This morning Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and Senator Norm Coleman conducted a conference call to review the latest information on the Coleman/Franken Senate race in Minnesota. Here are the highlights of the call:
The recount began yesterday. Counties will continue their work over the next week. Some may not conclude until after Thanksgiving. But a lot more information will be available after today. Coleman noted that Minnesota has 4130 precincts. 4112 have newer, more accurate optical screener machines. In all of the precincts where the optical screener machines were in place, very small to no changes occurred in the early recount (2-5 votes swings some for Coleman, or the same number for Franken, but no real appreciable net changes).
Minnesota, also has 18 precincts with older, less accurate machines. In the counts taken in those areas yesterday, Coleman lost a net 28 additional votes.
Coleman estimates that as of now he's ahead by roughly 170 votes. Many of the big Republican counties have not yet conducted their recounts, according to Coleman. The Minnesota senator sounded upbeat about victory at the end of the day and concluded with a fitting hockey metaphor: "We're on the ice and its time to put the puck in the net."
