You can call me Al...

[brooklynite]

I attended a reception last night with Al Franken, Al Gore and Chuck Schumer. Some nuggets about the Minnesota recount:

- The "32 ballots in a car trunk" story is a complete fabrication. Absentee ballots are delivered by car to each precinct for counting on election day. In each car are representatives from all three campaigns. At the end of the days, ballots could not be delivered to a precinct that closed early, so they were driven back to City Hall, and secured with the inspection and approval of each candidate's representative. At no time were they unsecured or out sight.

- There are seven law firms helping the campaign, including those that worked on the Christine Gregoire recount in 2004.

- The Franken campaign and DSCC have a larger ground game running for the recount than they did during the election, with a counter and a Lawyer at each counting table.

- Based on analysis of the counting trends, Al thinks they'll be ahead in the count by next week.

(I have video of Al's comments which I'll post tonight)

[onehandle]

1. Good. Say it, falafel boy.

Say it...

[Eric J in MN]

4. Bill O'Reilly has switched from calling him "Stuart Smalley" to...

...calling him "Al Franken" and so we're getting closer to "Senator Al Franken" (if the recount goes well.)

http://mediamatters.org/items/200811190019?f=h_latest

[Eric J in MN]

2. Where was the reception? NT

NT

[brooklynite]

6. NYC...

[Eric J in MN]

7. Manhattan? NT

NT

[brooklynite]

8. Yep...George Soros' apartment

[ThomWV]

3. How long is the complete recount expected to take?

[Eric J in MN]

5. Stage 1 by December 5.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/washingtonpostinvestigations/2008/11/minnesota_recount_begins_today.html?nav=rss_blog

"Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie said that county election officials must finish the manual recount of more than 2.9 million ballots by Dec. 5. After officials in the state's 87 counties go through the ballots, disputed ballots will go to St. Paul, where the five-member State Canvassing Board will make the final call. The canvassing board will meet Dec. 16 with the goal of finishing by Dec. 19."

After December 19, the candidate who is trailing will probably sue to argue that some rejected absentee ballots should be counted.