Coleman's lead is 192 before challenged ballots are resolved

[Hokie]

There are a lot of confusing numbers out there but the Star Tribune's count and the MN Secretary of Stat count agree IF you properly account for the missing ballots in one precinct. The Star Tribune site shows Coleman leading by 192. The MN SoS site shows a Coleman lead of 710 votes. However, the MN SOS site is not including any of the results from the precinct with the lost ballots. The November 4th results from that precinct are easy to calculate from numbers on the SoS site. Franklin won by +495. IF you subtract those from Coleman's lead you obtain a lead of 192. The challenges total over 6600 and they are not included in either of the counts so those will decide the election. In reality, the number of challenged ballots is 5300 since both campaigns have withdrawn about 650 challenges. The withdrawn challenges are not reflected in the published numbers.

Franken's campaign claims that when the county review boards determinations are factored then he has a lead of 4 votes. This means that if every challenge is rejected at the state level AND the missing ballots from November 5th are added back in then Franken would eke out a 4 vote victory. Coleman's campaign has not chosen to comment on their count on the challenges. I think that it is significant that they choose not to comment and may mean that Franken's take on the challenged ballots may be close to being correct.

If all this isn't enough to make your head spin then there is this: there are about 12,000 rejected absentee ballots of which about 1000 may end up being counted in the end. These are ballots that were rejected for a reason other than the reasons that are spelled out by law.

I think that Minnesota has done an excellent job handling this historically close election to date. They have one of the best systems in the country for determining the true intent of the voter. It is a shame that the candidates have lodge so many frivolous challenges and have muddled the waters. I am convinced that if Florida had had a similar system in 2000 Al Gore would have been president today and just winding up two successful terms. Of course, that might also mean that Joe Lieberman might be president elect. :yoiks:

[hlthe2b]

1. re: your last statement...

Can you imagine many regrets that Al Gore might harbor, larger than picking Joe Lieberman his running mate....Good heavens...