Coleman Lead Grows Slightly in Minnesota Recount
The Minnesota recount continued over the weekend, with Coleman's lead increasing to 180 votes, according to the Star-Tribune tally. His lead had shrunk to about 120 votes a few days ago.
However, this is not a good indication of where the recount stands right now though it is obviously better to have a bigger lead rather than a smaller one.
There are 1982 challenged ballots, and no one has a good idea of how those votes might split, and there is no reason to assume that they will split more or less evenly between the candidates.
In many if not most cases, these 1982 votes were counted one way or another by local officials. If challenged, they are not counted at all until the state board can rule on them. We'd know a lot more if we knew how the local officials looked at them before they were challenged. I suspect in most cases, it will be an easy call on whether or how to count the ballot.
FiveThirtyEight.com analyzed the recount so far, and now predicts Franken will win the recount by 27 to 39 votes. While the math is impressive, the reality is that no one knows where this will wind up.
The Star-Tribune also notes that an added complicating factor is the dispute about "whether to reexamine thousands of rejected absentee ballots."
The only thing somewhat certain is that the Minnesota plans to finish by December 5.
