PIM Recount notes for 11/25; Missing ballots in Becker County

by Staff
Published: November 25,2008
Time posted: 1:00 am
Tags: 2008 U.S. Senate recount, Al Franken, Norm Coleman

It isn’t too much of a surprise that the number of challenged ballots has shot up much higher than the official gap between U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) and Al Franken. Thus, it looks like everything is going to come down to what the State Canvassing Board decides. Tomorrow they are set to deal with the controversy over absentee ballots.

For thoughtful remarks from non-partisan observers in the field, be sure to check out Citizens for Election Integrity MN’s recount blog. Their work is a joint effort of CEI-MN, League of Women Voters Minnesota and Common Cause Minnesota. More about their efforts. Interestingly, at this time it’s reported that Becker County is missing 48 ballots across three precincts.

Hennepin County has provided unexpectedly rough results for Team Franken; Larry Jacobs from the U of M’s Center for the Study of Politics and Governance told the PioPress that “The Franken campaign is going to win or lose based on what happens with the absentees.”

FiveThirtyEight.com has been the statistician’s go-to website during the campaign season and its proprietor, Nate Silver, earned a lot of credibility by projecting the results of the presidential election quite accurately. On Sunday, he projected that Franken would win the recount by 27 votes, mainly based on the notion that challenged ballots would mostly break for the DFLer. Despite the increasing rate of challenges, yesterday Silver thought his models still showed a Franken win. His guide to the four major types of challenges was kind of fun.

Always up for the oppo research challenge, Michael Brodkorb at Minnesota Democrats Exposed razzed Silver as a “former Daily Kos contributor.”

As we wait around for the virtual tie to get resolved, one potential solution, Instant Runoff Voting (IRV), has been getting positive buzz from around the spectrum: liberal Strib writer Nick Coleman and former GOP U.S. Senator Dave Durenberger agree that IRV would make this problem go away. Coleman points out we’ve only elected one governor with an absolute majority in the last five elections. Durenberger points out that election campaigns would be pitched more to the center than the party bases, which would make races more amiable and competitive. FairVote Minnesota is promoting the implementation of IRV.

The Strib and PioPress have fun interactive recount Web apps.

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) joked with the PioPress editorial board that she will “get all the inauguration tickets” if the count is unresolved. Of course, the GOPers have been trying out an anti-Washington message by hinting that those sneaky Senate Democrats will try to take the seat by fiat.

The Minnesota Historical Society has put up a video about the 1963 recount, drawn from the KSTP-TV Archive, featuring the major players of the day, and explanations from Acquisitions Librarian Patrick Coleman (Yes, he’s the mayor’s and Stribber’s brother, and PIM can report he knows exactly where all the best stuff is hidden in the vaults).

There are much smaller recounts happening in Senate District 16 and House District 16A; In 16A, it looks like DFLer Gail Kulick Jackson of Milaca will still be the victor over GOP Rep. Sondra Erickson (R-Princeton). In Senate District 16, it appears DFLer Lisa Fobbe of Princeton will still be the victor over Republican Alison Krueger of Big Lake. They were competing for GOP Sen. Betsy Wergin’s seat, as she got appointed to the Public Utilities Commission.

The Secretary of State has posted unofficial results for House District 12B (PDF).

Of course, other Midwestern locales have their own recounts: an Iowa Senate seat in Waterloo went for Democrat Jeff Danielson by 22 votes, giving the Dems 32 Senate seats to the Republicans’ 18, a net Dem gain of two (they picked up two or three in the House) . Danielson also got elected as Senate president pro tem, so it’s a good day for him! Democratic State Reps Dolores Mertz of Ottosen and Wes Whitead of Sioux City also squeaked by, as statewide turnout reached 72%, not too bad considering they spend longer in the formal election cycle than any other state! Iowa Republicans are complaining that Dems took a huge advantage through absentee ballots.

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