Dear Dad #1, or a Brief History of Franken's Win

My father pissed me off as I was walking out of my parent's apartment a few minutes ago.  I had, forgetting my own rules that I'm not allowed to talk to my father about PRS (politics, religion, and sex), told him that the DFL candidate from Minnesota, Al Franken, had won the election by decree of the Minnesota Supreme Court and that his Republican adversary, Norm Coleman, the incumbent, had conceded.  He then embarked on an impassioned rant about how Franken was a joke, an idiot, and how he had stolen the election because the votes kept being counted until the Democrats won.

Usually, I don't like to take the bait.  But, I didn't have my facts in front of me and it's been awhile since I've tried to make sure my stance was politically accurate and that my indignation could stand on its own.  So, here we go with a brief time-line on how Al Franken became the 100th senator in the 111th Congress.

On November 18, 2008, the State Canvassing Board of Minnesota certified that Norm Coleman had beaten Al Franken by 215 votes of the more than 2.8 million votes cast.  This percentage of less than .0075% triggered an automatic and mandatory recount since the margin of victory was less than .5%.  The recount began on November 19th and was concluded by December 5th.

On December 16th, the Board began ruling on more than 1,300 individual ballots and reallocating 5,300 ballots from whom the challenge had been withdrawn.  Some of these ballots were improperly rejected absentee ballots or contested ballots (from both sides).  Coleman consistently rejected the most ballots and was not in favor of ruling the entire batch of previously rejected absentee ballots into the complete count.

Coleman's term in the Senate expired on January 3rd, 2009, leaving the seat vacant.  On January 5th, the recount was officially certified with Franken holding a 225 vote lead (the total number of votes changed being 430).  The next day, Coleman filed an election contest that prevented an election certificate from being filed.

On March 31st, a three-judge panel recounted improperly rejected ballots.  On April 7th, 351 more ballots were counted.  These recounted ballots expanded Franken's lead to 312 votes.  April 13th, the panel dismissed Coleman's case and ruled that Franken had won.  Coleman filed an appeal with the Minnesoa Supreme Court and oral arguments took place on June 1st.  The ruling on June 30th certified that the court unanimously declared Franken the winner.  Coleman then conceded the election.

In short, here are some talking points over the issue:

• The total margin of victory swung by approximately .015% of the vote.  In an election with over 2.9 million votes cast, this margin of political change is minute.  Thus, a change in victor, while surprising, isn't outside the realm of mathematical possibility.
• To my understanding, Coleman initiated both lawsuits that forced delays in seating the 2nd senator from Minnesota.  

So, there we go.  And, if anyone doesn't like courts and canvassing boards deciding elections on the Republican side, that's how Democrats felt in December of 2000.