Al Franken Might Be The Favorite In Eternal Minnesota Recount
Have you been paying to the Minnesota Senate recount still, America? It's still going on! We'd assumed that Al Franken had lost unofficially, and then the Illinois governor started being hilarious, and that was that. So, Jonathan Chait of TNR, what can you tell those of us who haven't really been paying attention? "If you haven't been paying attention to the Minnesota Senate race, it now looks very likely that Al Franken is going to win." Hmm!
Chait references this analysis from Ron Fournier's New Associated Press:
Of the 2.9 million votes already recounted, Coleman leads Franken by fewer than 200. But the AP's analysis of the 3,500 challenges found that nearly 300 wouldn't benefit either man because the voter clearly favored a third-party candidate or skipped the race.
The AP also found that of the 3,500 challenged ballots that easily could be assigned, Franken netted 200 more votes than Coleman. But Coleman has withdrawn significantly fewer ballot challenges than Franken — that is, the pool of challenges that can now be awarded to Franken is larger, and both campaigns announced Sunday that they would withdraw more challenges by Tuesday.
Do whatever math you want, nerds, but instead of counting ballots you should count lawyers, friggin' legal operatives, man. Whoever has the most sleazy party operative lawyers in his stable will win. Recounts only exist for the sake of lawyers who are talented, but bored.
Jonathan Chait reaches conclusions very quickly.
Lawyers!