MN-Senate: Franken Closing
08 November 2008 5:00 am by Taylor Marsh
Guest post by Scott Hopkins
A race for the ages continues to unfold in Minnesota. As of last night, the current numbers are:
Norm Coleman 41.99% (1211556)
Al Franken 41.98% (1211335)
…which comes out to a difference of 221 votes.
When the AP mistakenly called the race for Coleman on Wednesday morning, the number stood at 571. As the numbers have been verified, his lead has continued to shrink.
And that’s not all:
An Associated Press analysis of the nearly 25,000-vote difference in Minnesota presidential and U.S. Senate race tallies shows that most ballots lacking a recorded Senate vote were cast in counties won by Democrat Barack Obama. The finding could have implications for Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and DFLer Al Franken, who are headed for a recount separated by the thinnest of margins — 234 votes as of Friday, or about 0.01 percent.
…Three counties — Hennepin, Ramsey and St. Louis — account for 10,540 votes in the dropoff. Each saw Obama win with 63 percent or more.
Ballots that showed a presidential vote but no Senate vote are called the “undervote.” Statewide, more than 18,000 of those ballots came from counties won by Obama with more than half the vote. About 6,100 were in counties won by Republican John McCain with at least 50 percent.
…There’s one more critical statistic: About 8,900 people weren’t recorded as voting for president, according to county-by-county turnout estimates kept by the Secretary of State’s Office.
That nearly 9,000 people would skip the closely watched race is questionable, raising the possibility that as many as 33,700 ballots might be subject to change in a hand recount.
Now we know why Coleman wanted Franken to call off the automatic recount and immediately concede. With the race a virtual tie, and with the bulk of undervotes occurring in Democratic areas, I wouldn’t want to be in Norm’s position right now.
The Franken campaign has set up a recount fund if you’d like to help Norm out of Washington and put a progressive back in Paul Wellstone’s seat.
Meanwhile, amazingly enough, with the Georgia race going to a runoff and decent odds for a Begich victory in Alaska…getting to 60 seats in the Senate remains well within the realm of possibility.
