Star Tribune editorial-page editor Scott Gillespie says Al Franken just might win the race, but a large number of Americans will believe the recount was rigged. Why?

Because the stolen-election drumbeat has started, and it will only get louder as the results of the recount get more national attention. Ignoring Minnesota law, talk-show hosts are already questioning why any ballot that’s not marked properly in the first place should be valid in a recount. Intent is a concept they would rather not grasp.

Rep. Michele Bachmann, bringing her unique view of reality to Fox News on Wednesday night, said Franken “wants to stuff the ballot box with rejected ballots,’’ which “calls into question what the record is and who’s watching the books.’’

Another reason: While Bachmann took to Fox to impugn the recount process, the network’s judicial analyst, Andrew Napolitano, took a potshot at the recount’s top official. Apparently reading off the recently unearthed GOP talking points, he described Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie as “a Democrat and a former communist — former member of the Communist Party,” although he offered no evidence to support the claim. He may have been taking liberties with a line from a year-old Star Tribune story (cited in the GOP’s memo) by Mark Brunswick, who wrote that the “Communist Party USA wrote encouragingly of [Ritchie's] candidacy.”

On a conference call with Sen. Mitch McConnell Thursday morning, Norm Coleman, the man “who brought hockey back” to St. Paul, rallied troops with a puckish metaphor, one that seems to ignore the fact that at this late stage in the game, the final score is largely up to recount officials and the state Canvassing Board (and, let’s not forget, campaign lawyers): “We’re on the ice and its time to put the puck in the net.”

Senators will have to wait a bit longer to see if they’ll get upgraded office digs in Washington, D.C. CQ reports that the biennial process of doling out office space is on hold until results come in for the Coleman/Franken recount and the Dec. 2 runoff in Georgia between Saxby Chambliss and Jim Martin. Freshmen senators, low in the pecking order, are forced to “camp out in makeshift work spaces longer than usual.”

Another tight race in Minnesota has been settled through recount: State Rep. Al Doty, the incumbent Democrat from Royalton, won a second term over Mike LeMieur by a slim 76 vote margin. Two other state nailbiters are awaiting recount results, according to The St. Cloud Times:

In House District 16A, DFL challenger Gail Kulick Jackson led Rep. Sondra Erickson, R-Princeton, by 89 votes on Nov. 4.

In Senate District 16, DFLer Lisa Fobbe led Republican Alison Krueger by 85 votes before the recount began.

But that’s not to say that Olson didn’t play a vital role in the contest. In fact, his influence was sufficient to help knock off the Republican candidate in a district that’s dominated by the GOP. Allison Krueger, who defeated Olson in the Republican primary, received 22,260 votes — 93 less than Democrat Lisa Fobbe. (Strangely there were an additional 1,366 write-in votes that are not attributed to Olson.)

Just how Republican is Senate District 16? Bush won it by 22 points in 2004; Pawlenty won it by 20 points two years ago. Even McCain-Palin took it by 20 points yesterday — among the highest margins in the state for the Republican ticket.

But perhaps Senate District 16, which includes Big Lake and Princeton, is trending a tad blue. One of the two state House seats in the area was also taken by a Democrat yesterday. Gail Kulick Jackson, in her third try, knocked off seven-term incumbent Sondra Erickson by just 99 votes.

Both contests will be subject to recounts under state law owing to the extremely close vote tallies.

Al Franken will comfortably advance from today’s primary election to take on Norm Coleman in the U. S. Senate race. With more than 80 percent of the results in, Franken is carrying 67 percent of the vote in the seven-candidate field. His most credible challenger, attorney Priscilla Lord Faris, is currently garnering support from 29 percent of voters.

Dean Barkley will be joining Franken and Coleman on the ballot as the Independence Party candidate. The former Senator, having served briefly after the death of Paul Wellstone, is routing the seven-candidate field with more than 60 percent of the vote.

In House races, only Reps. Michele Bachmann and Keith Ellison faced primary opposition. Both incumbents are earning support from more than 80 percent of voters in results so far reported by the Minnesota Secretary of State’s office.

A pair of House districts featured primary battles to determine who will take on the incumbent. In the most intriguing showdown, GOP-endorsed challenger Brian Davis currently leads state Sen. Dick Day by a 62-38 margin in the First Congressional District and will advance easily. Less interesting is the contest in the Seventh Congressional District, where Glen Menze and Alan Roebke are battling to see who will run against nine-term incumbent Collin Peterson.

There were a handful of intriguing state-legislative contests taking place today. It appears to be a split decision for the override six. Two-term incumbent Neil Peterson is paying the price for his vote to override Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s veto of the transportation bill earlier this year, losing to GOP-endorsed challenger Jan Schneider by a 57-43 margin. Rep. Jim Abeler, however, is headed to the general election, carrying 64 percent of the vote.

Minneapolis Rep. Willie Dominguez is finished serving at the Capitol after just one term. He was trounced by challenger Bobby Joe Champion, who garnered the DFL endorsement. Meanwhile veteran Reps. Phyllis Kahn and Joe Mullery have handily beaten back intra-party challengers.

Finally it looks unlikely that Rep. Mark Olson — who was kicked out of the Republican caucus and denied endorsement after being arrested for domestic assault — will be headed to the state senate. He’s currently trailing Alison Krueger in a contest to see who will represent the GOP in the general election.

(Photo courtesy of cursedthing)