Coleman leads Franken in tight Senate race

Coleman Waits
Norm Coleman took the stage early to ask supporters to stick around for the final results of the Minnesota senatorial race at the Minnesota Republican Party headquarters in the Sheraton Hotel in Bloomington, Minn., on Tuesday, November 4. 2008.
MPR photo by/Chris Kelleher

With all 4,130 precincts reporting, Coleman led Franken by 762 votes out of nearly 2.9 million cast. Coleman had 1,211,628 votes, or 42 percent, to Franken's 1,210,901 votes, or 41.97 percent.

State law requires a recount any time the margin between the top two candidates is less than one-half of one percent.

Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie said the recount won't begin until mid-November at the earliest and will probably stretch into December. It will involve local election officials from around the state.

Morning Edition host Cathy Wurzer talked with MPR's Tom Scheck at Sen. Coleman's headquarters and MPR's Tim Nelson at Al Franken's headquarters.

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