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Minn. Race: Seven Weeks And Still No Winner
By Joe Murray, The Bulletin
It took five weeks and a Supreme Court case for the nation to determine a winner in the 2000 presidential race between Al Gore and George W. Bush, but now after seven weeks of recounting votes the U.S. Senate race in Minnesota remains undecided with no end in sight.
The state’s canvassing board, one of the organizations charged with overseeing the recount effort in the race between Republican incumbent Norm Coleman and Democratic challenger Al Franken, announced yesterday it would suspend its efforts until Dec. 30. It will meet again on Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, the same day the new Senate convenes. The decision makes it unlikely that Mr. Coleman or Mr. Franken will be in Washington that day.
Prior to adjourning for the year, the state’s Canvassing Board issued a preliminary report indicating that Mr. Franken holds a razor-thin, 48-vote lead among the votes being challenged by both campaigns. During the weekend, the Franken campaign had predicted they would be winning by 35-50 votes.
The narrow margin of victory factors into the equation approximately 1400 challenged ballots that were reviewed by hand, as well as over 5,000 ballots that were challenged and withdrawn.
“This is sort of in the ballpark of where we thought it was going to fall for a few days now,” Franken spokesman Andy Barr told the Minneapolis-Star Tribune. The Coleman camp, however, dismissed the setback as “artificial.”
“Al Franken’s ‘lead’ is artificial and this process is still a long way from being complete. The fact that over 100 votes have been double-counted, overwhelmingly benefiting Al Franken, simply underscores the fact that their lead is not real,” Cullen Sheehan, Mr. Coleman’s campaign manager, said in a statement.
Mr. Sheehan stressed the spreadsheet released by Minnesota’s Secretary of State counted votes that were not there and indicated the campaign had already found a number of discrepancies. He argued some of the votes had been voted twice, creating the artificial lead, and argued there were still over a thousand absentee ballots still outstanding.
The state Supreme Court held Thursday that the absentee ballots should not be counted until both campaigns and the local officials can agree each ballot was lawfully rejected. The court also heard arguments from the Coleman camp yesterday that 130 votes were counted twice due to improper labeling of duplicate ballots and/or improper sorting. The Franken camp dismissed claims of double-counting as motivated by panic.
“The Coleman campaign continues to suggest that some votes were counted twice and is seeking to have the state Supreme Court throw out lawful votes based on this theory, which in turn is based on nothing more than speculation and hypothesis,” the Franken camp posted on its Web site. “The Coleman campaign has never produced any evidence that any ballot was counted twice, and indeed the Franken campaign has produced voluminous evidence to disprove the Coleman theory.”
During Supreme Court arguments, Franken camp suggested the Coleman camp’s decision to target just 25 precincts while alleging damaged ballots were copied or duplicated undermines the entire recount. It was implied if the Coleman camp is successful in its argument, the Franken camp might suggest the entire recount was invalid.
The Coleman camp, despite being behind, remained optimistic.
“We have no doubt that when these issues are properly resolved, Senator Coleman will be re-elected to the Senate,” Mr. Sheehan said.
Joe Murray can be reached at jmurray@thebulletin.us
The state’s canvassing board, one of the organizations charged with overseeing the recount effort in the race between Republican incumbent Norm Coleman and Democratic challenger Al Franken, announced yesterday it would suspend its efforts until Dec. 30. It will meet again on Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, the same day the new Senate convenes. The decision makes it unlikely that Mr. Coleman or Mr. Franken will be in Washington that day.
Prior to adjourning for the year, the state’s Canvassing Board issued a preliminary report indicating that Mr. Franken holds a razor-thin, 48-vote lead among the votes being challenged by both campaigns. During the weekend, the Franken campaign had predicted they would be winning by 35-50 votes.
The narrow margin of victory factors into the equation approximately 1400 challenged ballots that were reviewed by hand, as well as over 5,000 ballots that were challenged and withdrawn.
“This is sort of in the ballpark of where we thought it was going to fall for a few days now,” Franken spokesman Andy Barr told the Minneapolis-Star Tribune. The Coleman camp, however, dismissed the setback as “artificial.”
“Al Franken’s ‘lead’ is artificial and this process is still a long way from being complete. The fact that over 100 votes have been double-counted, overwhelmingly benefiting Al Franken, simply underscores the fact that their lead is not real,” Cullen Sheehan, Mr. Coleman’s campaign manager, said in a statement.
Mr. Sheehan stressed the spreadsheet released by Minnesota’s Secretary of State counted votes that were not there and indicated the campaign had already found a number of discrepancies. He argued some of the votes had been voted twice, creating the artificial lead, and argued there were still over a thousand absentee ballots still outstanding.
The state Supreme Court held Thursday that the absentee ballots should not be counted until both campaigns and the local officials can agree each ballot was lawfully rejected. The court also heard arguments from the Coleman camp yesterday that 130 votes were counted twice due to improper labeling of duplicate ballots and/or improper sorting. The Franken camp dismissed claims of double-counting as motivated by panic.
“The Coleman campaign continues to suggest that some votes were counted twice and is seeking to have the state Supreme Court throw out lawful votes based on this theory, which in turn is based on nothing more than speculation and hypothesis,” the Franken camp posted on its Web site. “The Coleman campaign has never produced any evidence that any ballot was counted twice, and indeed the Franken campaign has produced voluminous evidence to disprove the Coleman theory.”
During Supreme Court arguments, Franken camp suggested the Coleman camp’s decision to target just 25 precincts while alleging damaged ballots were copied or duplicated undermines the entire recount. It was implied if the Coleman camp is successful in its argument, the Franken camp might suggest the entire recount was invalid.
The Coleman camp, despite being behind, remained optimistic.
“We have no doubt that when these issues are properly resolved, Senator Coleman will be re-elected to the Senate,” Mr. Sheehan said.
Joe Murray can be reached at jmurray@thebulletin.us
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