Franken Edges closer as Margin shrinks to just 174

Franken has just gained about 41 votes from the original margin of 215! as the Recount continues on!

By day’s end, with about 18 percent of the vote recounted, Coleman continued to lead Franken — but by only 174 votes, notably narrower than the unofficial gap of 215 votes at which the recount had begun. Franken’s gain owed much to a swing of 23 votes in the Democratic stronghold of St. Louis County — the result of faintly marked ballots and older optical scanners that failed to read the marks.

http://www.startribune.com/pol…

If this trend continues will have a new senator in no time!

35 thoughts on “Franken Edges closer as Margin shrinks to just 174”

  1. I can’t think out the math equation for this… but

    18% X 5.5 = 99%

    41 X 5.5 = 230 (rounding up + 2 votes to compensate for the 1%)

    If this trend continues there will be countless legal battles over a 15 vote margin in favor of Franken.  I don’t know how the study works, but St. Louis was probably one of those counties that were supposed to boost Franken.  How many do we have left?

  2. the challenged ballots will decide the election and Republicans are challenging more than Democrats.  We have the advantage here. The challenged votes don’t get counted until mid-December.  

    I think it’s important to get the lead.  Gore won the vote in FL 2000 but lost the count and Republicans were able to stonewall.  OTOH, this is Minnesota, not Florida.  Four years ago we had a full and fair recount in Washington with a Republican Secretary of State, Sam Reed.

    If we do win, the Republicans may well take a much harder line than Democrats took post FL 2000 and FL-13 2006.  We have the votes in the Senate to make the voters’ will count.  And moaning and complaining for four or six years doeasn’t work, see Dino Rossi.

  4. As 21% of the vote is counted, Franken is now only down by 156 votes.  Coleman has still challenged more ballots than Franken, 210 challenges to 143 challenges.  

  6. There are so many different sources for numbers: the campaigns, the newspapers, the Secretary of State,…

    There are so many challenged ballots which could break either way (“yes: it’s filled in for Franken!” or “no: that’s not filled in for Coleman!”)

    At this point, I’m happy to look at general trends (i.e. shrinking), but the individual numbers will mean nothing until the 5-member board meets to discuss the hundreds (thousands?) of ballots.  Many are being called “frivolous”

    Someone just tell me when it’s over.

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