The Coleman-Franken-Barkley Senate Recount

Sean shares...

Disputed 2008 U.S. Senate Race Ballot

The 2008 Election is STILL not over yet in a few places. One of the nastiest races in the nation is the U.S. Senate race in Minnesota between incumbent Senator Norm Coleman, Air America talk show and former Saturday Night Live writer/actor Al Franken, and former Senator Dean Barkley.

Currently, the state is canvassing all the precincts to settle issue over disputed and provisional ballots. As of today 37% of the precincts have been canvassed. Depending on the margin of error, there will be a recount called for. This recount could continue way into December at this point. At last press release, the unofficial vote count has Coleman leading Franken by only 136 votes. Barkley and the other two minor candidates do not have a chance in catching the top two, but they can be spoilers. Barkley's % in the race was in the double digit teens.

Here is a link to a great site created by Minnesota Public Radio showing examples of the ballots being reviewed. It really makes you think "Did I do that to my ballot?" or "Wow, people are really stupid or sloppy!"

All this will determine one of the two remaining U.S. Senate races still outstanding. The other is in Georgia where state law forces a run off between the two top vote getters if noone receives 50% +1 of the vote.