Minnesota Recount Favoring Franken?

The recount in the Senate race between Norm Coleman and challenger Al Franken continues this week amid continuing controversy. Around 2,000 ballots have been challenged so far, with 68% of the recount complete. Coleman still seems to have a slight margin, although FiveThirtyEight.com, an electoral projections website with a good reputation, has predicted a possible Franken victory. The Franken campaign has been pressing Minnesota courts to include thousands of rejected absentee ballots, a potential race changer. The state canvassing board will review the Franken challenge this Wednesday.

The recount deadline is December 5th. After the recount is complete, the challenged ballots are to be handed over to a panel of judges, overseen by Secretary of State Mark Ritchie. Ritchie, who has a record as an extreme partisan Democrat, and has already criticized the Coleman campaign over the recount, has been trying to convince voters and the press that the recount and his panel will be fair and unbiased. For example, Ritchie claimed that the integrity of the ballots was protected under Minnesota law requiring two judges, one from each party, to handle the ballots at all times. It seems, however, the man in charge isn't up to speed on election law. There is a strong possibility the race will end up in court. There may be challenges over everything from vote tampering to voter registration fraud, including with regard to longtime Ritchie allies ACORN.

Ballot challenges in the race have already been the subject of controversy, with both campaigns making questionable challenges. Examination of the examples available at the Minnesota Public Radio website show the Franken challenges by far to be the most absurd.

The Franken campaign and its thousand or so lawyers have mounted other legal challenges as well. Some bearing surprising fruit, such as last week's decision to allow Franken's team to review the information regarding all rejected absentee ballots. The various legal avenues pursued by the campaign may be an effort to establish a pattern of issues on which they may later build their case to challenge the results. Similarly, the Coleman campaign is highlighting each instance of questionable activity on the part of Minnesota Democrats, which certainly may be used in any post-recount court battle.

Usually, recounts in elections which use the optical scan method don't change the result very much. Convenient for Franken, then, that between the election night and the beginning of the recount the tally changed so often, and so uniformly in his favor. The closer the margin going into the recount, the fewer changes necessary to turn the result. There is some speculation, that "sloppy" Democrat voting may account for more vote changes for Franken than for Coleman.

High profile recounts can often border on the bizarre. But with thousands of preemptive lawyers, ridiculous ballot challenges, mysterious vote tally changes, and Mark Ritchie at the helm, the Minnesota recount is becoming a display of absurdity and underhanded behavior not before seen, particularly in a state which prides itself on a tight election procedure. If and when the recount ends up in court, expect this theater to become a full-fledged circus. The entire situation might be described as darkly humorous.

Al Franken, by the way, was allegedly a comedian. Just making an observation.