Overtime In The Apple

I'm not talking about last night's thriller in the Meadowlands, just outside the Big Apple, where (as long as we're on the subject) the New York Giants defeated the Carolina Panthers in OT and clinched home field advantage in the NFC playoffs. (Oh, did I tell you I'm a Giants fan?)

I'm talking about overtime in the other Apple — the Minneapple — where we are approaching seven weeks since Election Day and there's still no winner in the Senate race between incumbent Republican Norm Coleman and Democratic challenger Al Franken. Here's the latest news:

Franken with a lead. For the first time since Nov. 4, Franken is ahead in the count. Four days of going over disputed and absentee ballots by the state Canvassing Board has given Franken a lead of 262 votes. But that lead could be short-lived because ...

Challenges. On Tuesday, the board is expected to reconcile some 5,000 ballots that had been, but are no longer, challenged by the two camps. That should alter the count. The state Supreme Court has also instructed counties to separate some 1,600 rejected absentee ballots and count them, but only if both camps agree that the ballot was mistakenly rejected. The court has given them a Dec. 31 deadline. The Coleman camp is insisting that hundreds of ballots should be disqualified because they will have been counted twice. The state Supreme Court will hear that challenge tomorrow. Meanwhile, the new Congress will be sworn in on Jan. 6. There's no guarantee that we'll have a winner by then.

Temporary senator? There has been some talk that Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) might want to name a temporary senator while the counting goes on, but this could only happen if for some reason the seat were declared vacant, and that (so far) is not the case.

Shades of Wyman-Durkin? The deadlock in Minnesota is starting to remind us oldtimers about the 1974 Senate race in New Hampshire between Rep. Louis Wyman (R) and John Durkin (D). I'll write a separate post on that one later today.

How about Minnesota 1962? That's before our time, but not forgotten by Steve Cain of Minneapolis, who sent in this note:

"Close statewide elections in Minnesota have occurred before — significantly, in the 1962 gubernatorial race between Gov. Elmer Andersen (R) and Lt. Gov. Karl Rolvaag (D). That one wasn't decided until March 1963, in which Rolvaag came out ahead of the Election Day winner, Andersen, by 91 votes."

And David Inman of St. Paul, Minn., adds more info:

Back in October, I attended a program where Tom Swain, Gov. Andersen's chief of staff and campaign manager (now 87), discussed, amongst other things, the 1962 recount (who would have known how prophetic that would be). He stated that in March (2 1/2 months after the beginning of the term), Gov. Andersen decided that the recount had gone on long enough and that he would not appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court. Ultimately, it was a three-judge panel that had the final say.

David sent along a link from MinnPost.com, which gives fascinating detail about that race. The canvassing board back then was deadlocked over whether to accept amended returns from several counties. The state Supreme Court got the board to end its deadlock, which resulted in Andersen being declared the winner by 142 votes.

But Rolvaag insisted on a recount, which led to months of meticulous examination of each contested vote. The three-judge panel declared Rolvaag the winner by 91 votes. GOP leaders urged Andersen to take his challenge to the courts, but the governor refused to do so, saying a "competent and fair tribunal" rendered its opinion. Rolvaag was sworn in on March 25, 1963.

Heck, this is only Dec. 22.