Word: frankener
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...Franken ’73 isn’t the only Harvardian facing a contested election this month...
With just 215 votes separating him from Republican incumbent Norm Coleman, every possible uncounted ballot matters to Al Franken. And so the ruling from the Ramsey County District Court, while small, might well be a critical skirmish that the former comedian can claim as he tries to win the war of attrition that is Minnesota's Senatorial recount. The Democratic Party's ability to overcome filibusters in the Senate may depend on the outcome...
...district court's ruling itself is a half-way measure for Franken. It ordered the state's second largest county to turn over to the Franken campaign information on voters whose absentee ballots had been rejected. Ramsey County rejected roughly 750 of the nearly 13,000 absentee ballots submitted, or 5.7%. That isn't much but considering the small size of Coleman's current lead, it could prove to be an important avenue for Franken to close the gap. Minnesota law allows elections officials to count legally rejected ballots if they can determine voter intent. With voter information in hand...
...trend of the latest voting count continues - Coleman initially led by 725 votes, but that dwindled to just over 200 votes - Franken may be in the more favorable position. A recently completed Dartmouth study of the race argued that the roughly 34,000 residual votes - defined as undervotes, in which a ballot has not been fully filled out; or overvotes, in which more choices than were allowed were selected - could decide the election for Franken, because those votes are historically cast primarily by left-leaning voters. "With the voter who tends to pull the lever for Democrats, there...
...Jacobs says he does not expect a huge shift in recounting residual votes. "The bigger issue is how we handle these absentee ballots [which are the subject of the Franken lawsuit]," he says. Mark Jeranek, who voted for Franken, cast an absentee ballot in Beltrami County, located in northwestern Minnesota, that was rejected because he didn't sign the envelope in which he placed his ballot. The Franken campaign sent him an affidavit that he is considering signing. "I don't want to be a cause for revolution, but at the same time I want my vote to count...