Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Franken ahead by whisker as recount ends

|
|
 
  
Sen. Norm Coleman, R-MN, speaks on the second day of the Republican National Convention at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota on September 2, 2008. (UPI Photo/Brian Kersey) 
License photo
Published: Jan. 3, 2009 at 9:20 PM

ST. PAUL, Minn., Jan. 3 (UPI) -- The Minnesota recount ended Saturday with Democratic challenger Al Franken leading Republican former U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman by 225 votes.

The unofficial result came after the Secretary of State's Office counted 933 absentee ballots, the (Minneapolis) Star-Tribune reported. Franken was ahead by 49 votes out of almost 3 million cast before the absentee ballot count, and picked up an additional 176 votes.

Coleman's term in the Senate expired Saturday.

Lawyers for Coleman have asked the state Supreme Court to order another 2,000 rejected absentee ballots into the count, and the court has not yet said when it would rule.

Regardless of which candidate comes out on top in the final count, the other is expected to sue.

Franken, who grew up in Minnesota, gained national prominence as a writer and performer on "Saturday Night Live" and has long been active in Democratic politics. Coleman won a narrow victory over former Vice President Walter Mondale six years ago after incumbent Democratic Sen. Paul Wellstone was killed in a plane crash shortly before the election.

Topics: U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman
Recommended Stories
© 2009 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
Notable deaths of 2012 Scripps National Spelling Bee AmfAR Cinema Against AIDS gala
Indianapolis 500 Presidential Medal of Freedom Memorial Day around the nation
Additional Top News Stories
1 of 27
Snigdha Nandipati of San Diego wins Finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee
View Caption
Snigdha Nandipati of San Diego, California watches confetti rain down as she wins the two-day Scripps National Spelling Bee championship, May 31, 2012, in National Harbor, Maryland. Nandipati successfully spelled the word .* guetapens *, meaning to lure or ambush. UPI/Mike Theiler
fark
Five arrested in prostitution sting. Article lists their names, ages and distance from a church
Photoshop this power tower technician
Driving drunk and unlicensed, with a kid not even buckled let alone in a safety seat, en route to...
Man killed in Spencer fire. The lava lamps must have ignited the blacklight posters
Passenger jet crashes into apartment building in Nigerian capitol. Over 150 princes, bank officials,...
I'll see your zombie apocalypse, and raise you "swarms of deadly spiders" invading a town in India...