Franken camp projects win by 35 to 50 votes

Democrat Al Franken’s campaign predicted Saturday that
the comedian would prevail over incumbent Norm Coleman (R) by a margin of 35 to
50 votes in the hotly contested Minnesota Senate race.

Franken’s campaign said that, after the state’s Board of
Canvassers on Tuesday finishes its review and reallocation of ballots
challenged by both campaigns during a hand recount of the contested race, it
would emerge victorious by several dozen votes.

{mosads}“We now have enough data that I can say with a very high
degree of confidence that Al Franken will win this count and be seated as the
next senator from Minnesota,” Franken attorney Marc Elias told reporters
Saturday.

Elias also criticized a suit filed by the Coleman
campaign before the Minnesota Supreme Court to prevent the Canvassing Board
from including so-called “duplicate” ballots in the final tally. Duplicate
ballots are created to mirror original ballots if they are damaged on election
night. The Coleman campaign has alleged that those duplicate ballots were
counted along with the original ballots, resulting in roughly 150, according to
Coleman estimations, “double” votes.

“There is no evidence that any of the ballots were
counted twice. None,” Elias said, adding that Coleman’s campaign had apparently
reversed course during the recount, when it had opposed a review of duplicate
ballots.

“Their position going into the recount was that
duplicated ballots should be handled the way they were,” Elias told reporters.

Though Coleman had maintained a lead throughout the
entirety of the contested election and recount, Franken took the lead for the
first time during the review of challenges Friday. According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune’s running tally
of the recount Saturday morning, Franken currently leads Coleman by 251 votes.

The Coleman campaign said it was skeptical of the Franken
figures, adding that local elections officials in Minneapolis had also
expressed concern over the possible double-counting of duplicate ballots.