Minnesota Senate recount: Coleman leads by 316 votes

This is so Minnesota...

Yesterday some previously undiscovered absentee ballots were found in Maplewood, a suburb of St. Paul which is best known as the home of the 3M Corporation. Those ballots netted Al Franken, the Democratic challenger, 37 votes.

Outsiders are generally oblivious of the rivalry between Minnesota's largest cities, St. Paul and Minneapolis. That rivalry carries into the suburbs. You see, Maplewood is a St. Paul suburb, so it was only natural that today Minneapolis would strike back.

And the bigger city did just that.

An election night tallying error in a Minneapolis precinct was discovered today--and the correction is costing Franken 36 votes.

According to the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Republican incumbent Norm Coleman is still clinging to a narrow lead. With almost 98 percent of the vote recounted, Coleman leads by 316 votes.

There still are several thousand ballots being challenged, but Coleman will be the winner.

It is time for Franken to show some sense and concede.

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St. Paul sunset

Technorati tags: politics Democrats election Republicans Minnesota Norm Coleman Al Franken news and politics St. Paul Minneapolis