Politics

ST. PAUL (AP) ― On second thought, some of those Minnesota Senate ballots may be un-challenged.

Officials for both Norm Coleman and Al Franken said Friday they'll review the hundreds of challenges they've made so far in their Senate race recount -- and withdraw some -- before the state Canvassing Board meets next month to consider them.

Minnesota's Senate battle is one of two that are unresolved, with Georgia's headed for a Dec. 2 conclusion.

The mounting pile of challenged ballots is becoming a significant factor in the overtime Senate race. It has nibbled into the vote totals of Coleman and Franken compared with the precinct-by-precinct counts on Nov. 4.

Coleman led Franken by 215 votes before the recount. Through Friday, the margin was 115, a comparison made possible because counties are reporting recount numbers that compare directly with their precincts' Nov. 4 results. However, those numbers are expected to shift daily until the counties complete their work. And the final outcome will likely rest on the 1,525 ballot challenges filed by the two campaigns, due to be taken up by a special canvassing board Dec. 16.

At dueling news conferences Friday, both campaigns accused the other of overzealous challenges. They held up examples of ballots that have an obvious mark for their candidate and no other disqualifying attributes.

Marc Elias, the lead Franken lawyer, ran through a stack of 10 photocopied ballots from Fillmore County, where Coleman volunteers lodged 27 challenges. Some that included Franken votes on the same ballot as a presidential vote for Republican John McCain were challenged on the basis of "voter intent."

"It must be heartbreaking for the people down there that there are people who voted for John McCain who didn't also want to vote for Norm Coleman," Elias said.

Hours later, Coleman campaign manager Cullen Sheehan addressed reporters in a room where the walls were plastered with more than 50 copied challenged ballots from Meeker County that they called frivolous. Most had Coleman's oval clearly filled in but were flagged anyway.

Sheehan accused Franken's volunteers of making excessive challenges to whittle away the 215-vote lead Coleman held going into the recount. Challenged ballots don't figure into each candidate's vote total as results are reported daily by the secretary of state. In the first two days, Coleman's lead dropped.

"They need to show from the public perspective that they are gaining momentum and it is not reality," Sheehan said. "It's simply that they're challenging more ballots."

Through Friday, figures reported by the secretary of state showed Franken volunteers had challenged 778 ballots; Coleman volunteers had challenged 747.

Sheehan and Elias said there have been no formal discussions between the campaigns about steps that could be taken to reduce the pile of disputed ballots that will go to the five-member Canvassing Board for final rulings. But both said they anticipated weak challenges would be pulled by then.

Secretary of State Mark Ritchie said he expects 1,500 to 1,600 challenges by the end of the manual recount. But he wouldn't estimate how many the campaigns might withdraw.

Ritchie also said he expects the recount to be about three-quarters done by the end of Saturday.

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Norm Coleman was born in New York City in 1949. Al Franken was born in New York City in 1951.

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