We just went through another election, but in Minnesota they're still counting ballots. Comedian and radio talk show host Al Franken and incumbent Republican Sen. Norm Coleman are locked in a dead heat. Who says your vote doesn't count?
As of Friday, Coleman was up 239 votes over millions cast. That breaks down to about a .011 percentage point lead. Um, can somebody say razor thin?
This is the tightest race in the nation and some are saying: "Well, what do you expect from Minnesota?" They elected a pro wrassler as their governor a few years back. Currently, the state is in the midst of a discovery recount. If if's thisclose, expect a full blown recount.
One of the newsroom geezers --- you know the types, always telling us how things were back in the last century --- said this Franken-Coleman contest was like the Thompson-Stevenson race in the 1982 Illinois gubernatorial race when a vote per precinct determined the outcome.
That was when the first Lake County resident vied for lite governor. That was Grace Mary Stern of Highland Park, the county's first Democratic county clerk who went on to become a state senator and running mate of Adlai Stevenson Da Third. Or so the geezer tells us.
Regardless, it's a barn burner in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. It may seem immaterial except Dems are close to marking a majority of 60 senators. That is filabuster proof.
So this contest is one of many voters should take into consideration when somebody says: "My vote doesn't count." Au contraire, mon ami. On any given Election Day, it certainly does.
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