FRANKEN HOLDING LEAD
Yesterday, the state canvassing board unanimously approved a spreadsheet reflecting the final disposition of nearly 3 million votes cast in the U.S. Senate race. With all challenges reviewed and all ballots allocated, Al Franken leads Norm Coleman by 49 votes. A winner is expected to be declared next week after improperly rejected absentee ballots have been included in the count.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gMpTmr96V5hKIfyHT4Av4jsVQgrQD95DCH680
http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senate/36877849.html

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TODAY: CANVASSING BOARD APPROVES FINAL BALLOT REVIEW – FRANKEN HOLDS 50 VOTE LEAD
Today, the state canvassing board unanimously approved a spreadsheet reflecting the final disposition of nearly 3 million votes cast in the U.S. Senate race. With all challenges reviewed and all ballots allocated, Al Franken leads Norm Coleman by 50 votes. A winner is expected to be declared next week after improperly rejected absentee ballots have been included in the count.
http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senate/36880254.html
http://www.twincities.com/allheadlines/ci_11336331

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TOMORROW: CANVASS BOARD TO COMPLETE CHALLENGED BALLOTS REVIEW – FRANKEN CAMPAIGN PROJECTS 35-50 VOTE LEAD
Tomorrow morning, the State Canvassing Board completes an important step in this recount process: the board will wrap up its challenge review process. Currently, Al Franken leads Norm Coleman by 46 votes. We expect that when the few remaining corrections are made and the result is finalized at tomorrow’s meeting, Franken’s lead will be between 35 and 50 votes. To be ahead at this point in the process bolsters what we have said all along: that once all the votes are counted Al Franken will be the next Senator from Minnesota. Today we are more confident than ever that Al Franken will be the winner of this election. After tomorrow morning’s results are announced, the only remaining issue to be resolved will be improperly rejected absentee ballots–which the Minnesota State Supreme Court has previously ruled should be included in any final count.
http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senate/

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CANVASS BOARD TO COMPLETE CHALLENGE REVIEW TOMORROW – FRANKEN CAMPAIGN PROJECTS 35-50 VOTE LEAD
Tomorrow morning, the State Canvass Board completes an important step in this recount process: the board will wrap up its challenge review process. At that time, the Franken campaign expects that Al Franken will lead Norm Coleman by between 35 and 50 votes, meaning we will be on track to win the election. To be ahead at this point in the process bolsters what we have said all along: that once all the votes are counted Al Franken will be the next Senator from Minnesota. Today we are more confident than ever that Al Franken will be the winner of this election. After tomorrow morning’s results are announced, the only remaining issue to be resolved will be improperly rejected absentee ballots – which the Minnesota State Supreme Court has previously ruled should be included in any final count.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/12/20/franken-team-expects-a-win-of-35-50-votes/
http://www.politico.com/blogs/scorecard/1208/Franken_expects_to_defeat_Coleman_by_3550_votes.html

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STATE CANVASSING BOARD COMPLETES CHALLENGE REVIEW; FRANKEN HOLDS LEAD
The state canvassing board has finished its review of ballot challenges, and we are more confident than ever that more people voted for Al Franken than voted for Norm Coleman last month. The last remaining step in this phase of the process will be the reconciliation of withdrawn challenges, which will take place on Monday. Because the Coleman campaign issued far more frivolous challenges, the Franken campaign expects that Coleman will gain net votes during that step, but not enough to overcome Franken’s lead. Franken attorney Marc Elias announced at the conclusion of today’s proceedings that he believed Franken would ultimately be declared the winner. The bottom line is: we went into the challenge review process up by 4 votes, and we saw that margin increased significantly over the last four days.

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NEW FRANKEN BRIEF: COLEMAN REVERSING POSITION ON “DUPLICATE BALLOT” ISSUE
The Franken campaign today filed a supplemental brief with the state canvassing board exposing that the Coleman campaign, contrary to its last-minute desperate attempt to change the rules of the recount, previously argued that original ballots should be counted even when no corresponding duplicate ballot can be located. The brief includes emails from Coleman attorney Tony Trimble to the Secretary of State’s office.
Download the brief here:
http://www.alfranken.com/page/-/docs/recount/20081218_DuplicateBrief2.pdf
Download the emails from the Coleman attorneys here:
http://www.alfranken.com/page/-/docs/recount/20081218_DuplicateExhibits.pdf

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ASSOCIATED PRESS ANALYSIS: FRANKEN LIKELY TO WIN RECOUNT
An Associated Press examination of ballot challenges in the U.S. Senate race reveals that “in ballots that could easily be assigned, Franken netted 200 more votes than Coleman.” In addition, over a hundred more Franken ballots are being “held up” because of questions about distinguishing marks than Coleman ballots, and the class of ballots challenged because of unclear voter intent includes “slightly more potential Franken ballots” as well.
http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2008/12/15/minnesota-senate-recount-update.aspx
http://washingtonindependent.com/22188/ap-predicts-gains-for-franken

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TODAY: STATE CANVASSING BOARD UNANIMOUSLY SUPPORTS FRANKEN POSITIONS ON UNCOUNTED ABSENTEES, MISSING MINNEAPOLIS BALLOTS
In a devastating rejection of the Coleman campaign’s attempts to stop lawful votes from being counted, the state canvassing board today voted unanimously to accept Election Night returns from Minneapolis Ward 3, Precinct 1 – thus protecting the franchise for the 133 voters whose ballots were lost by city elections officials. In addition, the board unanimously recommended that counties open and count so-called “fifth pile” absentee ballots deemed to have been improperly rejected, and indicated that it planned to accept amended returns from counties after they have revised their vote totals to include these uncounted ballots.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gMpTmr96V5hKIfyHT4Av4jsVQgrQD951ASC00

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ONLINE SENSATION: WEB VIDEO FEATURING DISENFRANCHISED MINNESOTANS GENERATES 15,000 VIEWS IN FIRST 24 HOURS
Yesterday, the Franken campaign released a new web video telling the story of seven Minnesotans who lost their right to vote because their absentee ballots were improperly rejected. It has already viraled into an online sensation – in its first 24 hours, 15,147 people viewed it on YouTube.
View video here: http://www.alfranken.com/content/video_detail/?id=88

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NEW VIDEO: MEET MINNESOTANS DISENFRANCHISED BECAUSE THEIR ABSENTEE BALLOTS WERE IMPROPERLY REJECTED
A new web video released today by the Franken campaign tells the story of seven Minnesotans who lost their right to vote because their absentee ballots were improperly rejected. The campaign has set up a website for Minnesotans to share their own stories: http://www.alfranken.com/countmyvote/
You can watch the video here: http://www.alfranken.com/video/

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