MN-Sen: Al Franken To Be Declared Winner Today

by Todd Beeton, Mon Jan 05, 2009 at 04:55:11 AM EST

The Minnesota State Canvassing Board will meet today and certify Al Franken as the victor in the Minnesota Senate race.

The board was to meet Monday and was expected to declare which candidate received the most overall votes from nearly 3 million ballots cast. The latest numbers showed Franken, a Democrat, with a 225-vote lead over Republican Sen. Norm Coleman.

That won't spell the end of the drama, however. Expect Coleman to lose ugly:

But after the announcement, there will be a seven-day waiting period before an election certificate is completed. If any lawsuits are filed during that waiting period, certification is conditional until the issue is settled in court.
Coleman, who led Franken on election night, hasn't ruled out a lawsuit challenging the results, claiming there were irregularities that gave Franken an unfair advantage.
The Coleman campaign also has a petition pending before the state Supreme Court to include 650 ballots that it says were improperly rejected but not forwarded by local officials to St. Paul for counting.

But despite any legal wrangling Coleman may resort to, Chuck Schumer's statement yesterday strikes the right chord vis a vis who the next Senator from Minnesota will be:

"With the Minnesota recount complete, it is now clear that Al Franken won the election. The Canvassing Board will meet tomorrow to wrap up its work and certify him the winner, and while there are still possible legal issues that will run their course, there is no longer any doubt who will be the next Senator from Minnesota. Even if all the ballots Coleman claims were double counted or erroneously added were resolved in his favor, he still wouldn't have enough votes to win. With the Senate set to begin meeting on Tuesday to address the important issues facing the nation, it is crucial that Minnesota's seat not remain empty, and I hope this process will resolve itself as soon as possible."

You can watch the Canvassing Board's certification meeting today at 2:30pm local time over at The Uptake.

Tags: Al Franken, MN-Sen, norm coleman, recount (all tags)

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You have no idea how good that sounds to me

It's kinda bizarre; I know a bunch of people that voted for Barkley that either didn't regret their vote in light of the recount, or would've voted for Coleman had they to do it over; I can only imagine that this is the result of the pernicious smearing Coleman did over the course of the campaign (and Franken's subsequent weak reaction time to counter it); how else would a Republican under more than one cloud of scandal come so close to winning re-election in Minnesota, of all places?

Anyway, I'm standing by my assessment during the primaries that Barkley was largely a wash in a Coleman/Franken battle; both major party candidates had their share of people who would never vote for them. I couldn't tell you what would've happened if Ciresi had been the Democratic nominee.

Anyway, there's a measure of perverse satisfaction in seeing Coleman pull out all the legal stops to try and sabotage or delay Franken's entry into the Senate, considering that he said that he'd rather concede than "waste taxpayer money" if he were behind; in the end, after this solid and clean recount, election day was the "irregularity."

by Dracomicron 2009-01-05 05:15AM | 0 recs

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Re: MN-Sen: Al Franken To Be Declared Winner Today

Heh heh , remember when Coleman wanted Franken to concede graciously. I guess Coleman doesnt follow his own advice.

Finally, a Democratic Senator speaks up.

by Pravin 2009-01-05 05:21AM | 0 recs

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Re: MN-Sen: Al Franken To Be Declared Winner Today

Whats next Ronald McDonald runs for Senate? What a joke and a disgrace...Al Franken in the Senate. Like they say if you get enough stupid people together they can actually have an impact. So seems to be the case in Minnesota, now officially the dumbest state in America.

by adb67 2009-01-05 05:45AM | 0 recs

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WHY?

Are you upset because he is a Democrat, a successful comedian who is now a Senator or some other reason? Do you actually know anything about him? His positions on the issues? This inquiring mind would like to know why you believe the people of Minnesota are so stupid.

by jsfox 2009-01-05 06:55AM | 0 recs

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Re: WHY?

I couldnt care less he is a democrat...helk I voted for Obama and democrats straight down the line in 2008. I am upset because Al Franken is an idiot, a joke, a fraud. He has no business being in the Senate. Do I take issue with some of hi spolicy positions, yes but more importantly, his election is a mockery of the institution.

by adb67 2009-01-05 07:06AM | 0 recs

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Re: WHY?

You still haven't explained why you think he is an idiot, a joke, etc.

However rather than continue to hijack this diary I'll press no further.

by jsfox 2009-01-05 07:24AM | 0 recs

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Re: WHY?

You are the idiot if you think Franken is an embarassment compared to every single sitting senator right now. You have seen how dumb our sitting senators have acted towards the big bailouts and the war in the past. How is Franken worse than that?

by Pravin 2009-01-05 09:38AM | 0 recs

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I'm sorry

We Minnesotans were "stupid" enough to vote against Ronald Reagan in 1984 when no other state would, so I can see why a Republican like yourself might see us as deficient.

The truth of the matter is that democracy works better here than in most places; we're not as beholden to party-line dogma as many places. If a Republican runs a better campaign, the Republican wins. The DFL candidate wins when he or she deserves to, as well.

Sometimes, just sometimes, an independant candidate runs a better campaign than either of the main party candidates, and finally gets us the light rail that we desperately needed but was being waffled on by the main parties (thanks Jesse!).

You want a joke and a disgrace, look at Coleman: he's under investigation for Ted Stevens-like bribe acceptance, voted with Bush 90% of the time, and has had his bluff on conceding if he were behind called successfully, puting a fat dollop of icing on his hypocricy cake.

I don't know what Franken will be like as senator, but if we're going to get into the business of electing comedians, we might as go with the professional instead of a rank amateur like Coleman.

by Dracomicron 2009-01-05 07:14AM | 0 recs

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Re: MN-Sen: Al Franken To Be Declared Winner Today

Al is a genius, and a fighter. He will strongly advocate for the needs of the average American. Go jump in the hole you crawled out of.

by lojasmo 2009-01-05 07:25AM | 0 recs

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Re: MN-Sen: Al Franken To Be Declared Winner Today

hear, hear!

Franken's going to be one of the best, and the very best part is the Republicans will hate every minute of it because he's not afraid to call them out on lies and distortions.

by ArkansasLib 2009-01-05 08:02AM | 0 recs

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Re: MN-Sen: Al Franken To Be Declared Winner Today

Frankens books havebeen nothing but lies and distortions....and how come no one is crying about that crook Charles Rangel in NY or that fact that Harry Reid pessured the Governor of Illinois not to name Jesse Jackson Jr.....? Isnt there behavior unacceptable ro is it just republicans and Democrats who dont tow the party line?

by adb67 2009-01-05 09:31AM | 0 recs

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Re: MN-Sen: Al Franken To Be Declared Winner Today

How is this worse than Joe Lieberman despite his record of incompetence and treachery being made chair of an important committee? That is the US senate for you. Franken is smarter than some of these guys. And whatever distortions you bring up, I can point to some lies uttered by some of our current senators.

by Pravin 2009-01-05 09:40AM | 0 recs

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Congratulations Al Franken!

It seems as though what really happened in Minnesota is the board carefully reviewed all the ballots, and listened to the managers of each polling precinct. This process was carefully done.

Congratulations Al, you're the winner!
Way to go, Man!

by Trey Rentz 2009-01-05 06:03AM | 0 recs

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Let them both sit as observers in the Senate

without voting rights until the court case is over. We need time to undo Burris and we don't want Franken in there because then cloture needs an extra vote until we get him and a good Illinois Senator in there. See a recent 538 post on the point.

by Jeff Wegerson 2009-01-05 07:10AM | 0 recs

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Sorry, no thanks

I'd like for my state to have its allotted share of elected representatives in the House and Senate, if you don't mind. Legislative gamesmanship because a provincial governor played the most powerful lawmaking body in the land for chumps doesn't cut it with me.

The suits should be taken care of pretty quickly, given Minnesota's fast-tracking of these issues; there's no good reason to deny the certified result of the election.

by Dracomicron 2009-01-05 07:23AM | 0 recs

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Fine you do what's best for you

and ignore the rest of the world. :)

by Jeff Wegerson 2009-01-05 10:38AM | 0 recs

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The rest of the world is doing just fine

At least it is in regards to my state's senate seat.

Notice I've also told y'all to take a massive chill pill on the Burris thing, too.

by Dracomicron 2009-01-05 11:04AM | 0 recs

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No chill pill for me

Hey we're desperately trying to replace a moron governor with an actual progressive here and it's a very hard job to accomplish when we are fighting a machine that wants to put the daughter of the house speaker into the job.

So help us out or get out of the way and telling us to chill is not helping. (as always :))

by Jeff Wegerson 2009-01-05 12:14PM | 0 recs

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Re: Let them both sit as observers in the Senate

Depriving the Senate of one senator from Minnesota in order to deprive the Senate of one senator from Illinois is bizarre and a complete waste of everyone's time.

by rfahey22 2009-01-05 08:37AM | 0 recs

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Hey if you can't do better than 50%

support for a Democrat then you're no better. :)

by Jeff Wegerson 2009-01-05 10:39AM | 0 recs

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I'm 90% in support of Democrats

So take off, eh?

by Dracomicron 2009-01-05 11:09AM | 0 recs

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Not you personally, $%_@$(

I mean your state. :)

by Jeff Wegerson 2009-01-05 12:15PM | 0 recs

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Re: Not you personally, $%_@$(

My state votes for Democrats in large numbers when they're strong candidates and run a good campaign.

Examples: Amy Klobuchar, Keith Ellison

Franken, bless his heart, ran kind of an amateur campaign, on account of, you know, being an amateur.

Ashwin Madia lost, too... he ran a great campaign other than the fact that he never successfully defined his opponent; that turned out to be his failure point. Rookie mistake; I think he'll kick ass next time.

by Dracomicron 2009-01-05 12:25PM | 0 recs

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Damn, you mean to educate me about

Minnesota don't you.

My greatest political disappointment was the premature death of Chicago's Harold Washington. I was just looking at some video of Paul Wellstone. He was good!

by Jeff Wegerson 2009-01-05 07:31PM | 0 recs

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I'm proud of my adopted state

I'm originally from Wisconsin and could tell you more about Russ Feingold than Paul Wellstone, frankly, but after living here 14 years I consider myself an amateur student of Minnesota, its people, and traditions.

by Dracomicron 2009-01-06 05:13AM | 0 recs