mark elias

“I think it’s time for (Norm Coleman) to give up this fight,” writes conservative pundit and National Review senior editor Ramesh Ponnuru after Al Franken widened his lead to 312 votes in a Minnesota courtroom Tuesday. The Albert Lea Tribune, which endorsed Coleman last fall, put it even more succinctly: “Throw in the towel.”

U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman was interviewed briefly by Fox 9 News Sunday night, in what seem to be his first on-camera public comments about the statewide recount in the race for his Senate seat in more than a month. On Nov. 21, Norm announced at a press conference in Monticello, Minn.: “I believe I’m a [...]

Mark Elias, lead attorney for Al Franken’s Senate campaign, is hopeful about the final days of the statewide recount, thanks to nearly 120,000 uncounted ballots in “slightly blue” Hennepin and Ramsey counties. In a Monday afternoon conference call, he spoke of the campaign’s focus this week: seeking data from nine remaining counties on voters whose absentee ballots were rejected — to determine which of those 9,000 ballots were ditched wrongfully — and finding anywhere from 500 to 1,000 missing ballots. He also said the Franken campaign will be withdrawing challenges to “dozens” of ballots later this week.

What will happen to absentee ballots that were rejected as invalid by local election officials? That’s the question currently roiling the U.S. Senate contest between Norm Coleman and Al Franken as a state-mandated manual recount gets underway this week.