DeniseTeam Franken reports Al Franken leading Norm Coleman by 10 votes with still 56,000 ballots left to be included in the hand count in the Minnesota senate race. Now, I’m sure that the numbers will shift both ways several times before this recount is done, and maybe Franken won’t win, but at least the right thing is happening– against Coleman’s wishes. Not once but twice in the last month, Coleman declared himself the victor. Too bad for him, that’s just not how it works. He tried to bully Franken into letting it go and conceding for the “good of the state,” which is eerily similar to what we heard in 2000.
I was living in Tallahassee in 2000, and I marched on the Capitol with many other Americans, demanding that Florida count every vote. We lost that argument, but it appears that the voters of Minnesota are having their voices heard. If the recount continues to be conducted fairly, and Coleman somehow winds up being the winner of the Minnesota race, I will be disappointed (and sorely bummed about what’s been happening in Minnesota politics since I left there in 1999) but I will send him a congratulatory email. Because even though I support Al Franken, the important thing is that in America, we count every vote.
