Franken has won! Unfortunately, we have to wait for a repug gov. to certify it

Absentees push Franken's Senate lead to 312

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Democrat Al Franken's lead in Minnesota's U.S. Senate race widened Tuesday to 312 votes after previously rejected absentee ballots were added to the counting.

Franken did better than Republican Norm Coleman by a nearly 2-to-1 margin as the ballots were opened and counted as part of a lawsuit brought by Coleman over the statewide recount. A three-judge panel ruled earlier that 351 ballots had been improperly rejected during the election and should be restored.

Franken led by 225 votes going into Tuesday's count of those ballots.

The judges have yet to settle some claims in Coleman's lawsuit, but the absentees were the key issue that could have given Coleman enough votes to overtake Franken.

Outside the courtroom, Coleman attorney Ben Ginsberg minimized the new margin and said he would appeal to the state Supreme Court.

"What happened today in the sphere of this election is really inconsequential," he said. "There's a much larger universe of ballots that should be opened."

Franken attorney Marc Elias said he doubted an appeal would change the result.

"The problem that Sen. Coleman has is he lost fair and square," Elias said. "He lost because more people voted for Al Franken than voted for Norm Coleman. No amount of lawyering or sophisticated legal arguments is going to change that."

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