Following are results for the most-watched races in Minnesota with the winners' names in bold.
President/Vice President: Obama/Biden 53.75% (McCain/Palin 44.12%)
US Senate: Coleman-R 42% / Franken-D 42% / Barkley-IP 15% NO WINNER DECLARED
(This race had been called for Coleman by the Associated Press, but they have now RECALLED that decision. IT IS TOO CLOSE TO CALL. Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie said an automatically generated recount will begin in November.)
Joe Bodell at Minnesota Campaign Report had this to say around midnight:
"I've looked at the remaining Senate numbers -- and there's reason for optimism for Al Franken.
Many votes are left to count in the Fifth and Eighth congressional districts -- this should favor Franken considerably going forward. With about 80% counted, the fact that so many of the remaining 20% are from the two heaviest-DFL-index congressional districts in the state should help.
Nevertheless, there's a strong chance at this point that there will be a statewide recount, unless one of the candidates puts a little daylight between himself and his opponent.")
As of 1:00 a.m. (CST) with 90% of precincts reporting, the Senate race is virtually tied at 42%. (MN Secretary of State reports Coleman with 1,128,886 votes and Franken with 1,117,043; MSNBC shows a difference of just 78 votes between the two candidates; and DailyKos reports a difference of about 3,000 votes.)
The race started out heavily in Franken's favor and exit polling gave Franken a 4% lead according to Bob Collins at mpr News Cut, and from what I heard from pollsters.
UPDATE: Franken ahead by about 1,000 votes with 95% of precincts reporting, per KARE11 (1:57 a.m. CST)
UPDATE: Coleman ahead with 99% of precincts reporting; Coleman 1,210,790 / Franken 1,210,028. (MSNBC); The Minnesota Secretary of State shows Coleman with 1,209,247 and Franken with 1,210,124 (6:43 a.m. CST); 99.78% of precincts reporting.
UPDATE: With 100% of precincts reporting, THE RACE IS TOO CLOSE TO CALL.
US Congress
District 01: Walz-D (Davis)
District 02: Kline-R (Sarvi)
District 03: Paulsen-R (Madia) - projected, but not called
District 04: McCollum-D (Matthews)
District 05: Ellison-D (White)
District 06: Bachmann-R (Tinklenberg)
District 07: Peterson-D (Menze)
District 08: Oberstar-D (Cummins)
Incumbent Keith Ellison won handily, as did fellow Democrats Tim Walz, Betty McCollum, Collin Peterson and Jim Oberstar. Paulsen (R) and Bachmann (R), who won by much narrower margins, can thank the Independence Party challengers for upsetting their races just enough to push them into the lead.
Land and Legacy Amendment: Yes 58.54% (No 41.46%)
Outdoors and Arts Amendment: Yes 55.6% (No 39.3%)
Voter turnout in Minnesota was estimated at 77.91% according to the Secretary of State's office.
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Retired from a career in law and banking, Diana Raabe is a freelance writer/editor whose work has been featured on Gather.com for over three years. A member of The Loft Literary Center and the National Book Critics Circle, she blogs at The Raabe Review and, occasionally, Minnesota Campaign Report.
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Comments: 43
From where I lay, I stand…so vigorous
and strong
And, let me say that for the sake of love,
I share more than just a rhapsody,
but an orchestration of song
complete with blues harp, violin and gong
Ricky J. Fico
Triumphs of Humanity: Creativity, Compassion & Commitment
http://electionresults.sos.state.mn.us/
Coleman is up a 1,000 votes. It's a real squeaker.
This is a perfect example of the pathological partisanship that explains why the Republicans did so well in Minnesota yesterday.
NBC has him ahead by about 300 votes 42% to 39%
Don't know if that's accurate....
She should have to answer for that, and I hope Democrats remember her performance during this campaign season if she ever tries to run again.
Yet, most Dem's plugged their nose and voted for Franken anyways, but the negative advertizing the final days chased away as many voters as it attracted.
Norm Coleman has been living in Minnesota for 30 years and worked his way up from the bottom, first, in Warren Spanus' Attourny Generals office, then to mayor of St Paul, and an attempt at Gov, then US Senate. Franken is a johnny come lately.
The DFL could have produced a better candidate back in the spring. Monday morning quarterbacking is common in politics.
Coleman did himself no favors as Bush's rubber stamp and plenty of Minnesotans will make certain that legacy doesn't die...and not necessarily by choice.
How well do you actually know each - or any - of the candidates, Winston? How many Democratic caucuses or state conventions have you been to?
I'm not going to trash Norm Coleman, but the sad fact is - I could.
POWER TO 'WE THE PEOPLE"
First Jesse Ventura. And now Al Franken? Minnesotans – attracted to "goofies".
jwm
MY GOD, he could't even get the endorsement from the most left-leaning daily newspaper in the nation the Minneapolis StartTribune .
The STRIB endorsed A REPUBLICAN (Norm Coleman).
That in itself was a cosmic event.
NOT EVEN THE U of MN Minnesota Daily, the most leftist newspaper in the State.
Even the Star Tribune, who tried to take Norm down in the past 4 years couldn't even bite their tongue and endorse Franken. Or the Iron Range!
-Julia
Looks like a recount for Franken...