Looks like Franken may have won...leads by 48 after all challenges...

[S_E_Fudd]

Still legal maneuvering on COleman's claim of dupe ballots (which wouldn't necessarily favor him) and counting of absentees improperly rejected (that should favor Franken by quite a bit)

Unless some out of the blue ruling is handed down by the MN Supreme court we should (fingers crossed) be swearing in Senator Franken next month

One of many links to the story

http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/12/23/112927/38

[polichick]

1. Oh, I hope so!

[senseandsensibility]

2. I'll wait until it's official to celebrate

but looks good.:-)

[marylanddem]

3. That would be SO great.

[gauguin57]

4. Make way (hopefully) for the Al Franken Decade!

Ignore the total douche on the left.

[MoonRiver]

5. I'm so hoping!

Thanks for the update.

[Thrill]

6. Why wait for the court? Certify the results!!!!

[S_E_Fudd]

7. The canvassing board meets again on Dec. 30th

That is the earliest they can certify...however I suspect it won't run its course until mid January sometime

[dflprincess]

8. The local news quoted the canvassing board as saying they will do this

right and will not be pressured by the January 6 date. It sounded on the report I just heard that this will go into February.

Unless Normie follows the advice he gave Franken on November 5. That advice being to accept the will of the people and drop the recount. (Fat chance)

[S_E_Fudd]

9. It could...

All depends on how quickly they decide on procedures for counting the improperly rejected absentees....

[Hokie]

10. Coleman is running out of options

His lawyer asked for the board to reconsider 16 challenged ballots that their side thought were rejected inconsistently compared with other rulings. The board spent an hour gathering the original ballots and not one of the 16 even reached a vote. No one would even second a motion to reconsider. Next up is the duplicate ballot issue that is being argued before the supreme court today. In my opinion this issue will go nowhere with the court but you can never be sure about courts. They already made one confusing ruling on the absentee ballots.

That leaves the rejected absentee ballot issue to be decided. According to the Star Tribune the counties have identified 780 "5th pile" ballots that could potentially be counted. Several counties have not reported results and a few counties, most notably Ramsey County, have said that they will not participate. Most of the "experts" think that the wrongfully rejected absentee ballots would favor Franken. I did some analysis and of the 780 ballots identified 371 are from counties that went for Coleman and 319 are from counties that voted for Franken. Several other large Franken counties have yet to report their findings. I think it would premature to even guess as to how this absentee ballot issue will be reconciled given that both campaigns have to agree for a basis to count them.

One important thing to note. So far the Franken campaign has been very accurate in their projections. They said earlier that they were up by 4 votes if all the challenges were rejected and then said they were leading by 35 to 50 votes based on the rulings of the canvassing board. They lead by 48 at that point now. The Coleman campaign has been much less forthcoming in making projections other than to predict victory in the end.