Word: frankener
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...Senate's swearing-in ceremony for the nine incoming freshman who have secured their places is continuing as planned. But all the attention of the day has been focused on the drama of Burris' rejection from the Hill and the other elephant not in the room, Al Franken, whose squeaker victory by 225 votes was certified Monday by the Minnesota Canvassing Board (though Franken is still ensnarled by legal challenges from GOP incumbent Norm Coleman). "The Democratic Party is now running all three rings of the governmental circus, and a clown act has appeared in one of the rings," says...
...Minnesota, recounts and legal wranglings have approached levels of electoral chaos not witnessed since Florida's hanging chads. Democrat and former Saturday Night Live comedian Franken declared victory on Monday, but he won't be sworn in with the rest of the class. Given the tough standard the Dems are holding Burris to, they would have a hard time waving in Franken without an official stamp of approval, and Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, a Republican, is inclined to allow Coleman the opportunity to exhaust all avenues of appeal. Even if the Democrats tried to swear Franken in - and party leaders...
...other major disagreement is over whether to count absentee ballots that were mistakenly rejected by local election officials around the state. When the Franken camp asked for and got a list of why each ballot was rejected, it discovered some ballots were thrown away for something besides the four legally specified reasons. So most of the reasonable election officials of the Minnesota counties started sorting the rejected ballots into five neat little piles, in case the state canvassing board decided (as it did Friday) that the ballots should count. One of those fifth-pile votes, the Franken camp discovered, belonged...
...Franken side is pushing for more ballots to be included in the recount, partly because it has nothing to lose (it's behind) and partly because, historically, Democrats screw up their ballots more often than Republicans. They're the shaky-handed elderly, the movement-limited disabled, the instruction-confused immigrants, the first-time-voting minorities. But despite this tension, the two law teams have been pleasant toward each other. Franken lead attorney Marc Elias, who was head counsel for the John Kerry campaign, says, "It's been cordial. I've met Coleman's lawyer, Mr. Knaak, three times. He seems...
...Minnesota law, which was perfected after a gubernatorial recount in 1962, has a plan in case of a dead tie: a coin flip. The state already did one this year for a school-board seat in Farmington. Ritchie has been looking around for a good coin for the Coleman-Franken race; he says the quarter with Minnesota on the back is the way to go. "I was watching Leatherheads, the football movie, and you realize there are angles on coin-tossing as well. Who flips it? Who calls it?" By next year, rest assured, Minnesota will have the best coin...