Analyst: US Senate May Decide Minnesota Election

A statement by U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., makes it more likely the Senate could intervene in a Minnesota election, an analyst says.

The Minnesota U.S. Senate contest between incumbent Republican Norm Coleman and Democratic challenger Al Franken is undergoing a recount, with the candidates separated by less than 300 votes out of 2.9 million cast. But a controversial decision by the state's Elections Canvassing Board could end up throwing the election into the lap of the Senate itself, a scholar told Minnesota Public Radio.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[SailFree]

Senate may decide? Now that would be despicable and viciously partisan.

[HalfTruism]

Get used to it.

[drkazmd65]

Damn,... I am no fan of Coleman, and am a big fan of Franken,... but this just isn't right.

Smacks in too many ways of the way that Bush Jr. got 'selected' by non-constituents.

[coolmaiden]

Of course I want Franken to win because Norm Coleman is a moronic Bushite, but is it bad that a tiny, tiny, little piece of me wouldn't mind seeing Al lose so he can write more masterpieces like "Lies and Lying Liars?"

[alenaspoppa]

I feel exactly the same way. Really, whether he wins or loses, it's a "win-win" for those of us to respect Al Franken.

[drkazmd65]

Nope,... nothing 'bad' I see about Al Franken going back to being 'just' Al Franken, comedy writer, minor actor, author, radio-show hosts and political commenter.

If Coleman 'wins', Al still can be a contributor to the poltical process. If Coleman loses,... we all win bigtime though.

[rkimball]

the republicans are trying to steal al franken's win. with franken out of the way, the gop can block any measures on the hill & hold up progress. also the gop may be rigging results in their favor in georgia. they stollen the last two elections outright. now they are stealing contol of the house & senate. wise up america, before it's too late.

[Dutschke]

Given the apparent narrowness of the Minnesota Senate election and especially the fact that it was a three way race, I think that for the sake of fairness there should be a re vote with just the two remaining candidates (Coleman & Franken). it doesn't look good for either candidate when votes are being fought over with teams of lawyers and the candidates shouldn't even have to be subjected to such action in the first place. In a three way race, a margin of roughly 0.01% does not seem to be enough to be a true representative of the people of Minnesota in any respect. Neither candidate can even claim having 50% of the electorate behind them. Both candidates should step forward and demand a "run off" vote in this situation just to make sure that there will not be any clouds of doubt hanging over the "winner".

[1differentdrummer]

What does the law say?

[nellie]

Somehow counting all the votes has become very complicated.

[elcojonu]

Good ! game, set, it's over; Al won.
We have 59 seats.

[Mattie]

I live in MN, and kept wondering how many ballots could be disputed. You fill in a circle, and a scanner reads them. The Star Tribune did an article on Thursday that showed several examples of disputed ballots, and the ballots were clearly marked with two choices. How do you know who they wanted to vote for, if they filled in both. I guess that have to look at them, and see if they can decide, some had an X thru one, and the circle filled in on another, so I guess you could try to judge who they wanted to vote for. I supported Franken, but I want it to be fair, and I believe the people of MN will demand that, and I have confidence it will be done that way.

[Myshkin57]

You can go through 599 ballots and vote on how you think they should be counted on the Star Tribune site. It's pretty annoying and takes a while, but if you do it you get a good idea of what's going on with the ballots.

Most voters' intentions on the challenged ballots is easy to discern. In many cases, I think the problems might stem from older people trying to fill in the small bubbles and not having the motor skills to fill them in neatly. Very few of the ballots are filled in by people who are completely clueless. And, even among those filled out by the clueless, you can tell very easily who the voter was voting for.

And remember, votes are to be counted even if the voter didn't fill out the form correctly so long as the voter's intention is clear. That's the law.

http://senaterecount.startribune.com/

[wm1066]

Right now if the Franken team questions any vote for Franken being disqualified the Coleman team questions any Franken vote, kinda a tit-for-tat thing. So if they question one vote they might lose two votes. The Coleman team are once again playing politics and will try to win at any cost.

[Drdemocrat]

I say keep the Senate out of this. The Senate doesn't want to be involved in a possible "tainted" outcome.

[elcojonu]

After 2000 and 2004 ??
Are you sh....g me !!!

[Big0725]

Well said !

[Pepper14]

The senate is not going to decide this race and they shouldn't, they have to many important things that need to be taken care of and if they make this the news and get involved it will anger the GOP and will be a bad start for the new sentate. Let the state settle this and if Coleman has the most votes then I think the dems will pressure Frankan to let it go. Even with the dems having close to 60 in the senate they still need the help from the GOP to get anything done because you have to have unanimous consent to bring anything up and any one senator can stop anything in its tracks. This is what the dems did when the GOP had the majority, it wasn't reported by the media and everything was blamed on the republicans for not being able to get anything done but the dems wouldn't let bills pass.

[elr50]

Pepper, you are full of bushit. The dems wouldn't let bills pass? GOOD. I know what kind of Bushit bills you are talking about-more pro-business, pro-war bushit. Good-go back into your hole.

[theplaintrutho1]

I'm not sure of what you're talking about here. If the Democrats win the 60 Senate-seats- votes, the Republicans become marginalized. Unless you're referring to A unanimous consent request setting terms for the consideration of a specified bill or other measure, which are usually proposed by the Majority Leader.

The Filibuster and Cloture rule takes care of all the rest. At the moment the Cloture only requires 60 votes.

Even an "unanimous consent agreement" are "time agreements," which limit the time available for debate and specify who will control that time. Many also permit only a list of specified amendments, or require amendments to be to the measure. Many also contain other provisions, such as empowering the Majority Leader to call up the measure at will or specifying when consideration will begin or end.

As far as Democrats blocking Bush appointments, remember, Republicans never had the 60 votes needed to be Filibuster proof, and than we're talking about only two Judicial-appointees (judges), full of right-wing religious ideology.

[nomoreofthesame]

It;s about time the DEMS steal an election, although it won't count as much as the Presidential fraud that we got stuck with.

[Pepper14]

What an ignorant comment. It was the dems that stole the first Presidental election and that was JFK. The only reason he got in was that Nixon didn't contest the election but the mafia was the reason he got elected. You might be to young to know your history but it is a fact.

[MaxHeadroom]

So just where do your facts come from???
I don't buy into your statement that "just because I said so" as you have just done. I too have a little bit of age on me, and was around when Kennedy was voted into office: So convince me.

Facts please..... (Legitimate sources only...All others need not be presented).

[hildutus]

People have been claiming that elections at all levels have been stolen since the dawn of the Republic. You don't need to be a certain age, you just have to read enough history.

[theplaintrutho1]

It's a statement of course made by you, but in no-way is there any fact or accusation in that statement.

I was around at that time.

[lioness39]

Sorry, you're just dead wrong on that.

[elcojonu]

Ignorant my ass !
Don't go there Repug; just don't go there.

[elcojonu]

YOU ROCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[lovered]

Coleman has already won this race...twice. As a Minnesotan, I do not want to be responsible for sending Al Franken to the Senate.

[waynesmyer]

Less that 30% of the service overseas ballots have been counted! 7 ot 8 of our enlisted people in Iraq contributed to Democrats. Is that why their votes were not counted?
JOIN THE ARMY AND LOSE YOUR RIGHT TO VOTE!

[Pepper14]

Another stupid comment and an untrue one at that.

[nomoreofthesame]

You can't count either, it is not over yet.

[Pepper14]

It should be over. If you are so stupid that you can't fill in a circle for who you want then your vote shouldn't be counted. Voters in MN are stupid anyhow for voting for a silly man like Franken. These are they same voters that elected Ventura for Gov. they had buyers remorse real quick.

[Mustang Sally]

Michelle Malkin just called, she misses you and wants you to come back. They are minus 1 tro//.

[theplaintrutho1]

Now that's hilarious, he, he, he, he.

[Mattie]

Hey, I live in MN too, and I very much want to be responsible for sending Franken to the senate. It's nice to hear from a fellow Minnesotan though, and unlike some people here, I won't call names and insult you just for having an opinion. I get that a lot here because I don't support Obama. Here you have to think like everyone else or they call you names and spew hate because you aren't for hope and change.

[theplaintrutho1]

That ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha, funny. You should read your own words down at the bottom.

You say, "...spew hate because you aren't for hope and change."

He,he,he,he. Let's see now, what is the meaning of "hope" = Hope is a belief in a positive outcome related to events and circumstances in one's life. Hope is the feeling that what is wanted can be had.
And the opposite = despair overtakes hope, and fascist ideas are allowed to ...The Opposite of Apathy, Fear is the opposite of hope, Despair: To lose all hope, The Opposite of Hope Is Apathy, a.k.a. "You can't ... etc.

And Change = can mean:

The process of becoming different
the act or process of changing
Social change.

The opposite = Stagnate
difference of constancy, stability.

Are you sure you don't want to detract that comment?

[Myshkin57]

He didn't win it once. You win by getting the most votes. That has yet to be settled. The THOUSANDS of challenged ballots haven't even been looked at.

[mero909]

Norm Coleman's teeth really hurt my eyes.

[Tommygun2146]

They remind me of that scene in "There's Something About Mary", when Matt Dillon mistakenly believed Mary thought men with capped teeth were sexy and he showed up with what looked like a mouth full of over-sized chicklets.

[Jaybot]

I wouldn't count on much action from Harry Reid, he already has more Democratic Senators than he wants. Any more and his hands would be tied. He'd be forced to pass, at least some, unadulterated Democratic legislation.

[Myshkin57]

It won't happen. If it does, they'll give it to Coleman to look magnanimous.

[Judyisacutie]

Why do the democrats always have to look magnanimous? The real world doesn't work that way. Whoever heard of a hungry lion that let a gazelle go to be fair?

The republicans don't bother with being magnanimous. They just do want they want and say that they were right and you're un-American for questioning them.

[mero909]

Washington DC isn't the "real world".

[Liberal2]

On C-span this morning, they had a reichwing blowhard who worked in the Bush WH. Now he's part of a "non-partisan ethics" group. Ethics and rethugs....an oxymoron if ever there was one. The rethug praised Obama for his "bipartisanship" approach. "Bipartisanship" from rethugs....yeah, like asking Columbian drug cartels to join in setting US drug policy