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Minnesota Democratic Senate candidate Al Franken’s
campaign said Wednesday that the comedian has taken the lead in his race
against Sen. Norm Coleman (R). Franken’s lawyer, Marc Elias, has been pressing for the
media to focus on the campaign’s internal vote totals of the recount, which as
of Wednesday showed Franken opening a lead of 22 votes.To drive home its point, the campaign will withdraw
hundreds of challenges that it determines have no merit in the state’s ongoing
recount. “We will be
sending a letter to the Secretary of State today withdrawing 633 challenges
that we believe have no chance of being upheld before the state Canvassing
Board,” Elias said.
The media have reported that Franken trails in the
recount by around 300 votes, but that includes challenged ballots. Coleman’s
campaign has challenged several hundred more ballots than Franken’s, but the vast
majority of challenges are generally rejected.
Elias argues that, since most challenges will be
invalidated, a more accurate count would not include those challenged ballots.
He said that, by withdrawing challenges that are
unwarranted, the media’s reported margin will grow by hundreds of votes for
Coleman but suggested that this will prove his point about the inaccuracy of
the reported 300-vote margin.
The current media method of updating vote totals “has
incentivized the Coleman campaign to over-challenge and not withdraw,” Elias
said.
About 94 percent of the state’s votes have been recounted
– a process that is supposed to end this week.
“These numbers
are not credible, and we expect the media to demand the full and complete
explanation,” said Coleman campaign spokesman Mark Drake with regard to the Franken campaign's count. Coleman’s lawyer, Fritz Knaak, declined to discuss the
Coleman campaign’s method of tallying votes, but sought to throw into question
Franken’s method.
“I don’t want to get into an ours-versus-theirs kind of
thing,” Knaak said, but he added that the Coleman count has generally been
within 25 points of the Minneapolis Star
Tribune’s totals, which have the race around 300 votes in Coleman’s favor.
He acknowledged a main difference between the two was
whether or not to exclude challenged ballots, but he said that didn’t account
for the total difference between the counts.
Knaak said Coleman’s campaign was examining its options
in response to Franken’s move to withdraw challenges.
Michael O'Brien contributed to this report
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