A 215-vote lead vanished in one of America's closest Senate races
In short: In the 2008 Minnesota Senate election, a razor-thin margin triggered a grueling eight-month legal and logistical marathon. What began as a 215-vote deficit for Al Franken transformed into a victory decided by less than 0.01% of the total vote, testing the limits of state canvassing procedures.
The race between Democratic–Farmer–Labor (DFL) candidate Al Franken and Republican incumbent Norm Coleman was defined by extreme volatility. On election night, November 4, 2008, initial counts showed Coleman leading by 215 votes—a margin well under the 0.5% threshold required for a mandatory recount in Minnesota. While news organizations initially called the race for Coleman, the lead narrowed significantly during the verification process. By the time of the official pre-recount tally on November 18, Coleman's lead had shrunk from 726 votes to just 215.
The subsequent hand recount involved sorting ballots at 120 locations across the state. The process was fraught with procedural disputes over 'voter intent' and the handling of challenged ballots. A five-person State Canvassing Board oversaw the review, navigating a landscape where Franken’s campaign withdrew some challenges to ease the board's strain, while Coleman's campaign ultimately left roughly 1,000 challenges for review. The most significant shift occurred during the inclusion of absentee ballots that had been improperly rejected during the initial count.
After a legal battle reached the Minnesota Supreme Court, it was ruled that these wrongly rejected ballots must be included. On January 3, 2009, officials opened a 'fifth pile' of 953 such ballots; 481 were found eligible for Franken and 305 for Coleman. The State Canvassing Board officially certified the results on January 5 with Franken holding a 225-vote lead. Because of state law requiring a seven-day delay and the pending election contest, Franken did not take his oath of office until July 7, 2009, more than half a year after Coleman's term ended.
This election serves as a case study in the mechanics of high-stakes canvassing. It highlights how small administrative errors—such as rejecting absentee ballots incorrectly or missing a single envelope containing 133 votes—can dictate the outcome of a statewide race when the margin is measured in fractions of a percent.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: 2008 United States Senate election in Minnesota
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