With the help of the 933 wrongfully rejected absentee that were counted today by the Minnesota Canvassing Board, Democrat Al Franken gained a net 176 votes putting his overall lead over Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) at 225. This was the final step of the vote-counting process, and the recount is now officially over.
Now all eyes are turned to the Minnesota Supreme Court, which is considering a request from the Coleman campaign to include additional ballots that they believe were improperly rejected (which are from areas where Coleman did better). The Coleman campaign has also said that they will be challenging the results if and when Franken is certified as the winner.
Coleman is basically just grasping at some very short straws at this point, and barring a miracle, he will lose his seat to Franken just as soon as his court challenges are dealt with (and probably rejected).
Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty has declared that the state will not certify a winner until all legal challenges are completed, so it could be a while until Minnesota seats two Senators on Capitol Hill.
It now seems highly unlikely that Harry Reid and the Senate Democrats will try to seat Franken until he is officially certified as the winner.
But all things told, it looks like Franken's eventual victory is all but certain at this point. The only thing holding me back from calling him Senator-elect Franken is that it still sounds really weird.
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