100-vote spike for Franken: Human, not mechanical, error

Norm Coleman’s campaign says a 100-vote increase for Al Franken overnight is suspicious and has filed a data practices act request to see paperwork related to voting in Mountain Iron, the St. Louis County town that saw Franken votes go from 406 to 506. MinnPost’s David Brauer called up that county’s director of elections, Paul Tynjala, to see what happened. Because St. Louis County is some 7,000 square miles, election officials called in their results election night and followed up the next day by delivering their voting machine tapes. It was the initial call, not the machine tape, that got the vote tally wrong — human, not mechanical, error.

Writes Brauer: “Bottom line: the Coleman folks have to keep looking for Minnesota’s version of Palm Beach County.”

Related: MPR’s Tom Scheck offers a useful FAQ on the recount.