Almanac: At the Capitol

11 am Wednesday, the day after the election Sen. Norm Coleman said he is "humbled and grateful for the victory voters gave me last night."  With an automatic recount looming with less than a 500 vote margin, Coleman said it's up to his DFL challenger Al Franken "whether it's worth the taxpayer dollars" to go through what appears to be a month-long recount.  Standing in the same position he was 6 years ago, declaring a close victory well after the election, Coleman said "I was hopeful the healing process for Minnesota would begin today."

When pressed if he could decline a recount in the same position Coleman said "I would step back, the healing process is so important."  He added that he doesn't intend to take any legal action, but that he was going to rest and let the campaign and lawyers work for a while.  Coleman concluded by saying that while his college-aged daughter can easily pull an all-nighter, for a 59-year-old it's "tough on a body." 

Secretary of State Mark Ritchie held a press conference and assured people Minnesota will not be like Florida when it comes to this recount.  He says the process will be transparent and fair.  He would not venture a guess on how long it will take, other than days to months.  The cost will be three cents per ballot which means nearly 100,000 dollars.  There are also recounts in two state House seats and one state Senate seat as well.  Those won't take as long as the U.S. Senate race that the whole nation seems to be watching.  I've never seen so much press for a Ritchie news conference. He held up with with professionalism and humor.

At 11 am Sen. Norm Coleman will hold a media availability. Secretary of State Mark Ritchie says there will be a recount that could take a month.  At 6:45 am Coleman declared victory.  The campaign sent out a statement saying:   

The Senator is thrilled and humbled to be given the opportunity to serve the people of Minnesota for another six years.  Today is a time for us to come together as a state and a nation.  There is much work to be done, and the Senator is ready to roll-up his sleeves and bring people together to get it done.

At 6:30 am, Al Franken spoke.  Here's what he had to say:

Let me be clear: Our goal is to ensure that every vote is properly counted.

The process, dictated by our laws, will be orderly, fair, and will take place within a matter of days. We won't know for a little while who won this race, but at the end of the day, we will know that the voice of the electorate was clearly heard.

There is reason to believe that the recount could change the vote tallies significantly.

Our office and the Obama campaign have received reports of irregularities at various precincts around the state. For instance, some polling places in Minneapolis ran out of registration materials. Our team has been working on those issues for several hours already, and they will continue to do so this morning as the recount process begins.

At 2:30 am, hundreds of Democrats are still waiting around for results, while about a dozen Republicans remain at their headquarters.  The race is still too close to call.  At this point, according to my Dad, Gene Lahammer who still comes out of retirement to call the races for the AP, there are a lot of votes out in Hennepin and St. Louis counties.  The uncounted Hennepin votes are in Republican areas like Maple Grove, with the St. Louis votes are in Democratic areas.  So it doesn't appear this race is going to loosen.  A recount seems pretty likely, it's triggered by 1/2 of one percent margin which is about 15,000 votes in this race.

Al Franken addressed the crowd at 11:30 pm asking "You thought this was going to be easy?"  He celebrated the Obama victory and said tonight, or possibly early tomorrow morning, or maybe in the middle of the morning "I believe we'll celebrating victory in this race too."   He said he'll wait a few more hours to let people finish counting and "hope to give you 6 years of standing up for what's right."  Franken concluded that when all the votes are counted he's going to win this thing.

Roughly the same time, Sen. Norm Coleman addressed the dwindling crowd at Republican Party headquarters.  Coleman said "This is an historic night in America and I applaud President-elect Obama's determination to heal the divide that separates us." He too assured supporters of a victory, but everyone is unsure when the final results will be in.  Six years ago Coleman waited until returns came in the next morning to hold his victory speech at the State Capitol.