Storms start to move out of Minnesota, continue for western Wisconsin

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

A slugfest for nearly two years,
Minnesota's U.S. Senate race headed into a new round Wednesday as
the campaigns girded for an automatic statewide recount to
determine if Republican Sen. Norm Coleman's bare lead over
Democratic challenger Al Franken would stand.
      

Coleman declared himself the winner of Tuesday's election but
Franken said he would let the recount play out, hoping it would
erase the incumbent's 439-vote lead out of nearly 2.9 million
ballots. State officials said the recount wouldn't start until
mid-November and would likely take weeks.
      

"Yesterday the voters spoke. We prevailed," Coleman said
Wednesday at a news conference. He noted 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. Secretary of State
Mark Ritchie said the recount would cost 3 cents per ballot, or
almost $90,000.
      

As counties and Ritchie's office reconciled their unofficial
vote totals Wednesday, Coleman's margin fluctuated but was at 475
votes Wednesday afternoon: Coleman had 1,211,520 votes, or 41.99
percent at that time, while Franken had 1,211,081 votes, or 41.98
percent.
      

Dean Barkley of the Independence Party was third with 15.16
percent.
      

State law provides for automatic recounts in races decided by a
half-percentage point or less.
      

"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 electorate is clearly
heard," Franken said Wednesday. "This has been a long campaign,
but it is going to be a little longer before we have a winner."
      

Franken said his campaign was looking into reports of
irregularities in Minneapolis where some voters had trouble
registering, though he didn't elaborate.
      

"We'll all have to be vigilant and work together to complete
this recount successfully," his attorney, David Lillehaug, said.
      

If he hangs on, Coleman would be among the Republicans who
survived Democratic gains in Senate races nationwide. Democrats
ousted two Republican incumbents and picked up three seats held by
retiring GOP incumbents. Three other Republicans besides Coleman
were trying to hang on in races too close to call.
      

Coleman said he'd hoped that "the healing process would begin
today," but indicated he would nonetheless begin preparations for
a second term.
      

"My focus from here on out is giving Minnesotans the leadership
they deserve in these challenging times," Coleman said.
      

Ritchie, a Democrat, said a recount wouldn't begin until Nov. 19
and could stretch into December. It would involve hand counts by
local election officials from around the state, and lawyers from
both campaigns would be allowed to observe.
      

"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 different.
      

"Having a ton of lawyers and other partisans injected into the
process, that will change the dynamics of it," Ritchie said.
      

Each ballot will be inspected manually. Ballots with improper or
stray marks could be analyzed to determine voter intent, but
partisan observers can challenge those they deem questionable. The
five-member state canvassing board votes later on the challenged
ballots.
      

One wildcard is the dropoff in voting detected between the
presidential and Senate races: More than 25,000 voters in the
presidential contest weren't recorded as voting for Senate.
      

Election experts said that recounts, even on a large scale,
don't often reverse the initial vote count.
      

"They sometimes get closer," said Bob Stein, a political
scientist at Rice University in Houston who studies elections and
voting. "They just don't flip very much."
      

But it's not unheard of. In the 2004 governor's race in
Washington state, the initial vote count put Republican Dino Rossi
261 votes ahead of Democrat Christine Gregoire.
      

A machine recount narrowed that margin further, finding a
42-vote Rossi win. After that, the state undertook a second,
by-hand recount of ballots that gave the win to Gregoire by 129
votes. She was inaugurated soon after, but Republicans sued to
overturn the results. The case dragged on until June, when a judge
rejected Rossi's legal efforts.
      

Minnesota and Washington both use optical-scan ballots that
voters mark by hand.
      

In the Minnesota recount, officials may in some cases have to
attempt to divine the intention of voters who failed to properly
mark their ballot.
      

"There are almost as many ways to mark a ballot as there are
people marking them," said Doug Chapin, director of
Electionline.org, an election reform project of the Pew Charitable
Trusts.
      

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. That recount wasn't
completed until the following March.
      

The photo finish in this year's Senate race came after nearly
two years of intense, sometimes bitter competition between Coleman,
one of the state's most durable politicians, and Franken, who made
his name as a writer and performer on "Saturday Night Live."
      

The candidates spent $30 million attacking each other on the
airwaves. Millions more poured into the race from national parties
and outside groups, leaving both men with high negatives in voters'
eyes.
      

An analysis of exit poll data showed Franken wasn't able to win
over independent voters at the same rate as fellow Democrat Barack
Obama, providing a clue as to why his race ended with such a tight
margin.
      

The analysis found that about three-quarters of Obama voters
also went for Franken, unless those Obama voters were
self-described independents. Then the percentage dropped to about
60 percent. About a quarter of Obama's independents went for
Barkley, and Coleman captured about 15 percent.
      

The actual votes showed that Franken failed to convert 362,000
Obama voters into his own. Coleman missed out on 64,000 votes
attracted by the candidate atop his ticket, Republican John McCain.

Gallery

Some Minn. voters chose Obama, but not Franken

Mark Ritchie on the changing election results

Ritchie: Senate recount will involve hundreds, cost $90K

As recount looms, Coleman's lead narrows

President-elect Obama faces daunting challenges

Coleman declared himself the winner of Tuesday's election but
Franken said he would let the recount play out, hoping it would
erase the incumbent's 439-vote lead out of nearly 2.9 million
ballots.

Coleman declares win, recount looms

Go Deeper.

Like this?