Nov 8, 2008 11:00 AM
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New York, 4:04 AM
Wed Feb 10
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Before he goes to bed every night, Al Franken watches the Kevin Spacey HBO take on the 2000 election, Recount, and cries himself to sleep. After an acrimonious Senate race, Franken's battle with longtime Minnesota Republican Norm Coleman is still going on after Coleman appeared to have won by 725 votes. As that margin changes in the fallout from Election Day, tears have flowed on both sides, and the recount doesn't even begin until Nov. 18! After 100 more Democratic votes popped up in St. Louis County, Norm Coleman's team got even angrier than they were during the campaign — and if you'll remember, they called Al Franken a child molester during the campaign. 2000 ain't got nothing on 2008:
Located in Minnesota's Iron Range, a tiny precinct had 100 more votes for Franken — but the machine carried a date of Nov. 2. That was just an honest error, but that didn't stop the Coleman campaign from bloviating: "Obviously, this is highly suspicious. They found 100 votes, and it's statistically impossible that all 100 votes went to the two Democrats, even in St. Louis County," said Coleman flack Cullen Sheehan said. This is the same campaign that asked Franken to concede on election night.
Like in Florida, the state is likely to see movement on both sides of the ledger during the recount. Just when you thought you never wanted to hear the word Diebold again... Although all votes in Minnesota are recorded on paper ballots, they are scanned by Diebold machines that are routinely found to be in error. (Diebold's even getting sued, Gizmodo reported today.) The recount will be by hand, and thus could take until the end of the year.
AP reporter Brian Bakst argues this morning that the election is going to be decided by the undervotes — ballots that recorded a preference for presidential candidate but not for Senate. Some of these ballots might not have been properly scanned by machines, and they might break for Franken.
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