The Big Question » Blog Archive » Al Franken on Minnesota Public Radio: “We just have to be patient.”

Al Franken on Minnesota Public Radio: “We just have to be patient.”

November 6th, 2008 – 11:16 AM by James Shiffer

“It’s very premature to prejudge the outcome of this, considering that we’re already seeing that once you start canvassing, you already see a lot of things,” Franken, the DFL challenger to Republican Sen. Norm Coleman, told MPR’s Gary Eichten in a live interview moments ago.

Franken was referring to Coleman’s shrinking lead, which amounted to more than 700 votes when the senator declared victory Wednesday. That number has since dropped to 438 votes - which amounts to 0.01 percent of the nearly 3 million votes cast.

Franken said he didn’t foresee a Florida-style brouhaha surrounding the recount. The debate over the 2000 recount, Franken pointed out, took place in a state in which George W. Bush’s brother was the governor and the secretary of state had been accused by Democrats of suppressing votes. “Minnesota is very good at counting its votes. That ‘s why I feel this process will go in an orderly way. We just have to be patient.”

Recounts can change the outcome of elections, Franken said, noting that such a thing happened in the recent race for St. Louis County Attorney. In response to Coleman’s call on him to concede, Franken said: “Candidates don’t get to decide when the election’s over or who won. The voters do.”

Franken didn’t expand on his campaign’s concerns about possible irregularities in voting.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 6th, 2008 at 11:16 am and is filed under Main, Al Franken, Norm Coleman, Senate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

5 Responses to "Al Franken on Minnesota Public Radio: “We just have to be patient.”"

Les says:

November 6th, 2008 at 11:40 am

That ‘s why I feel this process will go in an orderly way. We just have to be patient.”
—

The question becomes, can he take his own advice?

parthian says:

November 6th, 2008 at 1:10 pm

The local press appears to be dying to get ill-thought “quotes” out of either side on this.

Both campaigns should be very circumspect about what they say. Norms’s calls for “concession” are foolish and irresponsible in such circumstances.

Any analysis of who most Barkley voters would have gone for had he not been in the race? It seems quite clear that the Independence Party (again) saved Bachmann—hopefully she contributes to them!

Les says:

November 6th, 2008 at 1:26 pm

Last I read had Barkley hurting Franken more than Coleman,, But how can one really know.

I’m just glad I’m outta here for the next 2 weeks so I dont have to live through “updates” every 5 minutes.

Any bets about future arguments like “that dot’s closer to the Franken oval than Coleman oval”?

Dora says:

November 6th, 2008 at 2:41 pm

What’s Norm going to say if Franken ends up with a small lead after the auditors get done double-checking the numbers? Will he waive a recount then? heh. I wouldn’t hold my breath.

adlib says:

November 6th, 2008 at 7:29 pm

Were the two close congressional races within the 3% margin, or even less than a majority, that triggers an automatic recount in another state? If so many Minnesota precints are amending their tallies knowing there will be a recount maybe we’re too credulous in considering calling only a .5 % difference a close race. If so bring on instant runoff elections so Minnesota can exemplify intelligent democracy rather than gullible maivete.

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