Minn. Senate recount to resume

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Minn. Senate recount to resume
« Thread Started on Dec 21, 2008, 3:56pm »

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Minn. Senate recount to resume
Posted: 04:06 PM ET
(CNN) — With somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 ballots left to be processed, the recount in Minnesota’s U.S. Senate race will resume this week and likely will not be resolved until the end of the month, Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie said Sunday.

A unofficial running tally on the Minneapolis Star Tribune’s Web site had Democrat Al Franken leading incumbent Republican Sen. Norm Coleman by 251 votes on Sunday — in a race in which nearly 2.5 million votes were cast — but Ritchie cautioned against pronouncing either candidate ahead until all votes are counted.

Ritchie said the state canvassing board has completed the vast majority of the main work in the first round of the recount and board members will meet Tuesday to finalize vote totals. That will leave between 1,000 and 2,000 wrongly rejected absentee ballots and about 150 overseas ballots left to be processed, he said.

Ritchie said the final decisions on the ballots left to be processed are due on December 31. The next meeting of the state canvassing board after that date is scheduled for January 5, Ritchie said.