Al Franken takes the Lead in MN Senate race

[Boyo_Jim]

Because he’s good enough, he’s smart enough, and gosh darn it, people LIKE him!

AP story here.

There is still more to do:

But Coleman and Franken are waiting to see how much they gain from some 5,000 challenges that they withdrew, and the board won’t allocate those until Monday.

The outcome of the recount also depends on an estimated 1,600 absentee ballots that were improperly rejected. The state Supreme Court ruled Thursday that those ballots must be counted, and set a Dec. 31 deadline for counties to work with the candidates to identify and count them.

I don’t understand the first part-- if they have withdrawn their challenges, aren’t these votes already counted?

The second part – the absentee ballots – are rumored to favor Franken, as Dems across the nation were pushing early voting through absentee ballots.

[lee]

No, it is supposed to be the case that if a challenge is made it is because the ballot was objectionable somehow, such as not clearly indicating who was being voted for, so it would not be attributable to either count. If the challenges are lifted, they have to look at the ballot again and if there is a clear vote, add it the to correct tally.