From tight to tighter: Franken now just 204 votes behind

From tight to tighter: Franken now just 204 votes behind
By PAUL WALSH, Star Tribune

November 10, 2008

Al Franken's deficit just keeps on shrinking as the state adjusts the unofficial tally in the U.S. Senate election last week.

Today's latest results show the DFL challenger is now trailing Republican incumbent Norm Coleman by 204 votes. That's down from 221 over the weekend.

As of 12:10 p.m., Coleman has 1,211,560 votes to Franken's 1,211,356.

The difference between Coleman and Franken, which stood at 725 votes in Coleman's favor Wednesday morning, has changed several times since then as county officials have checked results and sent the adjusted figures to the state. For the most part, the margin between the two has narrowed with each change.

The Coleman campaign has questioned the validity of changes. Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie has responded that the revisions are typical and that no fraud is being committed.

The bitter contest is heading toward a recount, since the gap is less than 0.5 percent of the total vote.

Ritchie has said he's hoping that the hand recount of about 2.9 million ballots will be complete by mid-December.

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482