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The Recount PR Game

Friday’s news that Team Franken had challenged 51 ballots in Meeker County to 7 challenges by the Coleman campaign highlights the high stakes PR game that Team Franken is playing with the recount.

I posted here that I was part of the Krueger-Fobbe recount of ballots in Morrison County. Team DFL challenged 1 ballot the entire time. We sorted through approximately 1,400 ballots that day. There were a number of ballots that were let through that required a closer look. Most of those ballots had an X in the oval, clearly signifying intent, then filled in afterwards.

It isn’t particularly shocking that Franken’s supporters are starting to worry:

Yesterday, Norm Coleman’s lead continued to decline, but at a much slower pace. With any luck, the rate of decline will increase again on Monday, or it could spell trouble for Franken.

I’m not suggesting that Team Franken is in full-fledged panic mode. I’m simply suggesting that they realize that their chances of flipping this race shrink each time a recount precinct stays unchanged.

Cullen Sheehan was right yesterday in saying that the “Franken campaign understands that it’s in their interest to challenge more ballots.” That’s certainly their right. I just don’t anticipate it being a particularly effective strategy.

I definitely agree with TCDL’s statement here:

However, with over 1500 total challenges so far, anything could happen. The number of challenges dwarfes Coleman’s lead, and it will continue to rise. The outcome of this race won’t be known until all of the challenges are dealt with.

I think some of the challenges are legitimate challenges, though that doesn’t mean they’ll be settled in Franken’s favor. I’m confident that the lion’s share of challenged ballots will be counted the way the machine counted them, though.

That isn’t good news for Team Franken.

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Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 22nd, 2008 at 9:33 am and is filed under Author: Gary Gross, Election 2008, Liberals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

One Response to “The Recount PR Game”

  1. Rocky Says:
    November 23rd, 2008 at 7:22 pm

    Hardly. Franken is now projected to win by 27 votes and contrary to your premise:

    In other words, the fewer the number of challenged ballots, the better Franken is doing, and the higher the number of challenged ballots, the worse he is doing; the relationship is in fact quite strong.

    Or, look at it this way:

    One country cannot stand a once in a century economic crisis, two wars and Norm Coleman. We have limits.

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