The longest Senate race in history

By Jennifer J. Foster

Published: February 4, 2009

Well, it may not actually be the longest U.S. Senate race in history. But it’s got to be coming close.

THREE MONTHS after Minnesotans went to the polls to put an end to the startlingly and disturbingly nasty race between GOP incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman and Democratic challenger and former Saturday Night Live comedian Al Franken, voters are still waiting for closure.

This race has featured a razor-thin margin of victory, a mandatory recount, a canvassing board, missing ballots, court challenges over excluded ballots, clowns, acrobats and a partridge in a pear tree.

OK, so I made those last three up. But if they really were involved, it wouldn’t strike anyone as strange in context.

Well, as of right now, Franken holds a 225-vote lead. But this race just refuses to die. From the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

In a ruling that keeps alive Republican Norm Coleman’s chances of overturning Minnesota’s U.S. Senate recount, a three-judge panel on Tuesday allowed him to bring evidence to trial that as many as 4,800 absentee ballots were wrongly rejected and should now be counted.

The decision expands the evidence that can be considered in the recount trial, giving Coleman the opportunity to put more ballots into play in his effort to erase a 225-vote lead for DFLer Al Franken. The Franken campaign had tried to limit Coleman to bringing evidence on only 650 absentee ballots that he cited specifically when he filed his lawsuit challenging the recount results.

In the ruling, the judges said they will focus on rejected absentee ballots cast by voters who complied with the requirements of Minnesota election law or failed to comply because of mistakes by local elections officials.

Ugh. How sick must Minnesotans be of all this?

As this woman used to say, “STOP THE INSANITY!“

(P.S. That stop-the-insanity woman has a blog. After reading it, I felt like begging her to stop the insanity.)