Franken Update
If you've been following the MN Senate recount at all, this may mean something to you; if not, move along...

The Canvassing Board met this morning and 2 things happened:

1) They voted to certify the election night count of the precinct that can no longer find its 133 votes and so can't be re-counted. Al won there, so it's good news for him by 46 votes.

2) They urged all counties to sort rejected absentee ballots and count any that do not fall under the 4 prescribed reasons under law for rejecting them. They said that so far more than 600 have been found that fall in this "5th pile". Their position is that it is unlawful to reject them and their message to the counties is: find them and count them. This *should* be good news for Franken as well, as he beat Coleman in absentee ballots. The only problem will be if counties don't take the advice. The Board doesn't have the authority to order them to do so, apparently. Their message is, essentially, if you don't, you will probably be sued and we think you will lose.

Estimates are that anywhere between 1,000 and 2,000 ballots will end up in this category and need to be counted and added to the total. In addition, some 6,000 ballots remain challenged and will have to be reviewed by the Board, starting Tuesday.

Things look better for a 59th Senator today than it did yesterday, but still never know how it will turn out.

I wonder how he would have voted on the auto bailout? Coleman voted No.