the state Supreme Court ruled that improperly rejected absentee ballots should be counted as part of the recount. That seems like a nobrainer to me. If the absentee ballots were rejected without a legally valid reason to disqualify them, why shouldn't they be counted? Of course Norm Coleman saw it differently, indicating that these people's votes should not count, through absolutely no fault of their own, unless a lawsuit after the recount is completed says that they should. I would expect this from him. He had a modest lead and these ballots, while they could help him, could also hurt him. With the status quo, he knows where he stands, but these ballots could change everything.
I am all but certain that whatever the results of the recount are now, this race will still not be decided. Whoever loses, especially if it is Norm Coleman, will be taking this to court. Hopefully any legal challenges can be resolved quickly before the governor can just appoint someone to the seat because it would be vacant if not filled by the beginning of the next legislative session.
Oh, and apparently when you vote for Al Franken and write in Lizard People for the same race, that is considered an overvote.
No comments:
Post a Comment