The Free Press, Mankato, MN

Local News

November 20, 2008

Franken gains one vote in Nicollet County

By Mark Fischenich

ST PETER — Democratic challenger Al Franken gained one vote on the first day of the Nicollet County recount of the U.S. Senate race between Franken and Republican Sen. Norm Coleman.

Election officials under the watchful eyes of representatives of both campaigns counted 10,473 ballots out of 18,286 Thursday and expect to finish by late this afternoon.

As with Sibley and Faribault counties, which concluded their recounts Wednesday, the ballot counting machines in south-central Minnesota were proven to have been extremely accurate.

“They’ve been amazingly right-on,” said Nicollet County Auditor Bridgette Kennedy. “It once again lends credibility to the counting machines.”

The hand recount by election officials matched the election night count by the machines in 20 of the 21 precincts counted Thursday.

The one exception benefited Franken, who went into the recount trailing Coleman by 215 votes out of nearly 3 million cast statewide. In that case, a voter in North Mankato’s precinct 3B colored in the oval next to Franken’s name very lightly, and it apparently wasn’t counted by the machine, Kennedy said.

The voter did the same in other races on the ballot, and the intent was clear. The Coleman campaign didn’t challenge the ballot.

In two other cases, Coleman representatives challenged ballots that recount officials concluded were Franken votes. There was one challenge by a Franken representative of a vote for Coleman. In all three cases, the voter intent appeared to be clear and the recount officials read the intent the same way the machines did on election night.

Those challenged ballots will be counted by the state canvassing board, made up of Secretary of State Mark Ritchie and four judges, after the statewide recount is completed in December.

In all, Franken tallied 4,271 votes to Coleman’s 4,146 during the first day of the recount in Nicollet County — a county Franken won 7,384 to 7,237 based on the machine count on election night.

Watonwan County was scheduled to conduct its recount Thursday, but as of press time there were no results listed on the Minnesota Secretary of State Web site, which updates its recount results at 8 p.m.

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