Al Franken's 'victory' margin grows: 312

It's really amazing how Coleman's several hundred vote lead has turned into a several vote lead for Franken. Every ruling, every decision has been to Frankenstein's benefit. Rules applied to count votes for Frankenstein weren't applied to votes for Coleman. Rules applied to take votes away from Coleman were not used for Frankenstein. If one is proven here is that Democrats know how to steal elections anywhere in this country. I wonder how many Chicago Dems went to Minnesota to help?

Norm Coleman: Let us not do what is right for our state or our country...let's do what will feed our egos!!!

Quit sandbagging Minnesota out of their second senate seat, Coleman!

I've got news for Minn Gov Pawlenty. If he fracks with this election and refuses to sign off on Franken after this, he's not going to get re-elected as Gov in 2010, which also means his 2012 Pres dreams will be FINISHED!

The Republicans ceased making this about justice and democracy a long time ago. At this point, they're merely fighting to prevent that 59th Democratic vote from being seated in the Senate, which just goes to show how sad and pathetic the Republican party has become.

Minnesotans cared for neither. May the real clown win.

Nice try johnny d. Funny how the majority of the judges in this trial & in the original canvassing board were actually Republicans. Nice to see your still making up your own facts as usual.

Bottom line here is the vast majority of the people of MN what this over with. NOW. Unfortunately we, the people of MN, know this whole mess is being pushed by the RNC who want it to last as long as possible.

The real funny thing is after the MNSC rules against Normie's appeal & then after the USSC refuses to hear his case, after all these months sitting in court he gets to enter another courtroom where he will be put on trial for corruption while he was our Senator. Why am I not surprised he is the kind of person you would support johnny boy.

Nice try johnny d. Doesn't it seem kinda funny that majority of the judges in both this trial & in the original canvassing board were actually Republicans? Nice to see your still making up your own facts as usual.

Bottom line here is the vast majority of the people of MN what this over with. NOW. The majority of us may not really like AF but that's really starting to pale to the number of us who are starting to despise NC & the RNC who is bankrolling him. Unfortunately we, the people of MN, know this whole mess is being pushed by the RNC who want it to last as long as possible even though they know they have no real chance of winning.

The real funny thing is after the MNSC rules against Normie's appeal & then after the USSC refuses to hear his case, after all these months sitting in court he gets to enter another courtroom where he will be put on trial for corruption while he was our Senator. Why am I not surprised he is the kind of person you would support johnny boy.

This is unbelievable, but not surprising. A community organizer is the current president...so what the heck, we might as well have a foul mouthed, disgusting piece of garbage like Franken in the Senate. This happened when more votes were counted then people registered to vote in many polling places. And the guy who found the missing votes in the trunk of his car...all of them were for Franken. This sounds like mayor Daley and the Democratic machine in Chicago. Franken and the "do whatever it takes to win" Democrats stole the election. Just like they stole the Senate seat in Alaska. Wait until the dirt comes out on that one...my guess is that it has Rahm Emmanuels fingerprints are all over it!!!

If one is proven here is that Democrats know how to steal elections anywhere in this country. I wonder how many Chicago Dems went to Minnesota to help?

Posted by: John D | April 7, 2009 3:34 PM
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This was the most transparent recount in the history of US elections, Little Johnny Crybaby.

They even had a web cam where anyone with a computer (YOU) could watch it as it was being done. Of course that's the problem with you Rethugs isn't it? Your idea of a fair election recount is like Florida in 2000 where when the Democrat starts picking up votes you automatically stop the recount and take it the right-wing leaning US supreme court to get the "election" handed to you before the recount can be completed.

It might be a good idea for Republicans to start actually coming up with some new idea's and new policies and quit the whining and tantrum throwing, you know, like maybe giving people a reason to vote for you - otherwise you're going to be out of power for a VERY long time.

Oh Dumb Dumb Janet, or is that really "John E"? Anyway, janet and "jj" here is the real story:
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.

APMr. 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.

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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.

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– Judd GreggBoth 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.

Congratulations, Sen. Franken!

Now get to the Senate floor and make the Repubs stomp out of the room in a hissy, just like you did to Billy O.!

I have come to believe that insanity is contagious; I watched republicans harass, charge and dump on the Clintons from one end of that administration too the other. When G.W. Bush was elected and had formed a coalition with
Christians the insanity really took off Lies to WAR, Torture war crimes and more...Insane...

Darn, sure glad I'm don't live in a state that takes this long to make a decision.

They ought to be ashamed of themselves.

Democracy? Just a massive bunch of monkeys on a football.

Congraduations Minn, You finally made a decision. Is it your first?

Congrads to Mr. Franken, too. Now go stomp on some Repuks and expose as much about the massive levels of corrpution in our government as you can (and wear a bullet proof vest doing it, because these people are killers in DC).

Please name names and dollars amounts, and the source of the bribes, payoffs, and down right rip offs of tax payer money.

Coleman and the Repugnicants are using this fight to deny democrats Franken's vote. The Repugnicant idea of continuous intellectual dishonesty is what will keep them in the minority for a generation.

When they realize that the rest of us in America aren't as dumb as they think we are, they will be on track to actually compete. Actually, I think they will remain dumb enough to neglect the fact that we are smart enough to know that they are too dumb to run this country and no amount of fear will make us vote for them again.

BTW: Quit calling Franken a clown. He went to Harvard on an academic scholarship. He has had a much more impressive career than Coleman by any measure.

Let the Republicans keep lying and delaying. It will simply be sooner rather than later, that they are voted out of existence. Demographics for Democrats all the way.

Congratulations Senator Al Franken!

He will make a fine Senator.

Norm Coleman is a sore loser.

why compare this to 2000. in 2000 you had the recount stopped and no appeals. In this election the republicans are doing everything to make it drag out at long as possible. They want it to last years so the dems dont get the 59th vote. There is no chance of a coleman win. This is not a good reason to disenfranchise the will of the people. It is pawlentys job to sign the election certificate. pawlenty should either sign the election certificate or be impeached.