Painted_Turtle wrote:
Considering the amount of time and energy Al has put into his USO events I wouldn't be surprised if some absentee ballots from overseas come in that were not counted because they were in transit.  Overseas military voters simply have to get their mail-in ballot postmarked before the election is over and their vote still counts.  I would expect the transit times to be from 5 to 10 days in length.  221 doesn't sound insurmountable.

 dionysius wrote: 



The Air America Angry Radical is what I remember about Al Franken. No amount of Stuart Smalley is going to rinse clean that man's reputation.

 Painted_Turtle wrote: 

He'd be a perfect fit for a Reid Senate!

 dionysius wrote: 

Minnesota County election officials have been recounting the turned in numbers, from their electric ballot vote counters, since the morning after the election.

What started out as a Coleman (the slimy) lead of 739, has since been recounted to be a 221 lead as of this morning.

Here in MN we fill in paper ballots and then feed them into electronic readers.  At the end of the voting day, the electronic readers' votes' for each candidate are tallied and the tally typed into an email sent to the State Auditor's office.

The State Auditor, Mark Ritchie, has requested that each County, check their tally's to make sure that the correct number was typed in on the email sent to the Auditors' office.  He said that transposing numbers is very common and happens all the time.  So, Coleman's 739 lead on election night has dropped to only 221 votes more than Franken (the funny and good).  After all of our county's have checked to be sure that their emails were typed with the correct number the actual recount of ballots can begin.  Lots of number corrections have been made so far.

The actual 2.9 million ballots cast by Minnesotans will be recounted by hand.  State Law requires any contest that has a margin of 1% difference automatically goes in for a recount.  Ritchie believes the State will start the recount on Nov. 15th and he hopes to be done by Dec. 15th.

The Minnesota Senate seat is still in play, Franken may come out ahead. 

No Fat Lady aria, yet:

Franken Closing In On Coleman

Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) and Al Franken (D) "are locked in an inconclusive contest that appears likely to come down to a few hundred votes. The tally keeps changing, consistently decreasing Mr. Coleman's margin of victory — and an actual recount hasn't even begun," according to the New York Times.

The official tally shows Coleman now leads by just 221 votes.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune has a Q&A on how the largest recount in the state's history will proceed.

November 9, 2008

 Mugro wrote: 
The only know cure is tequila.

THIS IS TOO FUNNY!!

Don't shoot the messenger here folks. It's the Onion, so just laugh and don't take it personally!

"

 rosedraws wrote: 
Hugh betcha. And overwhelmingly liberal here, to boot.

First time ever for us, as homeowners.

BlueHeronDruid wrote:


Bookends.

 rosedraws wrote: 
Our county (there is only 1 town in our county) had the same returns.

Two cheers for American democracy: But for all that Americans can at least take some comfort, during these glum times, over the state of their democracy, at least on the presidential level. The system may be time-consuming and money-grubbing. But it has allowed the son of a couple of nobodies, who was denied a floor pass to the Democratic Convention eight years ago, to become, by dint of sheer charisma and organisational skill, the probable president of the country.

Obviously written before the election, an article on the positive aspects of how the U.S. chooses her Presidents.

Photo: Sfumati

Report: '08 turnout same as or only slightly higher than '04

 Mugro wrote: 
Senator Coleman is no prize. Franken is an intelligent guy who would, IMHO, be a welcome addition to the United States Senate.

BTW, Mugs, nice to see you back.

 dionysius wrote: 

Somewhere, Codingtomusic is sitting, hoping for Air America to return with Senator Al Franken at the mic....

 Southern_Boy wrote: 

Nope - I did a pre-emptive migraine aspirin strike after I had my last single malt!

I'm looking forward to seeing turnout numbers!

Our region: 72%

My town: 89%!!!

 Zep wrote: 
He and his old partner Tom Davis did a "Franken and Davis Show" within SNL, on one of which they urged people to vote Communist. You're also thinking of the bit on SNL Weekend Update that Franken did starting in 1980 calling the eighties (following the seventies, the "Me Decade") the Decade of "Me, Al Franken." He also did a bunch of political stuff on Comedy Central back in the nineties, including a "Strange Bedfellows" thing on the original Politically Incorrect with Arianna Huffington (back when she was a conservative). So, yeah, he's been doing political humor forever, and usually pretty well. I remember his repeated line introducing his onscreen partner as "the beautiful but evil Arianna Huffington." 

Franken is a funny guy, but he's also serious and smart about politics and public policy. I think he would make a great senator, following in Wellstone's footprints. Go Minnesota Farmer-Labor!

 maryte wrote: 
Did you have a headache?

dionysius wrote:
To me, Franken is still the goofy comedy writer from early SNL.

In fact, didn't he once do a vote-for-me skit on that show?