Count Concluded: Coleman's Term Over

It's all over for Coleman campaign except for the crying. Tonite the final votes to be counted, the wrongfully rejected absentee ballots, were added to the final recount figure boosting Al Franken's lead going into today from 49 to a realistically insurmountable victory margin of 225 votes. Therefore, even if the Franken campaign were to concede the 133 votes that the Coleman campaign alleges were mistakenly counted twice in one precinct, Franken would still prevail by 98 votes, which for this race, is a landslide.

Those who have followed the recount with an open mind would all agree that great attention was paid to the fairness and transparency of the process and that the Canvasing Board was comprised of either Republican or independent appointed or elected judges and the Minnesota Secretary of State, Mark Ritchie, who although was elected as a Democrat, checked his partisanship at the door of the Canvasing Board Hearing Room and has fulfilled his duties in a professional, competent and ethical manner, something that can not be said of his predecessor Mary "Native Americans Can't Use their tribal I.D.'s" Kiffmeyer or Florida's Secretary of State and Bush State Campaign Director, Kathleen Harris, both Republicans.

It should also be recognised that throughout this process Al Franken and his team has conducted themselves in a dignified and senatorial manner with one goal in mind which they repeated so often it became their mantra, "We just want all legally cast ballots counted". Sadly the antics of Coleman and his cronies has been enough to make native Minnesotans, with their moralistic political culture, recoil in revulsion. From Norm's dirty campaign tactics and character assassination of his opponent to his premature declaration of victory on election night, ignoring a statutorily mandated recount, and pressure tactics to try and get Mr. Franken to concede, Minnesotans truly have elected the better candidate and person and someone worthy of holding Paul Wellstone's seat and well deserved title of "conscious of the Senate".

Way to go Al, team Franken and Minnesota!