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Franken wins today’s vote tally 198-111, giving him 312-vote lead

By Jay Weiner | 04/07/09

Al Franken won big in this morning’s tally of absentee ballots in the Senate recount trial.

Today's count: 198 for Franken, and 111 for Norm Coleman.

Most of the others went to third-party candidate Dean Barkley, who picked up 42 votes.

Franken’s margin now stands at 312.

More later.

Comments (5)

Submitted by Eric Henly on April 7, 2009 - 12:41pm.

So when will the press put the heat on Coleman to concede - after all he has established a record of losing net votes, not gaining them. And when will Pawlenty be asked about not signing an election certificate being about partisanship vs. good governance. It seems both have lots to lose politically, but most likely Pawlenty has more to lose. Does he want to be the last rat off a sinking ship?

Submitted by Robert Moffitt on April 7, 2009 - 12:54pm.

Mr. Coleman, your "pass" with the press just expired today. From this point on, you'll be explaining why you are not just an obstructionist in every interview.

Submitted by Robb Mitchell on April 7, 2009 - 1:00pm.

Coleman's lawyers keep insist they know he has won. When asked for proof they provide none and there is no explanation, not do they provide any that they could reach that conclusion. While they are careful to call Minnesota's system fair and the best in the country, they accuse the judges of bias and acting in Franken's favor, especially with the "Friday the 13th" ruling. Can Coleman's attorney's explain why this 3 judge panel would act to tip or favor the election for Franken? Is it because they think Franken is funnier than Coleman? They like Franken's haircut? Is it because of Coleman's contemptible snear?

Is it because they like saying "Friday the 13th" over and over and hope a rival of that film can come about with a new DVD release?

Submitted by Tom Anderson on April 7, 2009 - 4:02pm.

I believe that in every vote tally taken after election night, Senator-elect Franken has picked up large majorities of votes, much like this recent addition. What on earth happened with the machine counted votes on election night? It seems that Mr. Franken had large majorities everywhere in the state and yet on election night, the vote seemed close, or even that Mr. Coleman had actually won.

Submitted by Eric Ferguson on April 7, 2009 - 4:41pm.

Tom, the reason the election night tally was different is that those tallies are alwyas preliminary. Basically, the math hasn't been checked after it was done by very tired poll workers. Also, phoned-in results have more errors because there are always misunderstandings. That's why the results aren't official until they can go over the machine tapes and recheck everything, and that's when almost all of Coleman's lead disappeared.

The same thing happened in the NY20 special election. Their results have changed several times as they've checked their tallies. This is just normal.