Dec 1, 2008 8:18 pm US/Central
Franken To Begin Withdrawing Some Challenges
ST. PAUL (AP) ―
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Minnesota Secretary of State
The hand recount of Minnesota Senate ballots slid into a final but likely inconclusive week Monday, with the declaration of a winner on hold until thousands of disputed ballots are sorted out.
By Friday, all of the state's 87 counties should be done with their collective review of 2.9 million ballots. A five-member board will gather beginning Dec. 16 to rule on ballot challenges made by Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and Democratic challenger Al Franken.
As of Monday night, Coleman was up 344 votes when Nov. 4 and recounted numbers from precincts are put side by side. About 91 percent of the ballots have gotten a second look.
Coleman held a 215-vote lead over Franken after Election Day, well within the state's margin for an automatic recount.
While Coleman has a cushion, it's hard to say with certainty how big it is. That's because the almost 6,000 combined challenges has skewed each candidate's running total by removing some likely votes from their column. Coleman has challenged 191 more ballots than Franken.
Franken's attorney Marc Elias told reporters Monday that the campaign plans to retract some challenges this week instead of asking the state Canvassing Board to decide them. Asked how many, Marc Elias would only say it will be "more than dozens."
"Our goal here is to reduce the number of challenges where we can because frankly it doesn't do us any good to lodge a bunch of challenges or have a bunch of challenges stand that aren't going to be upheld," Elias said.
Coleman's campaign advisers have said they want to meet with the Franken team to jointly pull back challenges. Spokesman Mark Drake wouldn't say whether Coleman would independently drop challenges of ballots with a clear vote. He minimized the Franken campaign's plans.
"The Franken campaign has been saying they're going to do this for a couple of weeks, so we'll see if they follow through," Drake said.
Meanwhile, Franken's campaign continued its drive to gather data on voters who had absentee ballots rejected. Elias said all but nine counties had supplied the information and the campaign would consider suing for access in those that didn't.
The state Canvassing Board denied a Franken request to broadly reconsider rejected absentee ballots and include them in the recount.
The Franken campaign hasn't ruled out challenging the election in court or before the U.S. Senate if the former entertainer comes up short.
"No recount should be considered accurate or even complete until all the ballots are counted," Elias said. "That includes improperly rejected absentee ballots."
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Norm Coleman was born in New York City in 1949. Al Franken was born in New York City in 1951.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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