Free Republic

Although he doesn't have a seat, Al Franken will have the floor Tuesday when he meets with Democratic leaders in the U.S. Senate. Franken, who is locked in a mandatory recount of the Nov. 4 balloting with Republican incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman, will update Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and others on the recount process, said his spokeswoman, Colleen Murray. The Senate leaders and the candidate also will talk about upcoming legislation, she said. "If he should win this election, it would be irresponsible for him not to get ready to take office," she said. "Minnesota deserves a senator...

You'd think Democrats would be content with last week's electoral rout. But judging from the odd doings in Minnesota, some in their party wouldn't mind adding to their jackpot by stealing a Senate seat for left-wing joker Al Franken. AP Al Franken. When Minnesotans woke up last Wednesday, Republican Senator Norm Coleman led Mr. Franken by 725 votes. By that evening, he was ahead by only 477. As of yesterday, Mr. Coleman's margin stood at 206. This lopsided bleeding of Republican votes is passing strange considering that the official recount hasn't even begun. The vanishing Coleman vote came during a...

As Democrats nationwide try to make the climb to a filibuster-proof 60 seats in the Senate by pursuing recounts, an outspoken ACORN ally presides over the tallying of votes in the still-unresolved Minnesota Senate race. The fact that Mark Ritchie, a Democrat and former community organizer, largely controls the electoral process in the Land of 10,000 Lakes may be important. That's because at press time incumbent Republican Norm Coleman led Democrat Al Franken by just 341 votes and the Democrats controlled 57 seats in the Senate, compared to the Republicans' 40. The Senate races in Alaska and Georgia also have...

Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman is now just over 220 votes ahead of Democrat Al Franken in the race for the final available senate seat in America. While it would be easy to say, “Well Coleman didn’t vote for this bill or that bill, let him go” this is defeatist, suicidal and sets back our fight to rebuild our conservative movement. Coleman has a lifetime 73% American Conservative Union rating, substantially larger than the voters of Minnesota, but not the American people deserve. Minnesota’s other senator, Amy Klobucher shows us what Franken would be like. Klobucher’s lifetime American Conservative Union rating...

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — An Associated Press analysis of votes in the tight, still-to-be decided race for a U.S. Senate seat in Minnesota shows that most ballots lacking a recorded choice in the election were cast in counties won by Democrat Barack Obama. The finding could have implications for Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken, who are headed for a recount separated by the thinnest of margins — a couple of hundred votes, or about 0.01 percent. About 25,000 ballots statewide carried votes for president but not for the Senate race. Although some voters might have intentionally...

The Minnesota senate race is generating a level of heat rare in a Minnesota November. With a filibuster-proof Senate hanging in the balance, it is worthwhile looking to the fine hand of George Soros, operating through a network of fat cat leftwing money bags who have collectively funded a myriad of nonprofit political spawn. At least two entities funded by Soros and his plutocrat wannabe pals hav prepared the soil for the contentious and suspicious process of tabulating and recounting the vote totals of incumbent Senator Norm Coleman and challenger Al Franken. We have written several times the rising influence...

“The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything.” - Joseph Stalin * * * * *I have an article in the American Spectator today called "SOS in Minnesota." It's about the ties that Minnesota's Democratic Secretary of State, Mark Ritchie, has to ACORN, and whether his background as a community organizer and as an ally of ACORN might affect his handling of the upcoming Senate race recount (Republican Norm Coleman versus Democrat Al Franken). A Democratic non-federal 527 fundraising group, the Secretary of State Project, that raises money to help elect Democrats...

In the Coleman-Franken Senate recount battle developing in Minnesota, almost all media accounts fail to mention that Democratic Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, who largely controls the process, is not only a liberal Democrat, but also an ally of ACORN and liberal philanthropist George Soros. Even fewer media outlets report the fact that both Ritchie and fellow Democrat Al Franken were endorsed by ACORN. Ritchie, like so many liberals, is dismissive of electoral fraud allegations in general. He failed to investigate claims by a conservative group about voter roll irregularities. (See "SOS in Minnesota," American Spectator, Nov. 7, 2008) The...

Raise a stein for Franken! The Minnesota Board of Canvassers has voted unanimously to suggest that county boards to count all ballots which Norm Coleman tried to have thrown out as inconclusive to which comedian Al Franken replied, Nuh-huh!” Ballgame over? Raise the Franken stein and drink deeply? Rise and make yourself known, Mr. Senator Alan Stuart Franken? Nope. The Board of Canvassers is technically impotent in this matter. Their “ruling” was more like a “pretty please,” if that.

Franken camp wins two key rulings Al Franken’s campaign won two key rulings today that may help him overcome a tiny deficit against Sen. Norm Coleman in the Minnesota Senate recount. The Minnesota Canvassing Board unanimously recommended that all counties include the absentee ballots that were unfairly rejected on Election Day in the recount. Election officials throughout the state have been sorting absentee ballots based on why they were rejected – and putting aside a fifth group (called the “fifth pile”) with those unfairly rejected ballots. Minnesota’s Deputy Secretary of State predicted over 1,500 ballots fall in this category. If...

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - Democrat Al Franken got good news Friday in his bid for the Senate, winning favorable rulings from a state elections board on rejected absentee ballots and the tally in one of his strongholds. The Canvassing Board overseeing the race recount recommended that county election boards sort and count wrongly rejected absentee ballots. The five-member panel also urged that a recount in one University of Minnesota area precinct be based on Election Night tapes from a ballot counting machine. The recount there, where results favor Franken, ended with 133 missing ballots that could be counted if...

MN Recount Update: Coleman +192 Over Franken (100% Of Votes Recounted) Published Friday, December 5, 2008 3:22 PM Candidate Vote Totals Challenges Coleman 1,208,939 3,375 Franken 1,208,747 3,2080 The summary numbers above and the detailed numbers below do not yet reflect the campaigns withdrawal of hundreds of ballot challenges. Once those ballots are reviewed, the votes will be awarded to either Coleman or Franken, to a third party candidate, or to no one.

On the eve of a key State Canvassing Board meeting on the U.S. Senate race, Democrat Al Franken presented affidavits today from 62 Minnesotans who said their absentee ballots were improperly rejected. With Franken behind in the official Senate recount, the affidavits were the latest attempt by the campaign to increase the pressure on the board to count absentee ballots that were improperly rejected. The affidavits followed the release of a web video Wednesday by the campaign that portrayed the stories of seven Minnesotans whose ballots were improperly rejected. A campaign spokesman said the video had been viewed more than...

Stepping up the pressure on the state Canvassing Board to count disputed absentee ballots in the U.S. Senate race, Democrat Al Franken's campaign Wednesday released a video with seven tug-at-the-heart stories from Minnesotans whose votes the campaign said were improperly rejected. The video, which was released on YouTube (www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBOad11LueE) and came two days before the board's Friday meeting on the issue, was immediately criticized by Republicans, who described it as "a new low" and another attempt to discredit local election officials. In one scene, quadriplegic Mike Brickley of Bloomington is shown lying in bed -- with his head resting on...

The envelope with 133 paper ballots in the Norm Coleman-Al Franken Senate race that went missing from a Dinkytown precinct apparently will stay missing. Marc Elias, possibly the most enthusiastic of Franken's attorneys, had demanded a 'forensic'' search for those ballots, either meaning they were dead or he wished magnifying glasses, rubber gloves and yellow police tape brought to the adventure. Elias, in particular, has postured his concern for the voters in almost apocalyptic terms, never failing to introduce a note of theatricality, working as he does for a show-biz candidate. So, and anyway, and whatever, 133 ballots went missing...

Looking to put more pressure on the canvassing board who will determine the fate of the absentee ballots, Minnesota Senate Candidate Al Franken has created a sappy"tug at the heart strings" You Tube video (see below) to try to convince them to allow in the rejected ballots that favor the Comic. The video plays like a bad episode of Queen for a day. It is simply an attempt to discredit the local election officials through cheap Soap Opera theatrics:

MINNESOTA BALLOTS: LAND OF TEN THOUSAND FAKESDecember 10, 2008 What is the point of having a hand recount of ballots in the Minnesota Senate race if the Democratic secretary of state is going to use the election night totals in precincts where it will benefit Democrat Al Franken? Either the hand recount produces a better, more accurate count, or there was no point to the state spending roughly $100,000 to conduct the hand recount in the first place. But that is exactly what the George Soros-supported secretary of state has agreed to do in the case of a Dinkytown precinct...

l Franken is claiming that absentee ballots that were rejected because they weren’t in compliance with state law should be counted anyway, which poses a direct threat to the orderly application of state election laws. Unfortunately, we can probably expect litigation over that issue and the possibility of further court interference in our election procedures. More troubling, though, is Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s remark that the Minnesota Board of Canvassers’ decision to not count the absentee ballots is “a cause for great concern.” If Franken ultimately loses, will Reid refuse to recognize the results of the election or to...

RECOUNT Number of Ballots for Coleman (as recounted) 1208344 41.41% RECOUNT Number of Ballots for Franken (as recounted) 1207657 41.38%

Republicans are increasingly optimistic that Senate Democrats will shy away from deciding the fate of the still too close-to-call Minnesota Senate race, now that the prospect of a 60-seat, filibuster-resistant majority has been eliminated. Speculation that the Senate might determine the contest between GOP Sen. Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken peaked after an attorney for Franken suggested in late November that the outcome could be decided by the Senate, and after Majority Leader Harry Reid for the first time publicly raised his concerns that some absentee ballots might not be included in the final count. But that was before...