Posted by All but one precinct has been counted (and I understand that will be done momentarily). However, there is a box (or bag or envelope) of ballots missing in Minneapolis. The Secretary of State has indicated that the recount deadline is extended to allow these missing 130 or so votes to be found and included. (Coleman’s lawyer is objecting to this, naturally.) In a television interview earlier today, Richie also indicated that the state will be looking at a number of absentee ballots as well.
The current difference between Coleman and Franken is probably about 192 votes, with Coleman ahead. This does not count the six thousand or so ballots that are currently not in the Coleman, Franken or “Other” piles because they are being contested by one side or the other.
A fund raising letter has been going around indicating that there is still a pretty good chance that Franken is ahead of Coleman in consideration of the contested ballots. My own calculations based entirely on thumb suck estimates of one kind or another suggest that the contested ballots could account for a good percentage of the 192 votes that separate the two candidates, but that the difference between the two candidates would still be only a few votes … one way or the other.
By no means is this settled.
Over the next ten days or less, both campaigns are expected to follow Franken’s initiative in removing some of the challenged ballots from consideration. You can expect the final number of challenged ballots to be close to 5,000. As this happens, the number of votes seaprating the candiates will also change if some of those ballots are placed in the “Franken” or “Coleman” piles. (They could also be placed in the “Other” pile .. and in fact, that is what I expect.)
The state canvassing board will meet on December 16th and thereafter to review the ballots, the recount data, etc. etc. and eventually come up with a final count.
December 5, 2008
December 5, 2008
December 6, 2008
, which is now available for the 
