To the wire: Republican incumbent Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken (not shown) fought an expensive, acrimonious battle. (Jim Mone/AP)
Minnesota Senate race down to a handful of votes…and counting
Neck-and-neck US Senate race in Minnesota, down to a handful of votes, will require a recount.
By Amanda Paulson | Staff writer/ November 9, 2008 edition
CSMonitor.com's Pat Murphy interviewed reporter Amanda Paulson on the results of Minnesota's senate election.
Chicago
In the end, there wasn’t much comedy in Al Franken’s run for the US Senate.
The former “Saturday Night Live” performer and writer campaigned in Minnesota more as a policy wonk than a humorist, in a widely watched and excruciatingly close race that will draw attention until the final results of a recount are known.
Norm Coleman, the Republican incumbent, currently leads by just 221 votes out of nearly 3 million votes cast, a razor-thin margin that has been fluctuating daily and will generate an automatic recount when the tally is made official on Nov. 18.
It’s one twist in a campaign that has drawn national interest from the beginning, pitting a comedian against a lapsed Democrat, who together set campaign spending records for a congressional race and earned criticism for harsh, negative ads.
“‘Minnesota nice’ has kind of been put into the trash can of history,” says Larry Jacobs, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota. “Recounts are by their nature acrimonious, and Minnesota is starting what is naturally an acrimonious process at what is already a high baseline level of acrimony.”
Whatever the moods of the campaigns and the stakes involved, the process now is straightforward. Precincts are double- and triple-checking the results, correcting typos or human errors, and a tally is likely to be made official on Nov. 18 by the state canvassing board. At that point, a recount will automatically be ordered because the margin of difference is within one-half of 1 percent.
Such a recount may take about a month, says Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, as equipment and numbers are checked to make sure every eligible ballot has been gathered and as each ballot is visually inspected while representatives from the campaigns watch.
“The process of humans creating errors is the same wherever you are on the planet,” says Secretary Ritchie, noting that the state’s optical scan machines are highly accurate and make it easy to recount. “We’ve built a system that people trust, and that reputation includes being able to administer very large recounts very accurately, and put transparency and accuracy as a top priority in the system.”
Senator Coleman, the former Democratic mayor of St. Paul who turned Republican and won his Senate seat in 2002 in another tightly contested campaign, in which his opponent Paul Wellstone died in a plane crash 11 days before the election, has already claimed victory and urged Mr. Franken to forgo the recount.
But in the first few days since the election, the tally has changed often, with Coleman’s lead of 725 at the outset shrinking and rising. At one point, Franken’s votes jumped by 100 when it was discovered that a township election official had accidentally entered 24 for Franken instead of 124.
Discovering those sorts of human errors in the next few days may offer more hope for a changed result than the recount itself. “Once the results are official, then the chances of this being overturned decline,” says Professor Jacobs. “This is not Florida or Ohio. This process doesn’t have a whole lot of error.”
In addition to the fluctuations until an official count is approved, says Jacabs, there will need to be a review of why some absentee ballots weren’t counted – another area that could offer hope for Franken.
Recent recounts in Minnesota haven’t change the numbers much: A recount this fall in a judicial primary ended up changing the final margin by just seven, out of about 400,000 votes cast, says Steven Schier, a political science professor at Carleton College.
Still, elections have been overturned here. In 2006, the outcome in a county attorney race changed after a recount gave the challenger an 88-vote edge. In 1962, the Minnesota governor’s race hinged on just 91 votes, out of 1.3 million cast, with a 139-day recount.
In some ways, what’s striking in this race is that it is so close. Democrat Barack Obama carried Minnesota by more than 10 percentage points, but many Obama supporters split their ballot to support Coleman or, in some cases, Independence Party candidate Dean Barkley, who got 15 percent of the vote.
Part of the problem, say critics, was Franken himself, and the treasure trove of ammunition his career as a writer and comedian gave Coleman – including a raunchy Playboy column, comments portrayed as anti-Catholic, partisan books such as “Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot,” and the discovery that he hadn’t paid taxes in a number of states.
“A lot of Democrats could have won the seat, since they wouldn’t have his baggage,” says Professor Schier. Franken’s, he says, “is an edgy, partisan, and ideological humor, and that was the problem with it.”
“He tried to be very grave, tried to get away from what he spent his lifetime doing, and that’s hard to do,” says Schier.
Meanwhile, Franken and Coleman spent more than $30 million on the race; with party committee spending factored in, the final tally may rise to more than $50 million, by far the most expensive in history.
Both candidates were criticized for their barrage of attack ads, with Franken portraying Coleman as a Bush acolyte and sleazy senator, and Coleman harping on Franken’s raunchy humor, satirical rants, and unpaid taxes.
The negativity in both campaigns turned off voters, according to the polls.
Comments
2. Linda J | 11.09.08
It’s obvious the writer doesn’t know Al, and what he’s all about. When he came to Minnesota to be on Air America, he did so because he recognized early on that our Country, and more importantly Minnesota was going down the toilet and felt as passionately as his constituency that we needed to take our Country back. When Bush took over, we had a surplus, a tiny unemployment rate, peace and prosperity. That’s not good for big business, Burger King didn’t like paying ’signing bonus’ to work for them. Now we see that since the party of big business has been in control, average wages are $1000 lower, rather than increasing with the cost of living go up. All the ‘legacies’ provided in the past by employers like healthcare & retirement benefits are gone or going. Jobs are gone or going. Yet we are still paying for multimillionaires because they say ‘trust us, we’ll create jobs. They shipped them overseas instead and they got tax breaks for it!
President Obama and the Democrats including potentially, Senator Franken will be giving anyone $3,000 per job created, trust but verify. If you are Republican and earn under $250,000 you are voting against your best interests in many respects. We’ve seen very clearly that Norm is about Norm. He only investigated ‘oil for food’ program which had questionable importance. Because he neglected to have hearings on war profiteering, he enabled the crooked contractors like Blackwater to make billions from US the citizens while, if they even did provided services, they got away with murder. Including, troops going without (and dying from) inadequate armour, spoiled food, tainted water and electrified soldiers taking showers in the pitiful excuses for ‘restruction’ costs. Al Franken didn’t wait to be a Senator to help. He provided awareness and funds to start giving the troops the safety equipment they needed…I believe he will do even more as a Senator. So when fed your commercials of propaganda from the right wing heirarchy you can be sure that behind closed doors, the ruling class is laughing at us saying, ‘let them eat cake’. We would be served VERY well compared to the dismal RECORD of Coleman. Al cares about the people, and what are the needs of the people.
3. James Manson | 11.09.08
I hope that the final results put Franken ahead. It’s time to get someone with a little humor into the senate… and one more democrat wouldn’t hurt. The GOP is on it’s way out… and the sooner the better. Simply stated they are a party of pre 21st century idealogies. It’s time to move into a new direction - the US is not longer the economic supremacy it once was. Accepting that fact will allow us to move in the direction needed to regain the supremacy… or at the very least compete in the world’s economy.
4. Bob | 11.10.08
Al Franken has more political knowledge than many who already sit in the Senate. Coleman IS a Bush acolyte. Come on, Al! Let’s make this thing!
5. dwarfgoper | 11.10.08
Coleman can read the writing on the wall. The recount will show that he lost.
6. Ed Weirdness | 11.10.08
With nearly 3 million votes cast, I doubt many voters were turned off by either candidates rhetoric. Obviously, the MSM would prefer that all candidates play nice so that their influence (the MSM) can carry the day. It’s so difficult being in the media if voters and citizens continue to insist their views, values and interests should serve as guidance for our governance. If only you whining little citizens would accept the mass wisdom of the media in chosing your elected representatives, things would go much smoother in the coming transition to a socialist government.
7. NMvoiceofreason | 11.10.08
“The negativity in both campaigns turned off voters”. Neither party will learn from this. How sad.
I have a dream. I dream that one day, people running for office will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. (paraphrasing Dr. Martin Luther King)
Perhaps if we demand to know not what they are against, but what they are FOR, and NEVER AGAIN ELECT A SMEARMONGER we will get better people.
Thank you for at least explaining the facts, far more than most other coverage.
9. john freivalds | 11.10.08
Norm Coleman is not real and he did himself a disservice with excessive teeth whitening. He used to be just a normal guy.
I like Al Franken who is just a frumpy nonlinear guy. It has been the non linear people who have gotten things done. Laugh all you want at jesse ventura but because street cars are running in Minneapolis becuse of him.
Thank you.
John Freivalds
10. Chuck Terzella | 11.10.08
I understand Mr. Franken’s problem…being a humorist requires you to find a topic and skew it, whether you actually agree with what you’re saying or not. It’s like writing add copy for string beans when you hate string beans. You do it because that’s what you get paid to do. I doubt Mr. Franken actually believed every single thing he joked about. I know I don’t.
In these last eight years of Neo-Con partisanship, the only way to fight back against the lies and innuendo of the Right Wing seemed to be with withering satire. Still, this doesn’t mean
Mr. Franken is anything but intelligent, thoughtful or committed to serving his state. If you voted against him because of it, you just bought into the Neo-Con lies and proved his point.
11. Archie1954 | 11.10.08
Wasn’t Coleman the senator that was put in his place by a UK parliamentarian during a so called Senate hearing a few years ago? Didn’t the senator practically collapse in abysmal disarray when he was challenged so aggressively? Minnestoans better hope that this guy bites the political dust!
12. Thomas | 11.10.08
I guess it does not matter who wins. It does not change the dynamic of congress. Certainly the Democrats are one seat closer to a filibuster proof senate, but htey still will not have the numbers they need. I can only hope that a senator who wins with about 40% of the vote learns how to serve the 60% of the people who did not vote for him. The election showed how ugly politics can be. Hopefully the next senator from Minnesota can help the citzens of this state and not further one political platform.
13. Douglass Turner | 11.10.08
It is phenomenal that a wavering 227 vote difference separates the two candidates at this post-election point. And with the possibility that some of the absentee ballots, not counted, it might turn this contest into a real cliff hanger; I am certain that some of those potential voters in Minnesota who decided to sit this one out, will regret that they didn’t cast a vote on one side or the other. On this race alone, people should remember that their votes really do count.
14. ania | 11.10.08
Did I not learn if a person had only one more vote the vote belonged to the person with extra vote. why do we recount which costs so much extra money. Coleman won period.
This country and the people who run are all ridiculous.
15. Auntie Tutu | 11.10.08
I hope Al Franken wins. He clearly represents the electorate that voted for Barack Obam,a, whether they know it or not. And he will be a deft and honest Senator, and not a joke, as so many Republicans (Larry Craig!) have turned out to be.
16. Doug Rando | 11.10.08
Every time there is a recount the Democrat wins!!!!!! I have never seen a recount where the numbers for the Republican go up.
I feel bad for our country, it looks more and more like Venezuela everyday
17. Dan Nygaard | 11.11.08
Increasing the democrat total by 500 votes from just three democrat precincts (out of 4130 precincts in the state), and 250 of those from just one democrat precinct. How convenient!
20. Scott | 11.11.08
I guarantee that Franken will win. They will find votes where ever they need much the same they did 4 years ago in the Governors race in Washington. They will recount until they get the count they want.
21. Alex | 11.11.08
Everyone involved in this vote fraud to get Franken selected should be thrown in jail.
23. &george | 12.03.08
Doug Rando, you are joking right. “every time there is a recount the democrat wins” wow, where have you been. Remember how the Republican Party stole the election in 2000. You are a real Party tool. Minnesota should have a run off election and Al Franken will win by a landslide. People are tired of that wretched old cony ****
24. H.P. Lee | 12.03.08
Could this be anymore unfair. The voting officials are cheating so much
in this race. Votes just appearing from nowhere. Come on. Cheaters in this case may win.
Trackbacks/Pingbacks
Leave a Comment
We do not publish all comments, and we do not publish comments immediately. The comments feature is a forum to discuss the ideas in our stories. Constructive debate - even pointed disagreement - is welcome, but personal attacks on other commenters are not, and will not be published.
Tip: Do not write a novel. Keep it short. We will not publish lengthy comments. Come up with your own statements. This is not a place to cut and paste an email you received. If we recognize it as such, we won't post it.
Please do not post any comments that are commercial in nature or that violate copyrights.
Finally, we will not publish any comments that we regard as obscene, defamatory, or intended to incite violence.
1. Dan Thompson | 11.09.08
One more example of why the ballot should include a NO column…so voters persuaded by negative campaign ads could vote accordingly, against the trashee without having to vote for the trasher, as the yes only ballot requires. The highest net yes wins. It would provide an outlet for those who just throw up their hands and don’t vote because they can’t bring themselves to vote for one they don’t really support to vote against another they don’t like more. Why do we have to say we want yucky parsnips to say we don’t want yuckier broccoli?