2106 of 4130 | Original Total | Recount total | Gain/ Loss |
Coleman | 752438 | 751898 | -540 | 115 | Coleman's Margin |
Franken | 723818 | 723378 | -440 | 100 | Franken Gain |
Down Below:
Video; Coleman camp believes a Vote for McCain proves intent to vote for Coleman, even when Franken is clearly marked.
Number of ballot challenges increase in U.S. Senate recount's third day!
Number of ballot challenges increase in U.S. Senate recount's third day!
Another sign of the Coleman Camp's desperation!
The quality of the challenges will win this!
Almost a third of undervotes lead to countable votes!
Date | Precincts Reporting | Original Coleman | Recount Coleman | Diff. Col. | Clg. Col. | Original Franken | Recount Franken | Diff. Fra. | Clg. Fra. | Coleman's Margin |
11-19 | 957 of 4130 | 195708 | 195638 | -70 | 115 | 180950 | 180923 | -27 | 106 | -43 |
11-20 | 1149 of 4130 | 338979 | 338837 | -142 | 259 | 313980 | 313881 | -99 | 254 | -43 |
11-21 | 779 of 4130 | 217751 | 217423 | -328 | 373 | 228888 | 228574 | -314 | 418 | -14 |
Total | 2885 of 4130 | 752438 | 751898 | -540 | 747 | 723818 | 723378 | -440 | 778 | 115 |
Methodology:
All Numbers are from the official Minnesota Secretary of State Nightly Reports
Diff. is the difference in votes between the recounted total and the canvas results from 11-18 for the Precincts recounted.
Clg. is the number of ballots challenged by the Coleman and Franken's camps.
Franken Margin is the number of votes Franken gains or losses each day assuming no other changes to the totals.
Mmcintee's Recommended Diary "Video of challenged ballots- Coleman says these are his votes." may sill be on the recommended list but I'm listing it here in case someone missed it. If the Coleman camp is so disparate that they are willing to argue that a vote for McCain shows voter intent to vote for Coleman, even where Franken's name is clearly marked, shows they are getting desperate to ensure Coleman leads after the recount and before the state's Canvassing Board meets.
Number of ballot challenges increase in U.S. Senate recount's third day! Grand Forks Herald:
Reports from around the state today indicated Norm Coleman and Al Franken representatives increased their ballot challenges, the U.S. Senate recount's third day.
(Thursday night's) 734 number far outdistances the 215 votes that Republican Sen. Coleman led Democrat Franken when the initial returns were tallied.
-- The two campaigns are challenging hundreds of ballots, far more than the difference expected between them at the end of the recount.
-- Absentee ballots that local officials rejected, which also could be in the hundreds, should be considered, the Franken campaign says.
The state Canvassing Board is expected to meet Wednesday to decide the absentee issue and in December to count challenged ballots. Between the two issues, the five-member board easily will consider enough ballots to decide the winner.
There is no way the difference in reported voted will out pace the challenges and disputed absentee votes. Add that to Coleman's history of court challenges and you get a long, drawn out battle.
Another sign of the Coleman Camp's desperation! Crookston Times:
One ballot involved what appeared to be an over-vote, as the voter marked both Coleman and James Niemackl of the Constitution Party. The challenge implies that the voter’s intent to select Coleman was clear. The other challenge aimed to discount an absentee ballot in Franken’s favor that the voter erroneously received for Crookston’s Ward 2, not East Grand Forks as needed. Amiot explained that his staff reconfigured the ballot so the voting machine would accept it when it was discovered on election night that they had sent out the wrong ballot.
An attorney for Franken, Jeffrey Hannig counter-challenged both of Glick’s challenges on the grounds that Glick was not one of the observers sitting at the table with the counters, but a floating representative. Hannig said only an observer at the table could make a challenge, said Amiot, and Coleman’s observer initially seemed to accept both ballots. A note explaining the counter-challenge was attached to the challenged ballots for the state canvassing board to rule on.
The way this is going, the Canvasing Boards meeting is going to be interesting and entertaining.
The quality of the challenges will win this! Rochester Post Herald:
In Pipestone County, which started and finished its recount on Wednesday, both candidates lost ground from their pre-recount totals in almost direct correspondence to the number of ballot challenges. Franken lost 10 votes in Pipestone, and Coleman lost 5.
"I think that's going to be true throughout the state as we get further into the recount," said County Auditor Joyce Steinhoff.
Whether most of those challenges are upheld by the canvassing board is a separate matter. Several county auditors said most of the challenges they saw were questionable at best. Steinhoff said she saw several challenges she thought were frivolous, but she decided not to push back too hard. "I'd rather have it overruled by the canvassing board, then have them say I deprived them of their right to challenge," she said.
This may be worse for Franken since Pipestone County had ten Franken challenge to six of Coleman's.
Almost a third of undervotes lead to countable votes. The Timberjay:
Take Ely, for example, where the city’s four precincts were among the few dozen St. Louis County precincts recounted on Wednesday. Of the 67 Ely ballots that had recorded no senate vote on election night, a total of 21, or nearly a third, did show marks indicating a voter preference when the ballots were reviewed by hand. Those additional votes split fairly evenly, with 11 for Franken and 10 for Coleman. Some of those ballots were challenged by either campaign, but most of the challenged ballots are expected to be added to the final counts when the state’s canvassing board meets in mid-December.
Ely’s experience wasn’t unique. Eveleth, another community that was recounted on Wednesday, proved a treasure trove of additional votes, with most going to Franken. In total, the hand recount picked up 45 additional votes, with 37 of them going to Franken. Eveleth, in fact, provided a big boost to Franken’s recount hopes and helped him trim Coleman’s margin in the race from 215 at the start of the recount, to just 174 votes as of Wednesday night.
Most of these townships and small cities are still counting by hand, which helps reduce the number of undervotes resulting from improperly marked ballots. "We probably had a half dozen that had some kind of a mark other than a filled-in oval, said Ann Lamppa, Tower’s deputy city clerk. "They had used an X or circled the name, but we were able to count them because the voter’s intent was clear."
Since most of the smaller hand counted precincts have already been recounted, Franken is in a better position then Coleman to gain votes from these recountable undervotes.
Other Diaries today on DailyKos:
BrownSox placed a story on stating "Franken within 140 votes" on the Front Page this afternoon!
Christian Dem in NC posted a diary on "MN-Sen: Franken thinking of withdrawing some ballot challenges, asks Coleman to do so as well"