Coleman Rejects Election Judge's Vote

Arbitrary calls are reminiscent of Florida 2000: Paulsen

(NEWSER) - Minnesota's Senate recount "is Florida 2000 all over again," Michael Stokes Paulsen writes in the Wall Street Journal. "The details differ, but not in terms of arbitrariness, lack of uniform standards" and other bad precedents the decision in Bush v. Gore created. The situation "isn't just embarrassing," Paulsen argues. "It is unconstitutional." More»

(NEWSER) - The Minnesota recount will not be complete until next year and could be continuing even as the new Senate is sworn in, Minnesota Public Radio reports. A plan agreed to by both the Coleman and Franken camps has the secretary of state counting wrongly rejected absentee ballots by January 4, after which both candidates can appeal to the Canvassing Board. The Senate is sworn in January 6. More»

Decision to re-examine rejected absentee ballots raises challenger's hopes

(NEWSER) - The momentum went Al Franken's way in the Minnesota recount yesterday, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports. The Democrat—trailing incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman by 303 votes with 93% of the ballots counted—picked up 37 more votes than his rival out of a pile of 171 uncounted ballots found in one county. Also yesterday, Minnesota's secretary of state ordered officials to re-examine 12,000 rejected absentee ballots, a move Franken supporters believe will help their guy. More»

Body doesn't have authority to include them, it rules in blow to Dem Franken

(NEWSER) - The board in charge of the recount in the Minnesota Senate race denied a request yesterday from Democrat Al Franken to include rejected absentee ballots, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports. The state Canvassing Board said it does not have the authority to do so, and wasn’t ruling on the merits of Franken’s argument. Franken trails incumbent Norm Coleman by 282 votes, with 88% of the 2.9 million ballots recounted. More»

If you believe the statistics, Minnesota's getting a Democratic senator

(NEWSER) - If you believe in the math, get ready to welcome the new Democratic senator from Minnesota: Statistics guru Nate Silver, on FiveThirtyEight.com, predicts a 27-vote Al Franken victory. The numbers get a bit tricky, but it all hinges on a strong trend toward Franken picking up votes from Norm Coleman in precincts with few ballot challenges. More»