Posted at 4:42 PM on December 22, 2008
by Tom Scheck
The Secretary of State's Office has released an unofficial look at the allocation of the thousands of challenges put forward by both campaigns. Democrat Al Franken picked up 3191 votes from the process. GOP Sen. Norm Coleman picked up 2955 votes from the process. That means Franken is leading Coleman by a margin of 236 votes of the withdrawn ballots.
When you apply that to Coleman's 188 vote lead of the ballots recounted across the state, Franken is leading by 48 votes. There are still a few outstanding issues like the fate of as many as 1,600 wrongly rejected absentee ballots and a Coleman court challenge regarding what the campaign says are ballots counted twice in the recount.
The feature examines statements made by Minnesota politicians and checks them for accuracy. Based on data analysis, document reviews and interviews with non-partisan analysts, statements are rated either true, false or inconclusive. PoliGraph is a collaboration between Minnesota Public Radio News and the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota.
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