Are we ready for yet another Al Franken decade?

I'm prepared, but can society rise to the occasion as we did in the 1980s?

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we make it to 59!

Stories like this doesn't really make me feel good about voting absentee.

Another bit of good news for Franken today is that the Canvassing Board has also agreed to use election night results for a Minneapolis precinct where 133 ballots went missing. If the ruling had gone the other way, Franken could have lost a net 46 votes.

Exactly, Crissa. The part I don't get is why this is a question at all. I'm agnostic on Coleman versus Franken, because although I voted for Franken, I kind of had to hold my nose to do it. I find Coleman minimally offensive, and if one of Minnesota's senators *had* to be a Republican, it might as well be him.

But I voted absentee, and I wonder whether my vote wasn't going to be counted because of a clerical error. Why does this have to be discussed at all? And while we're on the topic, why are we so inept at holding elections now that we've been holding them for literally hundreds of years?

Al Franken is more like Paul Wellstone than what's his name.

And that is exactly what MN needs most--not another cloned Bush yes man.

Franken would make it 59.

Meanwhile, in the new Research 2000 poll, Arlen Specter and his Republican primary opponent (Toomey) both lose to any Democrat in 2010, even Chris Matthews.

Go ahead, Arlen, filibuster. It should really help you in Pennsylvania.

Wally, we are so bad because our Constitutional leaves the federal election process to the states and most, if not all, of the states delegate the process to counties so we are at the mercy of thousands of political subdivisions of varying quality making decisions about the most fundamental right citizens enjoy in a democratic republic.

Federal standardization combined with professional hiring of election workers (rather than relying on ad hoc volunteers) would be a huge help. But this is a systemic problem and Minnesota actually handles its elections pretty well. Out of nearly 3 million votes cast, the only flaws appear to be 133 votes in one envelope that was well documented but misplaced and 1,600 absentee ballots that were mistakenly disqualified because the decision makers did not apply the correct criteria (they found mistakes or what they thought were mistakes but didn't do their homework to determine if they fell within the four bases to disqualify).

Minnesota is way better than the crappy system in Florida that was impossibly contradictory and confusing. The fact that they are taking their time in the recount and coming to unanimous decisions on the bipartisan body tasked with settling disputes is a very good sign. I have a substantial amount of faith in the Minnesota Supreme Court to reach the right result on these issues as well.