Minn. Senate recount nears end: Coleman leads

By Todd Melby

MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) - A recount in Minnesota's U.S. Senate race between Republican incumbent Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken lurched toward an inconclusive end on Friday with Coleman leading by 251 votes out of more than 2.4 million ballots cast.

But the outcome of the November 4 election will not be final until thousands of ballots challenged by the two candidates are examined by a state canvassing board starting December 16. A court fight could follow.

Though Democrats have already claimed 58 out of the 100 seats in the 111th U.S. Congress which convenes January 6, both parties have poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into the recount, Republicans hoping to gain ground, Democrats hoping to increase their majority.

Even if comedian-turned-politician Franken should win, the Democrats would still be one shy of the 60-seat majority they need to end Republican procedural roadblocks.

The recount has swung back and forth between the two men, with batches of uncounted ballots being discovered here and there as well as clerical errors changing the totals.

On Thursday, Franken said 133 ballots were missing from a Minneapolis precinct where many college students voted, and demanded an immediate search of the venue, a Lutheran church. Coleman's side said it was premature and irresponsible to suggest that any ballots were missing and said a search would be potentially abusive.

"People are sick of it, people want this over, this has been a long and nasty Senate race," said Steven Schier, a political scientist at Minnesota's Carleton College.

"Frankly, people don't much like either one of these candidates," he said, since the incumbent Sen. Coleman and Franken each got about 41 percent of the vote with an independent candidate, Dean Barkley, getting the rest.

Though the public may be tired of the sniping between the two camps, a Minneapolis Star-Tribune story offering readers a chance to judge disputed ballots for themselves was the most popular on its website.

"The reason it's so absorbing is that it's so damn close. Every day it's something else in the soap opera -- a few ballots found here, a few found there," Schier said. "There's got to be a winner declared. There's no stomach in the state legislature or the governor's office to pass a law to hold another election."

He said the recount is coming up with a total pretty close to the one announced after the November 4 election, which showed Coleman with a slight lead.

There would have to be a "literal tie," he said, to invoke a provision in state law that the issue be decided by lot.

(Written by Michael Conlon; Additional reporting by Andrew Stern; Editing by Jackie Frank)