Margin Dwindles

"The Secretary of State's Office website has adjusted those numbers several times since Tuesday night, most often tightening the gap. The official tally will come once the state canvassing board meets Nov. 18. Then the recount follows.

The difference will continue to change slightly over the next week or two as counties go back and double-check their figures, the office has said.

As of 3:44 p.m. today, Coleman is credited with 1,211,542 votes (41.99 percent) to Franken's 1,211,206 (41.98 percent).

As to whether the pending recount of the nearly 3 million votes will give him victory, Franken said on MPR: "We don't know, but that's why we count the votes."

The morning after the vote, Coleman urged Franken to waive his right to the recount to spare the state the expense (under $90,000) and in the spirit of bringing the two sides together following the particularly bitter campaign. He added that "I would step back" if similarly trailing.

"I just think the need for the healing process is so important. ... hopefully, you don't have TV ads during an election recount," he said.

A recount is automatic when an election margin of victory is 0.5 percent or smaller. Secretary of State Mark Ritchie said it will be several weeks before the process is finished and a winner is known.

The entire story is at:

http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/34024274.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQ...

"Republican Lookouts Staking Election Office"

According to MPR, "An automatic administrative recount, conducted by the Secretary of State, is provided by state law and is common in very close legislative races.

But there's another state law that decided the last two close federal elections in Minnesota. It sets out a special kind of court case, called an election contest.

The most recent case was between DFLer David Minge and Republican Mark Kennedy in 2000, who ran against each other in the 2nd Congressional district. An earlier race between DFLer Collin Peterson and incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Arlan Stangeland in the 7th District was decided in court in 1986.

The two sides will likely wait until the election results are certified by elections officials before one of them files a civil action in Ramsey County District Court.

State law requires that an election contest go to trial in just 20 days. In that time, a judge would appoint dozens, or even hundreds, of three-person teams of ballot inspectors, all over the state, to sort through the votes.

Each campaign would name one person to each team. Both parties will have to agree on a third neutral person for each team. The teams will put aside the obvious votes and set aside disputed ballots for review by the court.

By law, the judge in the case would make a decision on the disputed ballots. But since nearly all judges are political appointees, the two sides might ask for a panel of three judges to decide the case.

If one side or the other does not like the outcome, they could ask the state Court of Appeals to act.

The Coleman campaign announced last night that it had retained former U.S. Attorney Tom Heffelfinger to handle its legal work. But Heffelfinger said this morning that he will not work on the recount effort, since he's already working on St. Paul's independent review of police actions during the Republican National Convention.

Attorney David Lillehaug, a Democrat, is already working for the Franken campaign on the recount.

The Republicans' legal strategy is already at work. Last night, Republican operatives were sitting in a car with Nebraska plates in the parking lot outside the Ramsey County elections offices.

Elections workers said there had been Republican lookouts there all night and all day, and also in Washington County and in Anoka County. They were gone early Thursday morning.

The stakes here are nationwide, which means there will probably be money, lawyers and political operatives from all over the country heading this way.

The closest U.S. Senate race in U.S. history was in New Hampshire in 1974, during Watergate. The polls closed with a 355-vote difference between Democrat John Durkin and Republican Louis Wyman.

The state held another election 10 months later, after at least three recounts and a second campaign. Republican Wyman won, then lost, then again won the first election. Democratic challenger Durkin decided to appeal to the U.S. Senate.

In 1974, Democrats in the Senate had a 60-vote majority, and still mulled over the election for 28 weeks. It ended almost a year later, when the two candidates decided to call it a draw and run a second election preceded by another six-week campaign.

Senate rules say the Senate itself is the ultimate election arbiter.

This election, there is a pitched battle going on for control of the Senate. A minority member has a slim lead in this election. The Franken campaign yesterday was asking people to come forward with stories of election irregularities.

Minnesota law doesn't allow for any accounting of election irregularities in a recount. But questions about the voting could be used to make Franken's case if the battle goes to the floor of the U.S. Senate. "

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/11/06/recount/

The fact that Coleman's lead keeps declining in the days after the election only cements the importance of the recount. I sincerely doubt that if Coleman were trailing he would say no to a mandatory recount.

The "Fix" is on.
100 more votes for Franken in Mt. Iron, Pct. 1November 7th, 2008 – 2:06 PM by Dennis McGrath
The Norm Coleman campaign is saying that the 100-vote increase given to Democrat Al Franken Thursday night is highly suspicious, because the ballot machine printout of the vote results is timestamped two days before Election Day.

The 100 extra votes for Franken are from Mt. Iron, Pct. 1. That’s in St. Louis County, a Democratic stronghold.

Reporter Mark Brunswick has talked to election officials for Mt. Iron and the county, and here’s what they say:

The precinct officials called in the correct results on Election Night: 506 for Franken, 211 for Coleman. But the county incorrectly wrote down 406 for Franken, 211 for Coleman. And that’s what was reported to the Minnesota Secretary of State’s office.

Wednesday night, the Secretary of State website showed a 100-vote increase for Franken in Mt. Iron, Pct. 1.

The Coleman camp’s Cullen Sheehan says the timestamp on the ballot machine’s vote total reads: “11/02/2008″ That’s two days before the Nov. 4 election.

A county official told Brunswick that the machine’s clock must be incorrect. When they tested a machine in Mt. Iron Pct. 2 in late October, running test ballots through to make sure the machine was working properly, it also showed an incorrect date on the printout. And the printout from that Pct. 2 machine in Mt. Iron on Election Night, when it printed out the final vote tallies that remain unchanged, also shows an incorrect timestamp of Oct. 31.

The official said it could be from a bad battery or having to do with the Daylight Savings switch.

Meanwhile, Reporter Kevin Duchschere reports that Coleman’s campaign today is asking the Secretary of State’s office and Minnesota’s county auditors for copies of the results of election night machine tapes for all precincts and all election night summaries or tally sheets for all precincts that counted ballots by hand.

In a statement, Coleman campaign manager Cullen Sheehan said it was “troubling” to see “huge chunks of votes appearing and disappearing,” and that they are shifting to DFL candidate Al Franken’s favor.

“As many of these unexplained and improbable vote swings are taking place on the Iron Range, we’re asking that local and state election officials provide us with the necessary data to reassure the public that the canvassing process has not been tainted,” Sheehan said.

A letter sent to local and state officials from attorney Terry Trimble is seeking the documents under Minnesota’s Data Practices Act. Because the material is related to the recount, Trimble writes that it be provided immediately.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 7th, 2008 at 2:06 pm and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

http://politicalblogs.startribune.com/bigquestionblog/?p=1218

Referee’s résumé.
Tainted recount?

Let's assume the 32 disputed ballots in Minneapolis were legitimate. Let's assume the newly discovered 100 votes in Pine County -- all for Al Franken -- were just overlooked by a sleepy official, and the 100 votes found in Mountain Iron -- again, all for Franken -- were valid.

Let's suppose the trickle of votes moving inexorably in Franken's direction is just a function of a normal process, as Secretary of State Mark Ritchie's office assures us.

One fact remains troubling. The referee in Minnesota's hotly contested Senate race must act in a nonpartisan fashion, yet Ritchie came to office through a nationwide partisan strategy. He was elected in 2006 as part of a national campaign to ensure that Democrats could wield influence in precisely the sort of hair's breadth race we now have here.

Ritchie gained office with the help of the Secretary of State Project (SOS), an independent 527 group co-founded by former MoveOn.org leader James Rucker. SOS is based in San Francisco, and is funded in part by ultra-liberal kingmakers such as George Soros.

Why would Left Coast liberals take such a keen interest in a Minnesota state office?

In 2006, USA Today gave us the answer in an article headlined "Top vote counter becomes prize job; Democrats focus on key state post."

Secretary of state positions are a "new front" in the "battle for political control," the paper explained, because they are "the obscure but vital state offices that determine who votes and how those votes are counted."

"National Democratic groups ... are pouring resources" into secretary of state races in key swing states, in order to enhance their control in future tight elections, said the paper. Minnesota was one of the top six states targeted.

Ritchie was the SOS poster boy, and SOS co-founder Becky Bond took credit for his victory.

http://www.startribune.com/politics/34306799.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEy...

The new Katherine Harris?
Questions Surround Role of Minnesota Secretary of State in Hotly Contested Senate Race
Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie has pledged to officiate over his state's Senate election recount in a manner that is "accurate and transparent," but his partisan past and ties to ACORN have raised concerns among his critics.

It has all the makings of an electoral fiasco comparable to the 2000 presidential recount in Florida.

Minnesota's hotly contested U.S. Senate race between Republican incumbent Norm Coleman and his Democratic challenger, Al Franken, has ignited a political firestorm -- and it is swirling around the man who will be a central figure in resolving it: Secretary of State Mark Ritchie.

Ritchie, who has held office since 2006, is the state's top elections administrator, and he is presiding over the ballot recount.

On November 5, the day after Election Day, Coleman led Franken by 725 votes out of a total of 2.9 million. Now the margin has narrowed to 206 votes -- seven-thousandths of 1 percent, small enough to trigger an automatic recount.

With so few votes separating them, Coleman and Franken are engaged in legal warfare. Coleman aides have accused Franken of violating fair campaign practices -- among other things -- by airing a false ad suggesting Coleman had been named on a list of corrupt senators. Franken, for his part, has filed a lawsuit against Ramsey County in an effort to obtain names of rejected absentee ballots.

The official recount process begins Wednesday, Nov. 19, and it will be Ritchie's job to ensure that it is a fair one. But his ties to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) -- which has repeatedly been accused of voter fraud across the country -- and his reputation for engaging in highly partisan politics have raised concerns among Republicans.

During his 2006 bid for secretary of state, Ritchie was endorsed by the Minnesota ACORN Political Action Committee, and he received political contributions from them.

And his election victory was made possible, in part, by a nationwide partisan effort -- with the help of the Secretary of State Project (SOS), an independent 527 group co-founded by former MoveOn.org leader James Rucker.

On Wednesday, Ritchie chose a canvassing board that includes himself, two state Supreme Court justices appointed by Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty, and two district court judges.

The board -- which will certify vote totals and settle differences over disputed ballots once local officials complete their recount -- will be "extraordinarily nonpartisan," Ritchie said.

But, much as Democrats were highly critical of Florida's Republican Secretary of State Katherine Harris in 2000, Republicans say extraordinary nonpartisanship will be nearly impossible for Ritchie in Minnesota. They cite a November 12 interview on MSNBC in which Ritchie said the goal of Coleman's campaign was "to win at any price."

Coleman aides -- outraged by the remark -- issued a press release demanding an apology from Ritchie and said they had lost confidence in his ability to govern fairly.

"When the Coleman campaign raises legitimate ballot security concerns, over instances such as 32 new ballots appearing in the car of a Minneapolis city official, Mr. Ritchie goes on a national media campaign characterizing our actions as political," Coleman campaign manager Cullen Sheehan said.

"His accusation today that our campaign intends to win 'at any price' is offensive, demands an apology and simply underscores our concerns about his ability to act as an unbiased official in this recount," he said.

Ritchie, in a press conference on Wednesday, initially denied making the comment, saying, "I haven't said their campaign is willing to win at any price."

He later explained to FOX News that he was speaking about the Coleman campaign in general terms.

"The Coleman campaign and all campaigns enter this process at a very different place than I do," he said. "And I've said many times that campaigns -- all campaigns -- are out to win, win, and win. That's their goal. And win at every cost is how most campaigns operate."

Despite his critics' suspicions that Ritchie will not officiate over the recount fairly, no one has ever accused him of abusing the power of his position. And he has pledged to hold an "accurate and transparent" recount.

Speaking about the members of the recount board, he said, "Each of us comes from a different place...but they walk through the door and they put on a robe and they become a servant of all the people."

"This office is here to serve every citizen in a nonpartisan and in a very, very fair and transparent way. And so the same expectation that I have of all the justices -- no matter where their appointment might have come from -- is the same expectation that I have for myself," Ritchie said.

Ritchie said criticism is "not unusual" for someone in his role, working under such circumstances.

"Attacking me is fine. It's just part of the process," he said. "There have been some court challenges to various parts of the balloting process that have often come along with a lot of heated campaign rhetoric.

"But challenging me is going to be part of the next month. I'm pretty thick skin."
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/11/14/questions-surround-role-minnesot...

Franken Gains

Coleman's lead stands at 50 according to Franken's campaign.

"171 ballots were found in Maplewood's 6th Precinct. Ramsey County Elections Director Joe Mansky said they found the ballots in a voting machine that broke down on Election Day. He said the machine was replaced but the judges forgot to feed to feed through the new ballot counter.

"The 171 ballots were already in the ballot box, so those votes did not get recorded on the tape that we were using," Mansky said.

Mansky said the ballots were always secure and were not lost. When the votes were tallied, Al Franken gained 91 votes from the batch, and Norm Coleman picked up 54 votes."

http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senate/35382149.html?page=2...

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/12/02/concerns_arise_i...

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/12/02/foundballots/

Recount Live MPR

The state canvassing board begins inspecting disputed ballots in Minnesota's U.S. Senate recount today. Board members could decide on as many as 1,500 ballots.

Republican incumbent Norm Coleman leads Democrat Al Franken by 188 votes in the recount, pending the board's decisions.

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/12/16/midday1/

Live Link:

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/12/16/sos_tv

Strib Spyware?

Strib recount numbers don't jive with MPR's, one off? Check out the Strib's new bloggers' section. BTW,my virus program picked up spyware on their site.

Franken Up 55 on Coleman

Strib puts the count at +55

Franken takes lead in Senate recount
by Mark Zdechlik, Minnesota Public Radio

December 19, 2008
St. Paul, Minn. — Democrat Al Franken has taken the lead in Minnesota's U.S. Senate recount.

State Canvassing Board members are in their fourth day of ruling on challenged ballots.

The board began taking up challenges from Republican Senator Norm Coleman's campaign yesterday, and Coleman began today with just a two vote lead over Democrat Al Franken.

But shortly after the counting began, Franken became the front-runner.

It's important to know that the recount number does not include upwards of 4,000 ballot challenges the campaigns withdrew but that have not yet been processed.

It could be a long day for members of the State Canvassing Board. Its chair, Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, wants to finish ruling on the Coleman challenges before recessing for the day.

Ritchie has asked board members to clear their schedules so their work can continue on into Friday evening if necessary.

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/12/19/franken_leads/

Franken Up 285

Live Streaming Video

http://www.startribune.com/

Coleman Denied

Supreme Court denies Coleman motion; extends ballot deadline
by Tom Scheck, Minnesota Public Radio
December 24, 2008

St. Paul, Minn. — The Minnesota Supreme Court has denied a motion by Republican Senator Norm Coleman's campaign calling for an investigation into whether double counting occurred in the U.S. Senate recount.

The court's order upholds a ruling by the State Canvassing Board rejecting challenged votes based on duplicate ballots. But the court said it can't determine whether some votes have been counted twice.

Coleman's campaign has argued that dozens of voters in 25 precincts, many in Democrat-leaning Minneapolis, may have gotten two votes when election judges couldn't feed their ballots through counting machines and made duplicates.

Andy Barr, spokesman for Democrat Al Franken, said he's pleased with the decision.

"I think Minnesotans have been waiting a long time for this process to come to a close and again, this lawsuit was an attempt by the Coleman campaign to drag out that process and undermine the results," Barr said. "I think the court made a good ruling for the people of Minnesota."

Coleman Campaign attorney Fritz Knaak said the Minnesota Supreme Court decision "virtually guarantees that this will be decided in an election contest." "We're prepared to file an election contest," Knaak said.

Knaak wouldn't say if one would be filed, but said he's still confident that they'll win. He also said that the election winner cannot be certified until the contest phase is complete.

Also today, justices extended the deadline to count any wrongly-rejected absentee ballots.

The Minnesota Supreme Court order requires local elections officials to identify any wrongly-rejected absentee ballots, and ship those ballots to the Secretary of State's office by Jan. 2. The chief elections official for the Secretary of State is then required to open and count the ballots by Jan. 4.

The court originally ordered local elections officials to open the ballots and notify the Secretary of State's office of any changes in the results by Dec. 31. The Secretary of State's office and the campaigns for Al Franken and Norm Coleman requested the extension to ensure the privacy of those voters who had their ballots rejected.

Elections officials estimate that as many as 1,600 absentee ballots were wrongly rejected. Those votes are one of the remaining issues to determine the winner in the race. Franken currently leads Coleman by just 47 votes.

----

(The Associate Press contributed to this report)

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/12/24/supreme_court_ex...

Franken 225 Lead

Franken increases lead over Coleman to 225 votes
by Tim Nelson, Minnesota Public Radio
January 3, 2009

"St. Paul, Minn. — Democratic Senate challenger Al Franken added 176 votes to his lead in one of the tightest races in U.S. history today.

A count of more than 950 previously unopened absentee ballots went heavily in his favor as the state's official recount finally approached a finish.

"We are confident that he will win… by what is not a large margin, but what is a comfortable margin," said Franken's lead attorney, Marc Elias. "But 225 is still a close election."

Opening ballotsThe tally leaves only the formal declaration of the vote totals left to complete. The five-person state canvassing board is set to meet Monday to review the findings and direct Secretary of State Mark Ritchie to certify the results.

It's unlikely, though, that the board's action will finish the race.

Fritz Knaak, an attorney for Republican Norm Coleman, said that it is "virtually certain" that the result is heading for a court challenge.

Another Coleman attorney, Matt Haapoja, was actually drafting what appeared to be the paperwork for a court challenge -- and another potential recount -- as he sat in the State Office Building waiting for state elections officials to finish processing the final ballots on Saturday."

More at:

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/01/03/senate_recount_s...

Post Off Topic

This post is clearly off topic for this particular RECOUNT forum. Why do you think Gino would post it here? I think most of you know why. It's just one more insiduous atttempt at being a bully. Is it possible Gino doesn't know how to start his own forum or blog? Doubtful.

The EPN should try to follow some sensible guidelines and apply them to everyone. Here are some from the NYT that should address some of the problems:

Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive. For more information, please see our Comments FAQ.

Why do you moderate readers' comments?

(The NYT's)Our goal is to provide substantive commentary for a general readership. By screening submissions, we have created a space where readers can exchange intelligent and informed commentary that enhances the quality of our news and information.

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderating decisions are subjective. We will make them as carefully and consistently as we can. Because of the volume of reader comments, we cannot review individual moderation decisions with readers and generally cannot alter a comment once it is posted.

Real names are required for their blog. Of course few would know each other because of the massive audience. Maybe that should have been the way to go. But, the etiquette part is what's important regardless of name.

http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/faq/comments.html

The EPN has generally failed to moderate and elminiate inflammatory unnecessary posts. This definitely does not contribute a positive experience for many people. The result is people don't want to visit and they don't want to post.

That's really a shame.

FRANKEN WINNER COLEMAN TO BLOCK

MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (CNN) -- A state election board on Monday will announce Democrat Al Franken has defeated Republican incumbent Norm Coleman in Minnesota's U.S. Senate race, state officials told CNN Sunday.

A board will say Al Franken won the U.S. Senate race by 225 votes, Minnesota's secretary of state says.

The canvassing board on Monday will say a recount determined Franken won by 225 votes, Secretary of State Mark Ritchie told CNN.

However, Coleman's campaign, which contends the recount should have included about 650 absentee ballots it says were improperly rejected in the initial count, has indicated it will challenge the certification.

Coleman campaign manager Cullen Sheehan said his team believes the recount process was broken and that "the numbers being reported will not be accurate or valid."

"The effort by the Franken campaign, supported by the secretary of state, to exclude improperly rejected absentee ballots is indefensible and disenfranchises hundreds of Minnesota voters," Sheehan said.

After the results are certified, Coleman's campaign will have seven days to file a challenge.

The initial count from the November 4 election put Coleman, a first-term senator, 215 votes ahead of Franken -- known for his stint on NBC's "Saturday Night Live" and as a former talk-show host on progressive radio network Air America.

Don't Miss
Tense moments in Minnesota Senate recount
The slim margin triggered an automatic recount.

During the recount, Franken's campaign alleged that thousands of absentee ballots had been improperly rejected and asked that they be counted. The state's Supreme Court eventually ordered that rejected absentee ballots be counted if local officials and each campaign could agree that the selected ballots were rejected mistakenly.

About 950 initially rejected absentee ballots were counted Saturday after all parties agreed on them. However, Coleman's campaign said about 650 other rejected absentee ballots -- many of them from pro-Coleman areas -- also were improperly rejected and should have been counted.

The Coleman campaign has also alleged that more than 100 ballots may have been accidentally counted twice and may have unfairly benefited Franken.

"When a candidate is leading because of double counted votes, and votes that get counted even when ballots don't exist, it clearly means that a [post-election challenge] is the only likely remedy to ensure a fair outcome," Sheehan said.

Franken's attorney, Marc Elias, in a statement said: "The next step is the canvass board's meeting tomorrow, where we have every expectation they will declare that Al Franken won this election."

Deputy Secretary of State Jim Gelbmann, who oversaw Saturday's tallying of the 950 improperly rejected absentee ballots, said the only thing left for the canvassing board to do Monday is certify the numbers. The board's meeting will convene at 2:30 p.m.

"Candidates may have objections or suggestions or comments that they want to make," Gelbmann said. "I would assume the canvassing board will allow that as long as they're brief."

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York and chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, issued a statement Sunday declaring Franken the winner and expressing confidence Franken would remain on top following any legal battle.

"There is no longer any doubt who will be the next senator from Minnesota," Schumer said. "Even if all the ballots Coleman claims were double counted or erroneously added were resolved in his favor, he still wouldn't have enough votes to win."

Schumer also said it is "crucial" Minnesota's second seat in the Senate not go empty, implying Franken should be seated when the rest of the Senate convenes to be sworn in Tuesday.

Minnesota's other seat is held by Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat.

Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, has pledged a GOP filibuster if the Democrat-controlled Senate attempts to seat Franken before all legal battles play out and before Minnesota's Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a Republican, can co-sign the secretary of state's certificate.

Ritchie said the state has no problem with not having two sworn-in senators Tuesday until the process is completed."

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/04/minnesota.senate.race/index.html

Funny business in MN. In which every dubious ruling seems to help Al Franken.
WALL STREET JOURNAL 01/05/09
Required reading on stealing an election.

Strange things keep happening in Minnesota, where the disputed recount in the Senate race between Norm Coleman and Al Franken may be nearing a dubious outcome. Thanks to the machinations of Democratic Secretary of State Mark Ritchie and a meek state Canvassing Board, Mr. Franken may emerge as an illegitimate victor.

Mr. Franken started the recount 215 votes behind Senator Coleman, but he now claims a 225-vote lead and suddenly the man who was insisting on "counting every vote" wants to shut the process down. He's getting help from Mr. Ritchie and his four fellow Canvassing Board members, who have delivered inconsistent rulings and are ignoring glaring problems with the tallies.

Under Minnesota law, election officials are required to make a duplicate ballot if the original is damaged during Election Night counting. Officials are supposed to mark these as "duplicate" and segregate the original ballots. But it appears some officials may have failed to mark ballots as duplicates, which are now being counted in addition to the originals. This helps explain why more than 25 precincts now have more ballots than voters who signed in to vote. By some estimates this double counting has yielded Mr. Franken an additional 80 to 100 votes.

This disenfranchises Minnesotans whose vote counted only once. And one Canvassing Board member, State Supreme Court Justice G. Barry Anderson, has acknowledged that "very likely there was a double counting." Yet the board insists that it lacks the authority to question local officials and it is merely adding the inflated numbers to the totals.

In other cases, the board has been flagrantly inconsistent. Last month, Mr. Franken's campaign charged that one Hennepin County (Minneapolis) precinct had "lost" 133 votes, since the hand recount showed fewer ballots than machine votes recorded on Election Night. Though there is no proof to this missing vote charge -- officials may have accidentally run the ballots through the machine twice on Election Night -- the Canvassing Board chose to go with the Election Night total, rather than the actual number of ballots in the recount. That decision gave Mr. Franken a gain of 46 votes.

Meanwhile, a Ramsey County precinct ended up with 177 more ballots than there were recorded votes on Election Night. In that case, the board decided to go with the extra ballots, rather than the Election Night total, even though the county is now showing more ballots than voters in the precinct. This gave Mr. Franken a net gain of 37 votes, which means he's benefited both ways from the board's inconsistency.

And then there are the absentee ballots. The Franken campaign initially howled that some absentee votes had been erroneously rejected by local officials. Counties were supposed to review their absentees and create a list of those they believed were mistakenly rejected. Many Franken-leaning counties did so, submitting 1,350 ballots to include in the results. But many Coleman-leaning counties have yet to complete a re-examination. Despite this lack of uniformity, and though the state Supreme Court has yet to rule on a Coleman request to standardize this absentee review, Mr. Ritchie's office nonetheless plowed through the incomplete pile of 1,350 absentees this weekend, padding Mr. Franken's edge by a further 176 votes.

Both campaigns have also suggested that Mr. Ritchie's office made mistakes in tabulating votes that had been challenged by either of the campaigns. And the Canvassing Board appears to have applied inconsistent standards in how it decided some of these challenged votes -- in ways that, again on net, have favored Mr. Franken.

The question is how the board can certify a fair and accurate election result given these multiple recount problems. Yet that is precisely what the five members seem prepared to do when they meet today. Some members seem to have concluded that because one of the candidates will challenge the result in any event, why not get on with it and leave it to the courts? Mr. Coleman will certainly have grounds to contest the result in court, but he'll be at a disadvantage given that courts are understandably reluctant to overrule a certified outcome.

Meanwhile, Minnesota's other Senator, Amy Klobuchar, is already saying her fellow Democrats should seat Mr. Franken when the 111th Congress begins this week if the Canvassing Board certifies him as the winner. This contradicts Minnesota law, which says the state cannot award a certificate of election if one party contests the results. Ms. Klobuchar is trying to create the public perception of a fait accompli, all the better to make Mr. Coleman look like a sore loser and build pressure on him to drop his legal challenge despite the funny recount business.

Minnesotans like to think that their state isn't like New Jersey or Louisiana, and typically it isn't. But we can't recall a similar recount involving optical scanning machines that has changed so many votes, and in which nearly every crucial decision worked to the advantage of the same candidate. The Coleman campaign clearly misjudged the politics here, and the apparent willingness of a partisan like Mr. Ritchie to help his preferred candidate, Mr. Franken. If the Canvassing Board certifies Mr. Franken as the winner based on the current count, it will be anointing a tainted and undeserving Senator.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123111967642552909.html