Coleman vs. Franken: The Rematch

[struggle4progress]

Coleman vs. Franken: The Rematch
Hundreds of volunteers on both sides are up for the count, and they'll pull no punches in the quest for a clean decision.
By Curt Brown, Star Tribune
Last update: November 15, 2008 - 9:23 PM

Lorraine Cecil is a retired English teacher in Bemidji about to turn 80. Zach Zutler is a 26-year-old from Minneapolis studying advertising. And Renee Golinvaux, 43, picks out carpet, tile and plumbing fixtures for her interior decorating business in Prior Lake ...

Starting Wednesday, they'll be among hundreds of volunteer troops in the rapid-response armies of recount observers that have been hastily mobilized to spread out across the state for the Senate campaigns of Norm Coleman and Al Franken.

"If you can count, we need you in Minnesota by November 16 for training,'' hollered an e-mail flyer that featured a winking Sarah Palin and was sent to party activists nationwide by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee ...

Minnesotans will be getting some help from veterans of other disputed state tallies. Washington, D.C., election lawyer Marc Elias, who represented Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry four years ago when the results from Ohio were called into question, has parachuted in to help Franken. Republicans have been busily lining up their own legal teams.

http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/34498659.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aU7EaDiaMDCiUZ

Volunteers trained for Minn. recount
ST. PAUL, Minn., Nov. 15 (UPI) -- More than 400 volunteers showed up Saturday morning to train as observers for Democrat Al Franken in the U.S. Senate race recount in Minnesota ...

So many people showed up for Franken at Macalester College in St. Paul that the group had to be divided in two.

Franken, a writer who became famous on "Saturday Night Live," got some additional star power from Bradley Whitford, who played presidential aide Josh Lyman on "The West Wing." Lyman thanked the crowd for volunteering to do what he called a "soul-sucking" job.

Franken drove the point home by leading a cheer: "What do we want? Patience. When do we want it? Now."

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/11/15/Volunteers_trained_for_Minn_recount/UPI-65741226786581/

Franken has recount advantage, Dartmouth study says

A Dartmouth College study of the Minnesota Senate recount shows more evidence that undervotes in the race could favor Al Franken in his race against Sen. Norm Coleman. (via FiveThirtyEight)

We show using a combination of precinct voting returns from the 2006 and 2008 General Elections that patterns in Senate race residual votes are consistent with, one, the presence of a large number of Democratic-leaning voters, in particular African-American voters, who appear to have deliberately skipped voting in the Coleman-Franken Senate contest and, two, the presence of a smaller number of Democratic-leaning voters who almost certainly intended to cast a vote in the Senate race but for some reason did not do so. Ultimately, the anticipated recount may clarify the relative proportions of intentional versus unintentional residual votes. At present, though, the data available suggest that the recount will uncover many of the former and that, of the latter, a majority will likely prove to be supportive of Franken.

There's no actual prediction of a possible winner in the study. Read the full report ... http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2008/11/franken_has_rec.php

[Eric J in MN]

1. Lawyers cost money.

If you want to chip in:

http://www.alfranken.com