Minnesota Senate Race: Typo Fix Gives Franken 100 More Votes

Local news reports:

The vote gap between Senate candidates Norm Coleman and Al Franken fluctuated throughout the day Thursday, with Franken closing to within 236 votes by Thursday evening.

The fluctuations are normal, said a spokesman at the Secretary of State's office, as county's double check their work and report minor changes.

A typo in Pine County got fixed Thursday, giving Al Franken 100 more votes and tightening Minnesota's unresolved Senate race even tighter.

Republican Sen. Norm Coleman's lead over Democrat Al Franken stood at 236 votes Thursday night.

With nearly 2.9 million ballots cast, the difference between the top two candidates is about one one-hundredth of a percentage point.

In Pine County, an election official accidentally entered 24 votes for Franken on Tuesday night instead of the 124 he actually received. The mistake was caught on Thursday and the numbers changed, said Jim Gelbmann from the Secretary of State's office.

Al Franken has called for the recount to go on while Norm Coleman is urging him to concede. "This is the closest Senate race in Minnesota history," Franken said. "This is just part of the process to make sure that every vote is counted fairly."

For more news on the Minnesota Senate race, go to HuffPost's Al Franken Big News page.

Comments

[artquak]

08:23 PM on 11/13/2008

I feel something is wrong when these races are so close lately

[JBSaunders]

12:33 PM on 11/11/2008

Funny how the same exact "typo" was made when they called in Obama totals. But in no other races.

[MMRYAN]

01:23 PM on 11/10/2008

AL FRANKEN... YOU MUST BE JOKING.... NO PUNN INTENDED THIS COUNTRY IS LOST IF THIS RADICAL GAS BAG DOES GET IN.

[blondecuban]

02:12 PM on 11/14/2008

Regardless, who ever won, no matter what you think of them, is who the people voted for. This country would be nothing if it's citizens felt disenfranchised by Republicans who steal elections, or have you forgotten that we've been under a dictatorship for the last 8 years?

[dejayel]

06:35 PM on 11/21/2008

Do you mean the Al Franken can do what the Nikita Kruschev promised...."We will bury you"? and that no one else in history was capable of that? If you do, I want Franken for all the power he must possess.

[LeiftheLucky]

12:13 AM on 11/10/2008

The Fix is In All Right. Anything for a super majority!

[Tommygun2146]

05:24 AM on 11/10/2008

Leave it to the pubs to declare free and fair elections and factual vote counts a "fix". If you have proof of wrong-doing, let's see it. Otherwise your claims are baseless, right-wing, sour grapes propaganda.

[UWNBM]

08:10 PM on 11/09/2008

I use to like Al, but he became a pompous a--, sort of like Overman...

[NorthernDragon]

09:55 PM on 11/09/2008

You know Al Franken about as well as you can spell Keith Olbermann's name.

[ibsteve2u]

10:55 PM on 11/09/2008

I was reading your posts, as is my habit when I stumble over a curious comment.

After reading them, I could not help but conclude that you are going to be seriously bummed if the state of the nation improves under Obama.

[ffny]

07:08 PM on 11/09/2008

I have a great idea instead of Franken conceding as Norm Coleman suggested, Norm Coleman should concede to the better man Al Franken!!!!!!!!

Give Minn. what they deserve a non Bush lackey!

[ffny]

07:06 PM on 11/09/2008

I have a great idea instead of Franken conceding as Norm Coleman suggested, Norm Coleman should concede to the better man Al Franken!!!!!!!!

Give Minn. what they deserve a non Bush lackey!

[Troubleshooter47421]

05:07 PM on 11/09/2008

I'm a Democrat but regardless as to who wins, the guy with the most votes should be the winner- and it shouldn't take most of a week to count the freakin' votes. The system gets a minimum of two years every time out to fix what's broken when it comes to voting machines and erroneous counting.... fixing it should have happened a long time ago at this point. I can't blame either side for demanding a re-vote considering how pathetic the present system is. If Franken somehow winds up being the winner I wouldn't blame Coleman for demanding yet another recount.

[KarenGeorgetown]

07:09 PM on 11/09/2008

Follow the news. The recount is automatic, no one "demanded" it. In a close race it's mandatory in MN *** by law*** to recount ***by hand*** so it may be mid-December before anyone knows. You have time to get your knickers in a twist.

[vanessa mtl]

04:20 PM on 11/09/2008

May I ask: is there any penalty to election officials who now report more votes? Leaving aside that it may have been done in an effort to rig the results, and assuming that these votes were "lost" completely by error, is there a penalty for officials not doing their job accurately the first time around?

[SeaBlood]

04:04 PM on 11/09/2008

I wish Al Franken lots of luck. But I almost wish he would lose so that he could return to Saturday Night Live.

[SimplyBkuz]

11:57 PM on 11/09/2008

He wasn't doing Saturday Night Live before he ran. I kinda doubt he would be going back there after this. His SNL days were long ago.

I truly hope he wins this election, if for no other reason than to hear Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly have to say "Senator Al Franken" lol Seriously though, he IS the better man. Go Al!

If he doesn't win this, I hope he goes back to radio, or is given a TV show similar to his radio show. I learned a lot from his AAR show.

[Demo-liscious]

10:32 AM on 11/09/2008

Just came across your blog here, and those that don't think that "lost" votes, or the prevention of votes counting, have got their heads in the sand. I suggest everyone watch the movies "RECOUNT" starring Kevin Spacey, based on the 2000 election Bush/Gore. I really don't now how accurate this movie was, but it strongly suggested that the GOP had paid off Katherine Harris to "expand" the felon record to the actual names of the felons and those with "similiar" names. Actual count of felons was 33. Over 20,000 people were turned away from the polls because their names were on this list and should not have been. Bush definitely stole that election, and our country has suffered for it. There are breakdowns in our system, and as long as greed AND power still drive our country, then what Coleman and Frankin are experiencing, are going to keep on happening. Unfortunately, everyone has their "price".

I do believe that the States polling systems should be regulated by the fed gov't, to make the systems all the SAME, cut out the BS(the loopholes these politicians know exist). What a waste of OUR taxpayers money to pay for all of this BS that BOTH parties manipulate.

I should mention here that I am a federal employee, and am well aware of all the "red tape"(aka BS) that happens. We definitely need to hold those in power accountable, which is just not happening.

[Obama12345]

11:00 AM on 11/09/2008

Do not worry Ritchie is going to rig the election in favor of Franken. He has already mustered up 100s of votes for Franken to counter Coleman's lead.

[Zox]

11:15 PM on 11/09/2008

Perfect.

[SimplyBkuz]

12:07 AM on 11/10/2008

There is a better film to watch regarding this. The documentary called Unprecedented has a more in depth look at what happened in the 2000 election. I suggest every American watch this documentary. http://www.unprecedented.org/UnprecedentedFirstPage.html

[Artemis34]

09:28 PM on 11/08/2008

Count every paper ballot Minnesota!

I know others have mentioned here the 2004 Washington State gubernatorial recount. From the Republican Dino Rossi declaring victory before the recount to a Democratic Governor, Christine Gregoire after the recount! I lived in Washington State at the time and there were findings like:

- Republican votes “accidentally” put through the scanner and counted more than once each in Grays Harbor County, and
- Trays of hundreds of ballots that were “forgotten” in predominantly Democratic King County

So, Minnesota, count every ballot, by hand if need be!

[2lib4oh]

12:25 AM on 11/09/2008

Obama needs to get rid of HAVA which didn't help America vote.
Get rid of the machines and go back to hand counting the ballots.

[maranello16]

03:50 PM on 11/08/2008

I find it hard to believe that all these votes are being found and not a single one is for Norm. It kinda makes the cheating too obvious dont you think?

[obamasadope]

08:51 PM on 11/08/2008

this must be a praise the king obama site only my last post only lasted 2 mins -- i guess this is whats gonna happen to freedom of speech under his rule along with our other freedoms

[twofish]

09:07 PM on 11/08/2008

Freedom of speech is about government censorship, you nit. If you want to be reassured that your every word will be posted, start your own blog. But no, you want the Huffpost's audience.

P.S. Last I looked, President-elect Obama didn't have time to review the postings here.

[krabby]

10:21 PM on 11/08/2008

You bitter little tr0//!

[dphilip]

09:47 AM on 11/09/2008

I loved the Sec of State comment " finding more votes for the democrat is normaL"hahah.

give it up maranello, voter fraud is a fundmental aspect of democrat election strategy....In 2000 they were able to request a recount, keep finding more and more votes for Al Gore, then when the SC steps in to stop the theft, they accuse Bush of "sealing the election"....
Hey, it's not voter fraud, it's SOCIAL JUSTICE... Franken is just following a long democrat tradition.
Beside wouldn't it be entertaining to watch that slug embarass the democrats on a daily basis?

[Aroura]

01:08 PM on 11/09/2008

Yes, finding more votes for democrats is normal, because republicans are constantly "losing" them during the count. I think you have your logic backwards "my friend".
Voter fraud is an aspect of all political elections, sadly, but Rove and his cadre fine tuned it to an art form. The sad truth is, republicans have been going to greater and greater lengths to make sure their candidates get into office.

[ThePublicRecord]

03:15 PM on 11/08/2008

http://www.pubrecord.org/politics/474-e-voting-machines-used-in-disputed-franken-coleman-race-failed-tests.html

E-Voting Machines Used in Disputed Franken, Coleman Race Failed Tests

Electronic voting machines that a Michigan election official said last week incorrectly tabulated vote counts during pre-election tests in the state were used in Minnesota where the senate race between Republican incumbent Norm Coleman and Democratic challenger Al Franken is in dispute.

According to an Oct. 24 letter sent to the federal Election Assistance Commission (EAC), Ruth Johnson, the Oakland County Clerk/Register of Deeds, warned that tabulating software in Election Systems & Software M-100 optical scan voting machines recorded “conflicting” vote counts during testing in her state.

[AbstractImp]

03:09 PM on 11/08/2008

Hey Coleman . . . did you pay for that suit?