|
Recount in Senate race could take weeks
MINNEAPOLIS -- It will likely be weeks before we know who won Minnesota's Senate race. And even Wednesday, the day after the election, the numbers keep shifting. At the start of the day, the Secretary of State's office said Republican Norm Coleman had a 725 vote lead over Democrat Al Franken. At 2:30 Wednesday, that number had shrunk to 462, a gap of just .01%. Sen. Norm Coleman is claiming victory, even though the margin is close enough to trigger an automatic recount. "Yesterday the voters spoke. We prevailed," Coleman said at a news conference. He noted that Franken could opt to waive the recount. "It's up to him whether such a step is worth the tax dollars it will take to conduct," Coleman said, telling reporters he would "step back" if he were in Franken's position trailing in the vote. With the unofficial vote tally complete, the Secretary of State's website shows a 462 margin, with Coleman leading Franken. Nearly 2.9 million votes were cast. The Secretary of State tally shows Coleman with 1,211,629, to Franken's 1,211,167. At a news conference Wednesday morning, Coleman said that Franken has a choice not to go through with a recount. According to Coleman, Minnesota history has shown that very few votes will change in a recount. Coleman said the odds of anything changing with a recount are "extremely remote." Coleman also encouraged Franken to handle it the "Minnesota way" by not dragging it out in the courts. Coleman said he is encouraged after a recount in the primary between Hennepin County District Court Judge Deborah Hedlund and Supreme Court Justice Lorie Gildea. After a recount in that race, only seven votes out of over 100,000 votes were changed. The senator also said at the news conference that he will not use the courts to challenge the outcome if the results move in favor of Franken. But Coleman is confident that all the votes from Election Day will hold up. If it holds up, Coleman would be among the fortunate Republicans who survived big gains by Democrats nationwide. At a news conference Wednesday morning in St. Paul, Franken said he would await a recount. He said his campaign was already looking into reports of irregularities in Minneapolis where some voters had trouble registering, though he wouldn't elaborate. "We won't know for a little while who won the race, but at the end of the day we will know the voice of the elecorate is clearly heard," Franken said. "This has been a long campaign, but it is going to be a little longer before we have a winner." Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, a Democrat, said a recount wouldn't begin until mid-November at the earliest and would probably stretch into December. It would involve local election officials from around the state. "No matter how fast people would like it, the emphasis is on accuracy," Ritchie said. Ritchie's office ran a speedy recount in September of a close primary race for a Supreme Court seat. That took just three days, but Ritchie said the Senate race is entirely different. "Having a ton of lawyers and other partisans injected into the process, that will change the dynamics of it," Ritchie said. Election results show Franken held a big lead in Minneapolis and St. Paul, and a smaller lead in eastern parts of the state. Coleman ran stronger in Twin Cities suburbs and western Minnesota. Coleman's bid for a second term came against a strong Democratic headwind nationwide, led by Barack Obama's big presidential victory. Several of Coleman's fellow Senate Republicans were overwhelmed, with the GOP losing Senate seats in Virginia, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Mexico and Colorado. The photo finish in Minnesota's Senate race came after months of intense campaigning and millions of dollars in ad spending. Coleman and Franken each arrived at Election Day with a shot at winning. The pair traded narrow leads in the last few polls, with Barkley well back but a wild card. In the campaign's last days, Coleman was forced to respond to allegations in a Texas civil lawsuit that a donor and friend tried to funnel him $75,000. Win or lose, Coleman was likely to face continuing fallout from the allegations, which he denied. For Franken, who made his name as a writer and performer on "Saturday Night Live," the election was a referendum on 21 months spent trying to convince voters he had the stuff of a U.S. senator. The candidates spent $30 million attacking each other on the airwaves. Millions more poured into the race from the national parties and outside groups, leaving both men with high negatives in voters' eyes. Coleman portrayed himself as a pragmatist and a moderate who could get things done in Washington, and his stump speeches were filled with references to "reaching across the aisle." He characterized Franken as angry and unfit for public office, and hammered Franken for outrageous jokes and statements from his career as an author and satirist. Coleman also played up Franken's blunders in filing his personal income taxes. Franken's path to Election Day began in February 2007, when he announced his candidacy live on his Air America radio show. His celebrity profile and ability to raise cash made him a formidable opponent, and Franken vowed to win back a seat once held by the late Paul Wellstone. Franken promised to fight for the middle class, and criticized Coleman as too closely aligned with President Bush and special interests. But Coleman led comfortably until late summer and early fall, when polls began to show Franken closing the gap. One poll showed a majority of voters thought ads attacking Franken were unfair; Coleman later announced he was dropping negative ads. Franken also appeared to benefit from the public's unhappiness over the Wall Street bailout legislation. Coleman supported the bill, and Franken said he would have opposed it. Minnesota's most notable election recount came in 1962, when DFLer Karl Rolvaag edged Republican Elmer Andersen by 91 votes -- the closest governor's race ever in Minnesota. (Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
|
 MORE HEADLINES |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
