Live-Blogging the Minnesota Recount

We strongly advise our readers to tune into the Minneapolis Star-Tribune's live coverage of the Minnesota Senate recount today. The Star-Tribune has been the paper of record on the Al Franken - Norm Coleman procedural showdown, and their Big Picture Blog has up-to-the-minute details.

Today is a particularly important day of counting, and very well may end the matter once and for all. Minnesotan election officials are finally counting the improperly-rejected absentee ballots that Franken had fought to have included in the recount. Early this morning, Coleman lawyers once more tried to stop the counting with a procedural motion, but to no avail.

The Star-Tribune's reports are pretty forthright, producing gems like this:

On the advice of the Attorney General, the Secretary of State office is beginning the count. Coleman attorney Tony Trimble attempted to talk, but was cut off by Deputy Secretary of State Jim Gelbmann.

"This is a public meeting. I'm going to have my say," said Trimble, who said the Coleman campaign would continue its objection.

Stay tuned to their coverage! You may be the first to hear that the election is finally settled, or - if Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie sees his shadow - six more weeks of partisan bickering.