That’s exactly what will happen if there are that many blank ballots where people didn’t vote on the Senate race.
They will fill it in for Franken.
I think it should not be a suspect ballot if a person didn’t vote for a particular office. You don’t have to vote on everything on the ballot if you don’t want to. Some people go in there, just vote for president, and leave. I hope they don’t turn this into a hanging chad type of thing, where they say they have to “judge the intent of the voter” and all that Florida nonsense. Either they properly marked their ballot or they didn’t. If they didn’t then there’s no vote for that office. It should be simple to resolve.
I leave votes blank all the time. If I’m not informed about a particular candidate, like a judge, I don’t feel it’s right to mark the ballot for that particular race. An uninformed vote could very well help an undeserving person stay in office or vice versa.