Row Over Absentees in Minnesota Senate Race, as Franken’s Lead Bumps to 50
By Emily Cadei
CQ Staff
Ballot-counting in the undecided Minnesota Senate race resumed Tuesday after a short holiday reprieve. But the deadlock between Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and Democratic challenger Al Franken already appears certain to continue past the Jan. 6 swearing-in date for the 111th Congress — and a new dispute between the combatants threatens to further delay certification of a winner and keep the seat vacant for an additional period of time.
State officials stated Tuesday that Franken holds a razor-thin lead of 50 votes over Coleman out of 2.9 million cast in the Nov. 4 election. That lead is up slightly from 46 votes, as the state canvassing board makes its final allocations of votes based on a hand recount conducted following the initial post-election canvass.
That recount was required because the first count showed Coleman leading by 215 votes, a margin of .007 over Franken. State law mandates a hand recount in any race for federal or statewide office in which the margin in less than one-half of 1 percentage point.
But progress toward a resolution of the year’s closest congressional race is clouded by the back-and-forth between the two campaigns over procedures for counting 1,350 disputed absentee ballots, which have been identified by counties as rejected from the counting so far. The count of these ballots, which is supposed to be the next major step in finalizing the total vote tally, is scheduled to be conducted by state election officials on Jan. 4, this coming Sunday.
(More here.)
CQ Staff
Ballot-counting in the undecided Minnesota Senate race resumed Tuesday after a short holiday reprieve. But the deadlock between Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and Democratic challenger Al Franken already appears certain to continue past the Jan. 6 swearing-in date for the 111th Congress — and a new dispute between the combatants threatens to further delay certification of a winner and keep the seat vacant for an additional period of time.
State officials stated Tuesday that Franken holds a razor-thin lead of 50 votes over Coleman out of 2.9 million cast in the Nov. 4 election. That lead is up slightly from 46 votes, as the state canvassing board makes its final allocations of votes based on a hand recount conducted following the initial post-election canvass.
That recount was required because the first count showed Coleman leading by 215 votes, a margin of .007 over Franken. State law mandates a hand recount in any race for federal or statewide office in which the margin in less than one-half of 1 percentage point.
But progress toward a resolution of the year’s closest congressional race is clouded by the back-and-forth between the two campaigns over procedures for counting 1,350 disputed absentee ballots, which have been identified by counties as rejected from the counting so far. The count of these ballots, which is supposed to be the next major step in finalizing the total vote tally, is scheduled to be conducted by state election officials on Jan. 4, this coming Sunday.
(More here.)
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