Franken leads Minn. race after most challenges tal

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Franken leads Minn. race after most challenges tal
« Thread Started on Dec 23, 2008, 4:35am »

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Franken leads Minn. race after most challenges tallied
Posted: 09:47 PM ET
From Chris Welch
CNN

MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (CNN) — Minnesota’s Supreme Court will hear arguments Tuesday on incumbent Republican Sen. Norm Coleman’s challenge to about 130 ballots that he says may have been counted twice in the contentious recounted vote of his race against Democrat Al Franken.

Coleman’s campaign is contending that duplicate ballots — created when an original ballot is deemed unfit to go through a tabulation machine — were improperly sorted and labeled.

That issue — and about 1,600 absentee votes that weren’t counted because they may have been improperly rejected — loom large in the last remaining unresolved Senate race in the United States.

The State Canvassing Board is also meeting Tuesday to review the already allocated votes, which — according to an unofficial tally by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune based on a draft report from the secretary of state’s office — currently give Franken a 48 vote lead.