Franken Ahead 22 Votes Now, Campaign Says

Al Franken's campaign announced on Wednesday that, for the first time since the Minnesota recount began, the Democrat has actually pulled ahead of Republican Sen. Norm Coleman.

Speaking on a conference call with reporters, Franken's chief counsel Marc Elias said the campaign's own internal count showed them up 22 votes, a jump from the 13 vote deficit that they faced on Tuesday.

"We have approximately 138,000 ballots left to count," said Elias. "94.3 percent of the state has now been counted... Obviously that number is going to change, but we are pleased thus far with how things are going."

If true (the official state and newspaper numbers show a margin more favorable to Coleman, owing to the many challenges each campaign has logged), the tally underscores just how incredibly close the Minnesota race has become. On Wednesday, the state will go over ballots from Wright County -- a largely Republican area that could thrust Norm Coleman back into the lead.

Indeed, observers of the recount process and even members of both campaigns are bracing themselves for the near certainty that the courts will become involved. Among those aspects of the recount that have been or seemed destined to be legally debated: rejected absentee ballots (of which the Franken campaign says there are some 1,000 that should be counted), missing ballots (171 of which emerged in Ramsey County on Tuesday), and the pool of ballots that the campaigns have contested.

The last group has been building up into the thousands, as both candidates have filed both legitimate and frivolous objections. On the Wednesday conference call, however, Elias said that the Franken campaign would withdraw roughly 600 of their challenges.

UPDATE: Talking Points Memo's Eric Kleefeld explains why the withdrawn 600 challenges could be significant... from a PR perspective.

Comments

[SailFree]

Continuing to deny reality, Franken claims to be ahead in the count but those state officials in charge of the count deny it.

[AdamAnt12]

This story is 4 days old!! By now, EVERYONE knows that Franken needs to just give up....

[lolyla]

I'm a huge fan of Al Franken and would readily and gladly voted for him were I a resident of Minnesota. It may seem as though he is stubbornly refusing to concede and dragging out the vote count, but just think about how different the world would be today had Al Gore fought to the bitter end for each and every voted owed him. We wouldn't have had to tell people we were Canadians when visiting abroad; the war would have been averted; and we'd have had the top environmental researchers working on alternative sources of energy for eight years now. So hang in there, Al. Make sure every vote you got is counted. And good luck.

[ylpatriot]

Well said ... NO Iraq war ? No recession/depression ? and our grand children and their childen not paying for the Bush $$$$$$ sins !!! So yep Al gore should have stood his grounds ....for the Bushes stole that race !!!!! and Jeb stole it for Georgie in Florida

[SailFree]

Actually, Bush won and Al Gore tried to steal it and was thwarted.

"And that's the truuuuthhhhh!"
--Edith Ann

[wayoutleft]

coleman up 198 (sat, dec 6, 12:55 pst)
http://www.startribune.com/

[Rosey]

I said it earlier and I will say it again. Sue them Al.... Do not let your state become another Florida!!!!

[indymaggie]

I knew this would happen. Al Franken is a thief. He is stealing the election. All these new found votes just keep appearing and they are all for Franken. And Al Franken is not a caring, articulate man. He is a hater. We don't need one more partisand politician. There are too many already.

[doctorwang]

The G0P shouldn't have tried to hide Al's votes in the first place.

[jcollell]

Stealing the election? Correct me if a wrong but aren't there representatives from both campaigns monitoring this very closely?

http://www.youspar.com/

[drayak]

Al, wasn't very funny when he claimed to be a comic. I believe he doen't understand, we don't need a comic in the Senate, although B. Franks is a joke. As for absentee ballots, and hanging Chads, dimples, etc. It would be nice if we could have a election, without a sore loser attempting to throw the results, by some legal movement.

[Oldchef]

Franks isn't a Senator, and Coleman looks like your sore loser here from the amount and tenor of his comments in the press and on TV.

[learnsomething]

The thief is Coleman who is trying to stop the vote count.

[learnsomething]

Did you complain about the ACTOR in the White House, Reagan, from 1981 to 1989? Huh? Did you complain about that.

[doctorwang]

The recount was automatic under Minnesota state law. Every vote needs to be counted. Sorry if you don't agree.

[helenwheels]

You're a joke. And Franks is a rep.

[WilliamGossett]

Nate Silver (fivethirtyeight.com), the baseball guru, predicted a 27 vote margin in the end.

Will it hold up? Will the state recognize Franken's "internal numbers" as right?

[amorosotom]

I can't understand why there is such animosity towards Al Franken. The guy is smart, caring and articulate. Funny he is. I think much of this hatred from the right comes from his dead on impersonation of Gramm. God, he's hilarious. He should fight tooth and nail with the Repugs in the recount. Here's the thing when it comes to a recount. The right feel they are doing the will of God to cheat and lie when it comes to counting the votes. I wish Al Gore had realized this. All those tragic deaths would have been prevented.

[captainindustry]

Here is Ann Coulter's editorial on the subject. BN... I am 1000 percent for the Obama/Biden ticket, but I enjoy reading alternative views.
http://www.anncoulter.com/

[michael d]

I honestly doubt if your 10% behind Obama/Biden. Regardless, I read the

[helenwheels]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/06/opinion/06ayers.html?_r=2

[Jakealoper]

For some reason, I smell a scam. Franken is a joke and I think that it's the dems who are up to no good here.

[CaliTLC]

I just read on HP that Coleman is ahead. Just let us know when it is over. Aye!!

[AlienRep]

This is actually funny. Am I being stroked here. Week to week it has changed leads. I'm sure Franken is going to get a satire out of this.

[jackstpaul]

I'm a Franken voter, but, no, the lead has never changed from Coleman in front, according to SoS and Star-Tribune numbers. Franken keeps claiming the lead, but it's never been stated by official or media-generated numbers. They claim to have inside info. So does Norm.

[IronMikeHouston]

I was wondering that myself. Every count I have seen, has Coleman in the lead but I come over to the HuffPost and Franken has the lead. What is the HuffPost smoking these days? Franken is a joke and hopefully he won't have to worry about polluting the environment with his trips to DC!

[chicamorena]

Forget the recount. Just flip a coin.

[BannedInBoston]

Why doesn't anyone seem to know what the actual tally is at this point? I keep seeing conflicting figures....