Random: Mary Franson now leads Bob Cunniff by 11 votes; race will go into automatic recount

While other progressive blogs gleefully (or mournfully in conservatives' case) noted that Mary Franson was "clinging" to a one-vote lead while ballots in three precincts were headed toward a random pull of 35 ballots from 3 precincts. Bluestem had been noting that this gave Franson an advantage.

Franson now leads by 11 votes, according to a note on her personal Facebook page posted two hours ago. 

Update: The vote total is Franson 10640, Cunniff 10629 or 49.98% to 49.93% w/ 19 write-ins,according to a tweet by AP reporter Brian Bakst. [end update]

Update #2: The Alexandria Echo Press reports on the details of the pulled ballots:

Of the ballots removed, 22 were for Cunniff, 12 were for Franson and one was not marked. Subtracting those votes from the district-wide totals gives Franson an 11-vote edge, 10,640 to 10,629. Franson held just a one-vote lead after the votes were initially tallied.

The new totals were certified and sent to the state where a recount is expected to be ordered next week.

Vote totals in other races also changed but not nearly enough to affect any outcomes. [end update]

 

In a statement to Bluestem, Franson writes:

I'm cautiously optimistic that my Election Night victory will be upheld by the recount and I will be able to continue to serve my constituents, I thank the many county and court staff who have maintained their professionalism in this process. Until the recount, I will pray that God's will be done, while preparing to return to St. Paul in January.

Far from putting her win at jeopardy, the odds were that her margin of victory would grow as ballots were pulled from precincts in Alexandria that had broken heavily for Cunniff. There being more votes for Cunniff marked on the ballots, the more likely that Cunniff-favoring ballots would be pulled, and thus votes for Cunniff subtracted from his totals.

Of course, this was not guaranteed, as these things are indeed random, but as we predicted, Franson's winning margin has widened.

Next up? An automatic recount. Should Franson's victory hold, few remedies remain for Cunniff.

Photo: The luckiest House candidate ever? Mary Franson, whose margin widened with the random vote pull dictated by state law in general and a judge's order yesterday.

Related posts: Cunniff-Franson obvious error order: pull 35 random ballots from three precincts

Cunniff-Franson obvious error court hearing: will Alexandria DFLer and retired coach get a redo?

 

Comments

[Mike Worcester]

Ignoring for sake of argument what state law says they must do, was there any other remedy available that would have made up for the election judges' unfortunate errors? Was their any possible way to pull the ballots that were given in error to voters? Or is that simply not possible to do.

I find this all very distasteful to be honest. But at the same time, am not sure what the better option would be.

Editor: actually, no, there's no way of telling. As for other options, the judge reviewed them after hearing arguments from both sides yesterday morning. One conservative blogger has suggested ending secret ballots entirely, a curious reversal of the logic used against the Employee Free Choice Act, which would allow unions to use majority sign-up elections to organize workplaces. I don't have an answer.