Franken-Coleman Recount: Like Sand Through The Hourglass

Day Two of the recount comes to a close, and with some fairly red areas of the state having been counted, the Coleman lead still has been shrinking, down to 136 votes as counted by the StarTribune as of 8:04 pm this evening. The first two days of the recount have seen mostly rural Republican-leaning counties like Crow Wing, Houston and Hubbard counted, and Republican-leaning white-flight exurb counties like Chisago, Carver and Dakota tallied, yet Coleman still has seen his lead, already beyond gossamer-thin, shrink steadily. Carver and Dakota counties coughed up an additional forty ballots for Franken in the recount, which surprised me. The big urban and Democratic powerhouses of Ramsey (St. Paul), Hennepin (Minneapolis) and St. Louis (Duluth and the Iron Range cities and towns) have just commenced counting, and Franken’s already made gains in those places even as strongly-Republican counties like Washington and Anoka provided gains for Coleman.

There have been a lot of challenged ballots on both sides. Sometimes the challenges make sense; other times, they’re silly. Minnesota Public Radio’s website has some choice examples (vote for the Lizard People!). And of course the Republicans, both local and national, are continuing to pound the table, complaining to anyone with a microphone that Mark Ritchie is some sort of evil being for wanting to do his job properly.

Lastly, I leave you with these words of Marc Ambinder’s: "Why, if Republican Norm Coleman is leading Al Franken at the beginning of a recount, are Republicans fairly pessimistic about his chances? It’s the undervotes. But it will be close…."