"Search The 'Crime Scene' Lutheran Church Says Frankens!"

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Franken Wants Church to be Searched for Ballots

"Desperation Clouds Franken's Campaign's Judgement !"

Al Franken's campaign is calling for the "systematic forensic search" of a Lutheran Church used as a polling station on Election Day in hopes of finding 133 missing ballots.

Franken's lawyer Marc Elias is demanding every person who worked at the polling station or assisted in any of the set-up or clean-up be interviewed as a part of the investigation.

The Minnesota Republican Party says Franken's demands are akin to a "goverment invasion of a church" that's "offensive and completely out-of-control" as well as "bizarre and repulsive" according to a release from their headquarters.

"In addition to a loud slap in the face of local election officials, the Franken campaign’s demand for information on the administrator of the church is simply tantamount to government-sponsored persecution," the MN GOP's statement added.

Despite the outrage from the Coleman campaign, Secretary of State Mark Ritche seems amendable to Franken's request.
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Department for the investigation "because the Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State is committed to the accurate accounting of votes in the U.S. Senate race recount."

http://townhall.com/blog/g/5d7242a7-7c3a-4374-897f-c3149de0d245

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Franken Camp's Claim: The Hand Count Is Over -- And We're Up By Four Votes!

"Boy Is He Hot To Steal This Election !"

That's how many votes the Franken campaign just said they're leading Norm Coleman by, with the hand recount now officially finished. In other words, with every single precinct in Minnesota now done counting (except for the one where they're still searching for the missing votes), the Franken campaign is claiming the lead. An extremely slim lead, but a lead nonetheless.

"We are not declaring victory -- we are moving into the next stage of the process," said Franken's lead recount lawyer Marc Elias, in a press briefing going on now with reporters. "But we are going into that ahead by four votes."

At the end of this hand count, it's worth restating a few necessary caveats. The Franken camp's methodology involves taking down the opinions of the local election officials regarding the challenged ballots, and assuming that the local referees' calls will be upheld by the state canvassing board. As such, we are dependent on the Franken camp's numbers and assumptions.

The state canvassing board are going to be the ones who truly decide this race, as they rule on each challenge one by one. The Franken camp thinks this process will end with them ahead by four votes, or possibly even more, but clearly there is plenty of potential variation left.

Late Update: Just to be clear, the Franken camp is also assuming that those missing ballots in Minneapolis, which give Al an edge of 46 votes, will be found. And as we reported earlier, the votes could potentially be credited back into the totals even if they aren't recovered.
http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/12/franken_camps_claim_the_hand_c.php