The report to the State Canvassing Board is that of the 12,000 rejected absentee ballots, 13% appear to be wrongfully rejected.  So far 4,823 rejected absentee ballots have been reviewed, 638 were wrongfully rejected as determined by local election officials.  That 638 margin is interesting because that's larger than the difference in votes between Coleman and Franken, not that they'll all go one direction, but it's a significant number that could carry forward statewide to nearly 1,600 new votes.

The board is recommending that counties review rejected absentee ballots for obvious errors or "allegedly wrongfully rejected" absentee ballots and report the new totals to the board for review.  The judges wanted to be clear they were not ordering counties what to do and the board does not have the authority to do so.

As far as challenged ballots, the 6,665 has been reduced to 4,472.  That still staggering amount brought an audible sigh from Canvassing Board member Judge Kathy Gearin who sounded off that "you'd have to be deaf and dumb" not to hear people wondering if all the challenges are serious.  She pleaded with the campaigns "please, please be serious." Secretary of State Mark Ritchie said he was "not happy" with the amount of paper he's gotten from the campaigns and wants their time dedicated to reducing the number of challenged ballots so they can and will finish next Friday Dec. 19.

The interest is intense, the fire marshal ruled that no one can stand in the room in the State Capitol so an overflow room has been set up with a TV feed in the Capitol Cafeteria. 

So the recount is over.  Sort of.  Maybe.  Officially.  Unofficially.  Welcome to the world of covering this Senate race and recount. The reality that is warped by the spinmeisters each day has been dizzying.  Jay Weiner over at MinnPost has as raw and real a first-person account as any reporter could possibly give.  Kudos to him for the bravery it takes to speak the truth.  I have been reamed by both sides myself plenty this campaign and he points out their strengths and weaknesses.

Now to the daily spin from both sides.  Coleman's arrived first and provided the most brevity, so he's first up:

MINNESOTA COUNTIES’ RECOUNT COMPLETED

Coleman Campaign Thanks State’s Local Election Officials For Their Efforts

ST. PAUL - The Coleman campaign released the following statement from Cullen Sheehan, campaign manager:

“With Wright County completing its recount, an important phase of the Great Minnesota Recount has ended.  While we are pleased that we remain ahead in this recount, we want to give our thanks and appreciation for all Minnesota’s local election officials for their commitment to a fair, legal and transparent process.  We are confident that when the Canvassing Board begins meeting on December 16^th and ultimately completes its work, that Norm Coleman will continue to be ahead, and will be re-elected to the United States Senate.  This recount process showed the best of Minnesota with the commitment of election officials to do their best to give the best possible result for the citizens of the state.”

TODAY: FRANKEN HOLDS 4 VOTE LEAD OVER COLEMAN AS HAND COUNT ENDS
As of this writing, every precinct in the state has completed its hand count - with the exception of the precinct in Minneapolis where 133 ballots are missing. And, at the end of the hand count, Al Franken leads Norm Coleman by 4 votes. Many media outlets are calculating the margin by a different method, relying on raw data from the Secretary of State's website to conclude that Coleman holds a lead of a few hundred votes. However, that calculation leaves out a Minneapolis precinct of 2,029 votes which is still being counted. It also assumes that every challenge will be upheld by the state canvassing board, whereas our calculation assumes that the original call by the impartial election judge will stand. So, if the judge calls it for Franken, we say it's a Franken ballot. Likewise, if the judge calls it for Coleman, we treat it as a Coleman ballot - even if we have challenged it.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/scorecard/1208/At_end_of_recount_Franken_camp_claims_fourvote_lead.html

SECRETARY OF STATE KEEPS MINNEAPOLIS PRECINCT OPEN DURING SEARCH FOR 133 MISSING BALLOTS
The Secretary of State website now records results for every precinct except Minneapolis Ward 3, Precinct 1, where 133 ballots are missing. Therefore, the current count does not include the results for the entirety of the precinct (2,029 total votes). Yesterday, the Franken campaign demanded that the Secretary of State oversee an immediate and intensive search for a lost envelope containing those ballots -- a search that continues at this moment. After initially suggesting that the discrepancy between the number of voters on Election Day and the number of ballots found during the recount could be the result of ballots being accidentally double-counted on Election Day - a suggestion the Franken campaign immediately pointed out was completely implausible - Minneapolis elections director Cindy Reichert on Wednesday admitted to the Star Tribune that the ballots were missing, saying that her earlier theory "doesn't jibe with the numbers we have" and "wasn't valid speculation." Minneapolis Ward 3, Precinct 1 covers the Dinkytown neighborhood and includes a large population of students at the University of Minnesota.
http://www.twincities.com/allheadlines/ci_11147697
http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senate/35611679.html

AS COUNTIES SORT UNCOUNTED ABSENTEE BALLOTS, FRANKEN CAMPAIGN ASKS THEM TO COUNT THOSE IMPROPERLY REJECTED
This week, the Secretary of State's office this week directed county auditors and county and city election officials to review all previously rejected absentee ballots and determine whether they fall under one of the four legal reasons for rejecting a ballot. The absentee ballot review will begin on December 8. Today, the Franken campaign released a letter to all 87 counties asking that those ballots which do not fall under one of the four legal reasons for rejection - the so-called "fifth pile" - be opened and counted.
You can view the letter here: http://www.alfranken.com/page/-/docs/recount/20081205_FredriksontoCountyAuditors.pdf
http://thehill.com/campaign-2008/franken-wants-rejected-ballots-counted-2008-12-05.html

KEY POINTS

• Today's culmination of the hand count signals attention will soon shift away from the numbers of this particular recount and toward the fight over whether or not these improperly rejected absentee ballots will be counted -- because those are the votes that will determine the next Senator from Minnesota. The Secretary of State has said there are roughly 12,000 absentee ballots rejected this past election. The Secretary of State has also estimated that 500 of them were wrongly rejected -- a number greater than the likely difference between Coleman and Franken at the end of the hand count. The Franken campaign actually estimates this pile is even larger -- up to 1,000 ballots.
• On top of the improperly rejected absentee ballots, reports of missing ballots in several Minnesota localities must be resolved before any recount is considered accurate or complete. According to the Secretary of State's website, there are numerous instances in which the number of recorded voters does not equal the number of ballots counted in the recount, thus certain ballots were counted on Election Day but not in the recount.
• We are determined to ensure that every Minnesotan who cast a vote -- either in person or via absentee -- ought to have that vote counted. And whether it is at the county level, at the canvass board, in the courts or before the United States Senate, we don't know yet. But because we believe the principle that every vote cast ought to be counted is universal, we remain confident these votes will be counted.
• Members of the State Canvassing Board affirmed our argument that improperly rejecting absentee ballots would amount to disenfranchising Minnesotans. In fact, as the decision to count these ballots emerges as the central discussion in the race, will Norm Coleman be in the extraordinary position of arguing they shouldn't be counted? Will elected judges and state officials want to look Minnesotans in the eye and say their votes shouldn't count?
• No recount should be considered complete or accurate until all the ballots are counted -- that includes the improperly rejected absentee ballots, and any missing ballots from around the state.

Franken's campaign is upset about the allegedly missing 130 ballots in Minneapolis.  Attorney Marc Elias said in a press conference that most of those ballots are votes for Al Franken and he said officials should "move heaven and earth to find those ballots" because "the integrity of Minnesota elections is at stake."

Here's more from their press release:

Franken lead recount attorney Marc Elias:

"These ballots must be found. The outcome of this election is at stake. But let me be clear: The integrity of this election is also at stake, as is the integrity of Minnesota's electoral process. We won't stand for the disenfranchisement of 133 Minnesota voters, and neither will the people of this state. Find the ballots."

The Franken campaign released a list of steps that should be taken to find the missing ballots:

• Interview every person who worked at the precinct on Election Day, every person who had a role in setting up or cleaning up at the church that served as a polling place, and every person who touched or transported the ballots either on Election Day or at any point between then and now.
  
  
• Conduct a systematic forensic search of the church that served as a polling place, any vehicle used to transport ballots or other elections materials, the warehouse where the ballots were stored.
  
  
• At the warehouse, catalog every envelope containing ballots.
  
  
• Review all precinct and polling place documentation, and all email or other communications relating to this precinct and this polling place.
  
  
• Establish a clear chain of custody noting exactly where these ballots were at every moment from Election Day until they were lost.

Those rejected absentee ballots are key and now we know more from the secretary of state:

WHAT:   The state canvassing board will reconvene on Friday, Dec. 12 to discuss possible options for dealing with mistakenly rejected absentee ballots being sorted by county and local election officials.

And Coleman's camp has essentially equaled Franken's redrawal of challenged ballots earlier than originally stated:

ST. PAUL - Today Fritz Knaak, lead recount counsel for the Coleman for Senate campaign, announced the Coleman campaign will withdrawing 650 ballot challenges this afternoon.  Knaak also reached out to Al Franken’s lead recount counsel this morning,  requesting a meeting to discuss how both campaigns can reach a mutual agreement to further reduce the number of challenged ballots that will be brought before the state’s canvassing board. 

Knaak stated, “Today, in the spirit of working to remedy an excess of challenged ballots, we will voluntarily withdraw 650 challenged by the Coleman campaign. This morning, I left a voicemail, and sent an email, to Franken campaign attorney Marc Elias regarding challenged ballots.  We are doing so this in the spirit of reaching out to their campaign so we can sit down early next week and discuss what process we can agree to in order to winnow down these challenged ballots. At the end of the day, our mutual goal and obligation ought to be the people of Minnesota and their representatives on the Canvassing Board, as well as local election officials, to find a spirit of cooperation to reduce the number of challenged ballots to a true and meaningful number that can be fairly evaluated by the Canvassing Board.”

Again, I'm providing a round up of the campaigns' spin for the day:

TO:   Interested Parties

FROM:   Mark Drake, Communications Director

RE:   Coleman for Senate Recount Update – December 2, 2008

The end of the recount is just around the corner with the counting process finishing up this week and the first Canvassing Board meeting set for December 16th. According to the Secretary of State, more than 91% of ballots have already been recounted with just four days left, and we remain confident that when this process is all completed, Norm Coleman will once again come out ahead.

One important thing to keep in mind, as mentioned in this story today, is that while only 9% of ballots remain to be counted, several counties have not yet started their recounts. The counties of Dodge, Le Sueur, Rock, Winona, Wright and Scott will begin recounting tomorrow, and we feel pretty good that the strong results we saw in these areas for Senator Coleman on Election Night will hold firm.

As we’ve said many times before, but which merits repeating again, this recount is a methodical, conscientious process.  To date we are almost three weeks into it, and we know we’ve got a ways to go as it won’t be completed until after the Canvassing Board meetings.  This process demands patience and persistence, and volunteers in every county and community around the state have demonstrated plenty of both thus far.  We thank them for their hard work and civic commitment in helping to make this process go smoothly in hopefully setting Minnesota up to be the textbook example for how a recount should be run. 

The people of Minnesota, just like people in every state in this country, have the right to pick their own representatives.  We are working hard to make sure that happens in a fair, full and transparent way.  We are seriously concerned by both the talk and actions we’ve seen from the Franken campaign signaling that they intend to go against the will of Minnesotans and take this to the floor of the US Senate for a political battle to start the new Congress and first term of President-elect Obama.  Minnesotans deserve this election to be handled just as every other election in this state has been handled: the Minnesota way.

Today because I'm still tired of the Senate recount drama despite time off for Thanksgiving and because the campaigns (both of them) seem to use any media they perceived as favorable for their press releases.  I'm just giving you what the campaigns say in their own words.  Coleman's update came first so he goes first:

TO:   Interested Parties

FROM:   Mark Drake, Communications Director

RE:   Coleman for Senate Recount Update – December 1, 2008

Welcome back to the Great Minnesota Recount after a brief but much needed break.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Franken campaign crossed a troubling line when they signaled that they intend to take their battle to overturn Senator Coleman’s victory to the courts and the U.S. Senate when the recount is completed and shows that Senator Coleman was re-elected. 

It’s even more troubling now that Senator Majority Leader Reid has signaled his support for Franken’s unprecedented effort to overturn the will of Minnesota voters by having the U.S. Senate decide who won the election – even if Minnesotans already made that decision for themselves. Minnesotans, regardless of who they supported in this election, will not support such strong-arm tactics that are clearly not the Minnesota way.

While the counting may have been placed on hold this weekend, analysis of the recount was not. The Sunday Star Tribune featured a study of Mr. Franken’s chances and independently determined that Franken faces long odds of seeing Senator Coleman’s victory overturned through the recount process.

And, one of the most respected, independent election officials in the state, Joe Mansky, had this to say:

"Based upon the kinds of challenges I've been looking at in the last two weeks, I think that's just not going to happen," said Joe Mansky, Ramsey County elections manager.

This explains – but does not make right – the Franken campaign’s announcement that they intend to take this to the US Senate.

With more than 86% of ballots counted, things may slow down a bit this week, but one thing has become abundantly clear: the Franken campaign intends to drag this process out until they can change the outcome and force an Al Franken win, even if it means overturning the will and intent of Minnesotan voters.

And now to Franken's press release:

Ramsey County has the honor of being the busiest recount location.  Hennepin broke into about 20 sites, but Elections Director extraordinaire Joe Mansky took on the whole county.  The place is buzzing, people are ordering food, computers are everywhere, campaigns have nerve centers.  Yesterday the lawyers met at the end of the day to agree together on ballots to challenge, that's not going to happen anymore, the county attorney says all challenges will go ahead without that filter.  Mansky said "The Canvassing Board is going to have their work cut out for them when they get all these challenged ballots."  

We witnessed about a dozen challenges in an hour, one was easily disqualified because the voter signed each vote, one was clearly questionable with a scribbled ballot, the rest were just a tad outside the lines.  Decide for yourself:

It was a tale of two cities today in our check-in at two rural counties.  First at Litchfield in Meeker County where it was boisterous and active.  Coleman won the county in the general election vote.  We witnessed more than half a dozen challenges in about an hour.  Most of those challenges came from the Franken camp which was much more vocal and aggresisve in contesting ballots.  In fact a county official had to remind a Franken watcher that she wasn't allowed to challenge the ballots because she wasn't the designated observer.  Each campaign had about half a dozen supporters there. 

We didn't see any really confusing ballots.  There was just one oval that was circled instead of filled in.  One challenge came from a slight rip in an upper corner, one used red ink instead of black, other ovals weren't exactly 100% filled in, another had an X on another race.  As media in Litchfield we were granted great access and could clearly see the ballots and hear the challenges.

Then to St. Peter in Nicollet County where the tone and approach was totally opposite.  It was quiet and serious and challenges were rare.  We chose this site because Coleman and Franken nearly tied with less than one-percent separating their vote totals. Here the Coleman campaign was reviewing the backside of all the ballots.  We were shooed away from the counting tables and asked to sign in and wear name tags even though we were wearing picture press credentials.  In both locations, there were many recognizable faces, former lawmakers, office holders and even their spouses.  Tomorrow we'll head to Franken territory so our Almanac story will hit a Coleman, Franken and tied recount county.   

The recount in the Coleman/Franken race will start tomorrow as planned.  The State Canvassing Board decided to move ahead with the recount plans while taking some time, perhaps a week to decide on rejected absentee ballots.  Franken attorney David Lillehaug said "every valid vote should be counted" and he was fine with the board taking some time, as was Coleman attorney Fritz Knaak who said they are "good and ready to start the recount process."

Coleman's campaign sent a press release immediately saying he was "confirmed as the winner" and that's not really true.  No winner was confirmed a recount was triggered with Coleman leading Franken by 215 votes.  Only the canvassing board can confirm a winner and that just didn't happen.  Secretary of State Mark Ritchie said "we do not know the winner."  The board didn't rule on Franken's request to add rejected absentee ballots to the count, it did not reject anything as the press released claimed either.  Franken's campaign may have been trying to slow or stop the recount in court, but before the Canvassing Board no attempt was made to stop the recount.  Media who were there will know that and know Coleman's campaign is not exactly telling the truth in this press release which many in the press corps thought went beyond spin:

COLEMAN RE-ELECTION CONFIRMED IN 2008 SENATE RACE

Canvassing Board Rejects Unprecedented Efforts to stop recount

ST. PAUL – United States Senator Norm Coleman was confirmed as the winner in the 2008 United States Senate Campaign.

Good thing there were plenty of media there to get the story straight and not swallow the press release with inaccurate info.  Not a partisan attack here, blog readers know I call it as I see it as neither a Democrat or a Republican personally.  I just don't like to be lied to (we didn't like it when Franken's campaign lied about the 84-year-old voter last week either).  The press are really tired of the campaigns giving them stories that just aren't true during this tense recount process (and both campaigns have been to blame). Members of the media were actually calling their "desks" back at their headquarters to make sure the press release wasn't reported verbatim by green staffers.

No wonder every group I talk to in various speeches are universally sick and tired of the campaigns' nasty tone and spin going on and on.  I've spoken before hundreds if not thousands of Minnesotans in the past weeks and Democrats, Republicans and Independents who are average citizens have told me in droves they have had it with these campaigns.  The audiences tell me this race lost its Minnesota sensibilities, our history of clean and accurate campaigning.

So today it was the media who packed the place along with campaign lawyers and staffers. There didn't seem to be too many just real citizens there maybe that is telling too.

Al Franken gave us his first TV interview since the election today.  Sen. Norm Coleman has turned down our repeated request for an interview saying he is "focused on doing his job on behalf of Minnesotans."  Franken headquarters is buzzing, Al says even busier than it was during the campaign.  The workers are busy finding volunteers to observe all the recount locations.  There are piles of laptop computers being unloaded. 

Franken is beginning to prepare a transition to Washington if he does win.  Find more about what's going on with the transition and his travel plans in our interview tonight on Almanac.  We'll also cover the misinformation his campaign gave out over an elderly voter's absentee ballot.  And with so many Minnesotans wanting the most bruising campaign to be over, hear what he thinks about the possibility of a long drawn out recount.

He says overall his life has gone from being insanely busy to just busy.  He has time to eat and sleep.  In fact he made dinner for Franni last night:  cauliflower, zucchini, lamb chops and salad.  He's also reading much more which he didn't have time to do during the campaign and he's focusing his reading on the economic situation. 

At a press briefing today, Secretary of State Mark Ritchie said he aims to conclude the recount by Dec. 19, a week before Christmas. The state canvassing board will meet for the recount on Dec. 16 and hope to conclude their work in just a few days. The dates, times and locations for the recount will be made public on Nov. 12.

As far as the vote swings Ritchie says "there are always these little changes." Sen. Coleman's campaign said it was "unprecidented and improbable vote swings." Ritchie says Coleman is using a political strategy to "create a cloud" which Ritchie called "dangerous and dubious." He said the tone of the meeting with the campaigns was good and it "felt like we were going ahead." These vote swings we've all been watching (a bit obsessively) will stop on Monday with the counties submit their final tallies.  You can hear much more from Ritchie when he's live on Almanac tonight.