Al Franken

MPR Photo/Mark Zdechlik

Election Coverage from MPR

Recount drama's final act

Elections officials around the state are holding meetings to identify and count over 1,300 wrongly rejected absentee ballots in the U.S. Senate race between incumbent Norm Coleman and challenger Al Franken. (Midday, 12/30/2008)

Supreme Court denies Coleman motion; extends ballot deadline

The Minnesota Supreme Court has denied a motion by Republican Senator Norm Coleman's campaign calling for an investigation into whether double counting occurred in the U.S. Senate recount. Also today, justices extended the deadline to count any wrongly-rejected absentee ballots. (12/24/2008)

Winner of U.S. Senate race unknown until 2009

The winner of Minnesota's U.S. Senate race will not be known until early next year, and may not even be seated when the U.S. Senate convenes on Jan. 6. (12/24/2008)

Secretary of State report shows Franken with 47-vote lead

Democrat Al Franken now leads Republican Norm Coleman by an unofficial 47 votes in the U.S. Senate recount. (12/22/2008)

Pawlenty could act to fill vacant Senate seat

By law, Gov. Tim Pawlenty could appoint someone to fill that seat, but the U.S. Senate might not go along with that. (12/22/2008)

Board to start reviewing Coleman challenges

Now it's on to Norm Coleman's challenges. This morning the State Canvassing Board will begin examining the disputed ballots put forward by the Republican incumbent. That comes after the board spent a day and a half processing most of the challenges put forward by Democrat Al Franken. (12/18/2008)

Campaigns raise nearly $4M for recount efforts

The recount operations of Republican Senator Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken are flush with millions of dollars in cash. Federal Election Commission reports for fundraising through late last month came due yesterday. (12/04/2008)

Campaigns continue to raise money to fund recount efforts

Long after the election, the two campaigns continue to aggressively raise money, not to pay for TV commercials and lawn signs, but instead to bankroll their recount operations. (12/04/2008)

Franken drops 633 challenges; more ballot problems found

Democrat Al Franken's campaign is withdrawing some of the ballots it has challenged during Minnesota's U.S. Senate recount. Meanwhile, there were more vote discrepancies today. (12/03/2008)

Stray ballots, excessive challenges raise concern in recount's final days

Scott and Wright counties will start recounting their votes in Minnesota's U.S. Senate race today. With just three days until the recounting is expected to end, 93 percent of the vote has been recounted and the campaigns for Republican Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken have challenged 6,000 ballots. (12/03/2008)

Candidate snapshot

Party: DFL

Biography

Date of Birth: 05/21/1951

Place of Birth: New York, N.Y.

Education: BA, General Studies, Harvard University, 1973

Positions Held: Founder, Midwest Values PAC

Business/Professional Experience: Host, The O'Franken Factor, Air America Radio, 2004 -2006; Served as a Fellow with Harvard's Kennedy School of Government at the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, 2003; Writer, Saturday Night Live, 1973-1980, 1985-1995

Religion: Jewish

Resources

Official campaign site

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