According to data just released by the Minnesota Secretary of State, Al Franken has gained a net of 43 votes on the first day of that state's recount process. Norm Coleman had a lead of 215 voters over Franken in Minnesota's certified, pre-recount tally; that margin is now 172 votes.

Minnesota reports that it has thus far re-counted 15.49 percent of its ballots. If the first day's results are indicative of the pace that the candidates will maintain throughout the recount process, Franken would gain a net of 278 votes over Colmean, giving him a narrow victory. For any number of reasons, however, the results reported thus far may not be indicative of future trends [...]

the precincts that were re-counted today were slightly redder than average, having favored Coleman by an aggregate of 3.3 points during the initial count. No votes have yet been re-counted in Minneapolis (out of more than 200,000 cast), although about 43,000 have been recounted in St. Paul (out of around 140,000 cast on Election Day). Another city which has not yet reported any results is Duluth, traditionally a Democratic stronghold.

Then there's the matter of the challenged ballots:

Challenges can occur to ballots that had previously been deemed to be legal, in which case those votes will be deducted from the opponent's total. Coleman has thus far challenged 115 ballots and Franken 106. However, based on local reports, many or perhaps most of the challenges are frivolous, and are unlikely to be upheld upon review. Thus, the candidate who has challenged fewer ballots probably stands to gain ground once such challenges are adjudicated.

Some of these may be frivolous, but some not so much. Follow the link for pictures of various challenged ballots, and take the quiz courtesy of Minnesota public radio.

As Media Matters for America has repeatedly documented, Minnesota Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty has repeatedly said there is no actual evidence of fraud in the vote count of the state's Senate race.

As Media Matters also noted, Fritz Knaak, a lawyer for Coleman, reportedly said on November 8, "We were actually told [ballots] had been riding around in [Minneapolis elections director Cynthia Reichert's] car for several days, which raised all kinds of integrity questions." But the Associated Press reported that same day that Knaak "said a Minneapolis attorney reassured Coleman's campaign that no one but an elected official had access to the 32 ballots and there was no tampering." On November 10, Knaak further reportedly said of the purported incident, "It does not appear that there was any ballot-tampering, and that was our concern." Additionally, state officials have refuted rumors that the ballots were handled improperly, and Pawlenty -- who initially forwarded the car ballot rumor himself -- has stated that "[t]here's a news report in Minnesota that the ballot-in-the-trunk story has now been retracted, that it wasn't accurate."

From the November 19 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe:

SCARBOROUGH: So, with Stevens losing --

BRZEZINSKI: Yes.

SCARBOROUGH: -- Democrats have 58.

BRZEZINSKI: Hmm-mm.

SCARBOROUGH: They've got this run-off in Georgia, which could get them to 59. And then if Al Franken - yeah.

BRZEZINSKI: Franken, yeah.

SCARBOROUGH: If Al Franken steals enough votes in Minnesota --

BRZEZINSKI: They could get to 60.

SCARBOROUGH: -- they get to 60. I'm not saying he stole any votes --

BRZEZINSKI: They're gonna find them in the trunk of a car.

SCARBOROUGH: -- I'm just saying, as a Republican from Florida, I mean, it's a close race. Steal some votes, you get over the top. Democrats have 60. Right, Barnicle?

MIKE BARNICLE (MSNBC political analyst): And they have [Sen. Joe] Lieberman [I-CT].

[...]

BRZEZINSKI: Guys, enough.

SCARBOROUGH: OK. So, we're pulling for the pirates. Go ahead.

BRZEZINSKI: No, they're not like pirates like you read to [Scarborough's daughter] Kate in a little book.

SCARBOROUGH: It's not like Johnny Depp?

BRZEZINSKI: They have hostages, idiots.

SCARBOROUGH: Oh, that's bad. We're against them, then.

BRZEZINSKI: Pirates are expected to demand millions of dollars in ransom.

SCARBOROUGH: Who are the hostages from?

BRZEZINSKI: OK, now you need to be quiet, all right? The longest-serving Republican in Senate history has been defeated --

SCARBOROUGH: 'Cause if it's Ted Stevens, I'm pulling for the pirates. Still, if Ted Stevens is their hostage, I'm for the pirates.

BRZEZINSKI: Just weeks after being convicted on federal corruption charges, Alaska's Ted Stevens has lost to Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich, whose win moves Senate Democrats within two seats of a filibuster-proof majority.

SCARBOROUGH: All right. So, again, recapping: If Al Franken can steal enough votes in Minnesota, that's get -- that gets Democrats to 59.

BRZEZINSKI: That's right.

SCARBOROUGH: And then [Sen.] Saxby Chambliss [R-GA] loses in the special run-off, Democrats gets 60 -- filibuster-proof majority.

Additionally, while Horwath noted that the board "includes two Minnesota Supreme Court Justices and two Ramsey County District Court judges," he did not point out that two of the board's five members -- Eric J. Magnuson and G. Barry Anderson -- were appointed to the Minnesota Supreme Court by Pawlenty.

From Horwath's November 17 Time article, "Coleman and Franken: Fighting Over the Minnesota Recount":

The recount, which will cost taxpayers roughly $87,000, promises to be arduous. The State Canvassing Board will certify elections results Tuesday and the recount begins Wednesday, when election officials in 110 locations across the state will analyze by hand each of the nearly 3 million ballots to determine voter's intent. (Minnesota uses optical scanners, and many voters haphazardly filled in the intended ovals, didn't do so at all or otherwise improperly marked their ballots.) Thousands of party representatives will literally be peering over their shoulders to challenge any apparent discrepancy. By law, election officials must place any challenged ballots in a separate pile for consideration by the State Canvassing Board. Secretary of State Mark Ritchie chairs the five-member board, which also includes two Minnesota Supreme Court Justices and two Ramsey County District Court judges.

On Saturday, the Coleman campaign accused Ritchie, who, like Franken, belongs to the Democratic-Farmer-Labor coalition, of "breaching neutrality" by saying that the State Canvassing Board will probably consider taking up the tossed absentee ballots. Ritchie has vowed to hold regular press conferences during the recount. "The whole world is watching to see if we're living up to our reputation as Minnesota -- our brand," Ritchie says. "Accuracy is the only measurement by which we can determine who won this election." Ritchie does not expect the recount to be completed until at least December 19. If the results are a tie, the contest could be decided by a coin toss.

Keep in mind that Lieberman did this while serving as chairman of the homeland security committee, and there's no reason to expect that he won't continue to support Iraq war supporting Republicans.

And also keep in mind that this isn't an issue of partisanship. Bernie Sanders isn't a Democrat and he'd be a great replacement for Joe Lieberman's place (that's not a serious possibility, it's just a rhetorical point). Hell, if Lincoln Chafee were still in the Senate, he'd be a fine chairman.

But not Joe Lieberman, who will do and say anything to keep us in Iraq, despite the opposition of much of his state. That's why he supported Collins and Coleman, and that's why he supported John McCain, and that's why he's fighting to maintain his source of power in the senate right now.

To reward Lieberman's behavior with another term as chairman of the homeland security committee would not only strengthen Lieberman's hand and validate his campaign against the Democratic Party and for the Iraq war, it would be the height of weakness on the part of senate Democrats. It would be a sign that they don't really care about ending the war.

In fact, while Fritz Knaak, a lawyer for Sen. Norm Coleman (R), reportedly said on November 8, "We were actually told ballots had been riding around in [Minneapolis director of elections Cindy Reichert's] car for several days, which raised all kinds of integrity questions," he also reportedly said that same day that he was assured the ballots weren't tampered with. On November 10, Knaak further reportedly said that "[i]t does not appear that there was any ballot-tampering, and that was our concern."

Additionally, citing "Hennepin County officials," the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported of the absentee ballots in question: "On Election Day, officials attempted to deliver absentee ballots that arrived as part of a late mail delivery to the appropriate precinct. But some precincts had closed by the time they got there, and the ballots were returned to a secure location before being counted according to state law." Additionally, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported on November 9 that the "32 Minneapolis ballots were part of the normal delivery of absentee ballots late in the polling day, according to Election Director Cindy Reichert. She said they were retained when they couldn't be delivered because some polling places had shut down for the day. She said the ballots were kept sealed until other election duties were completed and were being counted Saturday afternoon, with results to be delivered to the state on Monday."

Nevertheless, in addition to Matthews, several media figures and outlets have advanced the rumor that the ballots were mishandled, including The Wall Street Journal, NBC correspondent Lee Cowan, and Fox News hosts Sean Hannity, Brit Hume, and Bill O'Reilly.

From the November 14 edition of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews:

NATE SILVER (FiveThirtyEight.com): Frankly, in Minneapolis and Hennepin County, you probably have Democrats looking at these ballots. He has maybe a kind of a home-field advantage here too. The secretary of state, you know, is a Democrat in Minnesota, so that's why Coleman's a little scared, trying to kind of cut off the recount before it starts, which you can't really do legally. But he knows that those 200 votes mean very little once you start counting, you know, the millions of votes that were cast in that race.

MATTHEWS: What about these absentee ballots that were found in somebody's back seat and they're now counting them as official -- what is that about? That sounds pretty squirrely or sneaky or what -- I don't know what it sounds like. What do you make of it?

SILVER: Well, I doesn't look good for the state in general when you have these numbers changing, but this actually happens in every state where vote counts are finalized over a 10-day to 14-day period. It happens -- usually people don't care if Obama wins by 10,008 votes instead of 10,012 or something, but when it's this close, people notice stuff like this. Yeah, I think it looks bad for Minnesota if you have this happening in some places, but they seem to be isolated incidents to me and not any kind of widespread fraud.

MATTHEWS: Yeah, well, if I lost by 30 votes and I found out that somebody had found 30 votes in their back seat, I'd be upset. Let's take a look at the Georgia Senate race.

During the show, O'Reilly also falsely claimed that "since Election Day, Coleman didn't get -- they didn't find one vote for Coleman." In fact, while Franken has netted more votes during the statewide audit of unofficial election returns, election officials reportedly have tallied additional votes for Coleman during the certification process as well. O'Reilly also repeated the discredited suggestion that election officials may have tampered with votes in an effort to benefit Franken by mishandling 32 absentee ballots from Minneapolis.

Previewing an upcoming discussion with Fox News analyst Laura Ingraham, O'Reilly claimed, "The man in charge of the vote count in Minnesota is actively rooting for Al Franken." During the subsequent discussion, O'Reilly claimed, "[I]f the fix is in -- and you just heard the secretary of state -- the fix is in. What does Coleman do?" However, at no point during the discussion did O'Reilly or Ingraham point out that the five-member canvassing board includes two judges appointed to the Minnesota Supreme Court by Pawlenty, or that during the November 12 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, Pawlenty said, "Those folks were named today. The four judges that were named -- two of them I appointed to the Minnesota Supreme Court. Two others have good reputations in Minnesota, so I think it's gonna be a fair system." Moreover, the Associated Press reported on November 13 that "Fritz Knaak, Coleman's lead lawyer, said he was comfortable with the board's makeup. 'The people of this state should feel good about who's on the panel,' he said."

During the discussion, O'Reilly further claimed of Ritchie, "[T]his guy is the secretary of state. He's in charge of overseeing this thing, and now we've been investigating it. Do you realize that since Election Day -- do you know, that since Election Day, Coleman didn't get -- they didn't find one vote for Coleman. He lost 47 or 67 votes." He later asked Ingraham, "You're not finding any votes for the Republican guy? None?" Ingraham responded, "No, of course not." But while the statewide audit of unofficial election results has resulted in a net narrowing of Coleman's lead, a November 11 Minneapolis Star Tribune article reported that Coleman has received additional votes in some counties as a result of the audit:

Monday was the deadline for counties to certify their results. Depending on the unknown number that may not have yet reported them to the state, that 206 figure could still change before the state Canvassing Board meets next week to certify the official total. Only then will the recount begin.

Officials with Hennepin County forwarded their tally Monday to the secretary of state's office, showing that, since initial results Wednesday, Franken's total had increased by 55 votes and Coleman's by 27 in the state's largest county.

Adjustments in the vote tallies because of misplaced figures and other errors have been limited to 22 of the state's 87 counties, according to an analysis of the fluctuations from Wednesday to Monday.

Since the preliminary Election Day numbers, Franken's biggest gains were in Lake County, where he added 246 votes, and in Pine and St. Louis counties, where he picked up 100 in each.

Coleman's biggest gain was in Ramsey County, 29 votes, but that was more than canceled out by an additional 41 votes there for Franken. Coleman's biggest drop was 124 votes in Anoka County, where Franken also lost 90 votes.

Moreover, O'Reilly claimed that "they're finding votes all over the place -- in the trunks of cars, you know, up in the tree" for Franken, forwarding the discredited rumor that 32 absentee ballots from Minneapolis were mishandled. As Media Matters for America has documented, on November 8 Knaak reportedly said, "We were actually told ballots had been riding around in [Minneapolis director of elections Cindy Reichert's] car for several days, which raised all kinds of integrity questions." However, Knaak reportedly said later on November 8 that he was assured the ballots weren't tampered with, and also reportedly said on November 10 that "[i]t does not appear that there was any ballot-tampering, and that was our concern." Further, Hennepin County officials have repeatedly said the ballots were sealed and held in a secure location, and Reichert has reportedly said that the claim that the ballots were in her car was false, as was the claim that the ballots sat in a car for days.

From the November 13 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor:

[begin video clip]

CONTESSA BREWER (MSNBC anchor): Do you understand why the Coleman campaign is now questioning the integrity of the vote counting?

RITCHIE: That's part of their job of trying to win at any price.

[end video clip]

O'REILLY: The man in charge of the vote count in Minnesota is actively rooting for Al Franken, and now there are charges of election fraud. Laura Ingraham will analyze.

[...]

O'REILLY: Next on the rundown, Laura Ingraham will react to our discussion and also analyze possible voter fraud in the intense Minnesota Senate race.

[...]

O'REILLY: But this guy is the secretary of state. He's in charge of overseeing this thing, and now we've been investigating it. Do you realize that since Election Day -- do you know, that since Election Day, Coleman didn't get -- they didn't find one vote for Coleman. He lost 47 or 67 votes. The other guy, Franken, they're finding votes all over the place -- in the trunks of cars --

INGRAHAM: Well, you know --

O'REILLY: -- you know, up in the tree. You know, and, I mean, everybody's watching this, so I don't know, can you -- do you think they can get away with it?

INGRAHAM: This is vote counting by David Copperfield. I mean, this is like a David Blaine illusionist finding votes everywhere.

Look, this is my rule of thumb, Bill. Anytime a Republican in a race like this is only winning by, let's say, a thousand votes or less, then you can bet that that Republican's going to end up losing that seat. It just always seems to work out this way, that -- that the election officials in the state where there's, you know, some type of dispute, always get into this kind of gray area, and -- and we find now that these votes -- these 504 votes -- came from three precincts -- just three precincts out of the whole state. That's staggering.

And as John Lott pointed out, Bill, in a great column he wrote that was in today's New York Post, the -- the numbers of votes they found -- found for -- for Cole -- for Franken, excuse me, since Election Day outpace the number they found for Obama by 2.5, OK? Two-point-nine times as many votes were found for all Democratic officials statewide.

O'REILLY: Well, but -- but here's the deal. Here's the deal.

INGRAHAM: Something doesn't add up there. It's very strange.

O'REILLY: Everything doesn't add up, not something. Everything doesn't add up. You're not finding any votes for the Republican guy? None?

INGRAHAM: No, of course not.

O'REILLY: You're taking votes away from the guy? And then, all of a sudden, as you pointed out, three -- and what are there, a thousand precincts? More than a thousand. Three, all right, heavily Democratic, they're kicking votes in like this. But here's the deal. If Franken gets in, that puts the Democrats over the 60 magic number. So, that -- that means it's every American, because this is a far-left loon we're looking at right here -- not Bill Clinton, Al Franken. He's a loon, OK? So, if he gets in, every American, every single person in this country is gonna be impacted. And I just -- see, I don't know what you do here.

If -- if the fix is in -- and you just heard the secretary of state -- the fix is in. What does Coleman do? Does he take it to the federal level? What does he do?

From the November 12 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes:

SEAN HANNITY (co-host): All right. Now, now -- but we have a problem with the secretary of state, Mark Ritchie, do we not? He's a liberal partisan secretary of state. When you look through his record, he has ties to this controversial group we discuss a lot, ACORN. He attended the 2008 Democratic Convention.

How much faith and hope and confidence do you have in Ritchie, considering his radical relationships and partisanship -- even connected to MoveOn.org?

PAWLENTY: Well, all secretary of states are elected, and they have partisan backgrounds of one party or the other. In this case, the final decisions are made by a canvassing board of five people. It consists of the secretary of state plus four judges.

Those folks were named today. The four judges that were named -- two of them I appointed to the Minnesota Supreme Court.

HANNITY: All right.

PAWLENTY: Two others have good reputations in Minnesota, so I think it's gonna be a fair system.

Naturally, conservative radio hosts are working themselves into a lather, baselessly accusing Democrats of trying to "steal" the election. That shouldn't surprise anyone. But NBC and The New York Times have also pushed the dubious notion that the Minnesota recount has been plagued by chaos and impropriety.

Here's how Meredith Vieira, co-host of NBC's Today, began a report on the Minnesota recount: "If you thought the election debacle in Florida could never happen again, wait until you see the situation in Minnesota."

This is nonsense. The "debacle" in Florida wasn't that there was a recount; the "debacle" was an absurdly designed ballot that led to thousands of people who meant to vote for Al Gore voting for Pat Buchanan instead. The "debacle" was that thousands of voters were improperly purged from voter rolls. The "debacle" was that the state's electoral votes were awarded to the candidate for whom fewer voters attempted to cast ballots. None of those factors are present in Minnesota.

The Minnesota Senate race is simply in the midst of a recount. Recounts happen. They aren't the illegitimate, anything-goes street fights the media pretend they are; they are a part of how elections work, their process written into law and executed every year. They are necessary, for a perfectly obvious reason: They make it more likely that the candidate who receives the most votes takes office. That is an unequivocally good thing.

During that Today segment, reporter Lee Cowan announced that the situation "has some remembering shades of Florida, of butterfly ballots and hanging chads. There are neither of those here."

What possible reason could there be for bringing up "butterfly ballots and hanging chads," given that "there are neither of those" present in Minnesota? Whatever the intent, the effect is clear -- it creates the impression that the situation in Minnesota is utter chaos, a "debacle" in the making.

Cowan continued: "Still, ballots have suddenly appeared out of nowhere, including some found unsecured in an election worker's car."

That appears to be completely false. Election officials have said the ballots did not "suddenly appear[] out of nowhere," and they were not "unsecured." The claim about unsecured ballots in a car appears to have originated with Norm Coleman's lawyer. Cowan did not attribute the car story to anyone or anything, he simply asserted it as fact. Adopting and repeating Coleman's lawyer's claims as though they are facts is bad enough. What makes it worse is that the lawyer had already backed off the claim. Two full days before Cowan's report, the Coleman lawyer had been quoted saying that "we've heard enough from the city attorney to let go of this. It does not appear that there was any ballot-tampering, and that was our concern."

So Cowan offered a sensational and -- by his own acknowledgement -- wholly irrelevant comparison to the "butterfly ballots and hanging chads" of the 2000 recount. Then he made a false assertion of ballots materializing out of thin air, and of unsecured ballots -- an assertion that seems to have been based entirely on the already-retracted claims of a Coleman campaign lawyer.

Vieira concluded the segment by referring to the "mess in Minnesota." But there is no mess. There is simply a recount -- a recount that does not involve butterfly ballots or hanging chads, a recount that, despite the best efforts of Vieira and Cowan to convince us otherwise, has not a thing in common with the "debacle" in Florida. Just a simple recount.

Today's New York Times similarly promoted the idea of chaos and impropriety in the Minnesota recount -- without actually providing any evidence or examples. The Times reported:

If Fritz Knaak has his way, Mr. Franken will never have a shot at solving those problems. A lawyer hired by Mr. Coleman expressly for the recount, Mr. Knaak described himself as "the new gun with the shiny pistol." Citing suspicion over what he called a series of "shenanigans" that have narrowed Mr. Coleman's lead, he has requested the official paper tape with the number of ballots and the time stamp printed out by each ballot machine, in every voting precinct.

The Times gave no examples of "shenanigans" or any indication of who is "suspicious" that such "shenanigans" have occurred. Nor did it give any indication that it asked Knaak for examples of either shenanigans or suspicion.

Later in the article, the Times reported:

Mr. Coleman's campaign manager, Cullen Sheehan, accused the Franken campaign of "a brazen, last minute act of desperation," by asking Hennepin County, which includes Minneapolis, to reconsider 461 rejected absentee ballots.

Mr. Franken's lead lawyer, Marc Elias, called such assertions of ballot stuffing "fanciful and bogus."

But there were no "assertions of ballot stuffing" -- none the Times reported, anyway. The Times simply quoted Coleman's campaign manager saying the Franken campaign's request to reconsider previously rejected ballots is an indication of "desperation." That's quite different from making an allegation of "ballot stuffing."

Then the Times reported that Minneapolis Star Tribune columnist Katherine Kersten expressed concerns about the ability of Minnesota's Democratic secretary of state, Mark Ritchie, to act impartially during the recount, without indicating Kersten's own political leanings. As Media Matters Senior Fellow Eric Boehlert explained, "Kersten is a right-winger who smeared Franken right before Election Day as a 'slanderer of Christianity.' "

Next, the Times quoted a "Republican researcher" who is "very, very concerned" about Ritchie. Then it quoted Sean Hannity saying "[f]ishy business" is occurring in Minnesota, where Democrats and elections officials are "up to no good." To what "[f]ishy business" was Hannity referring? Were his allegations legitimate? The Times did not say.

Finally, the Times quoted the Facebook status of "Noah Rouen, 34," a Minnesota man on a pheasant hunt who, along with his friends, "could not help but hatch a conspiracy theory."

If it seems the Times is desperate to find people concerned about the legitimacy of the Minnesota recount -- resorting to quoting vague allegations from hard-right partisans like Sean Hannity and Facebook conspiracy theories -- maybe that's because Tim Pawlenty, Minnesota's Republican governor, says there is "no actual evidence that there's been any fraud or problems." (That quote didn't appear in the Times article; maybe it got cut to make room for the pheasant hunter's Facebook status.) And as Media Matters noted, the Times did not note that Pawlenty said that the bipartisan state canvassing board Ritchie appointed to oversee the recount was "fair" and that a lawyer for Coleman's campaign reportedly said that the "state should feel good about who's on the panel."

The news media's tendency to compare any recount to the "butterfly ballots and hanging chads" made famous during Florida's 2000 recount, and to breathlessly report the merest rumor of impropriety, is not merely lazy and absurd and sensationalist. It is also dangerous. It causes people to be frightened and concerned about all recounts -- to be wary of the very concept of recounts. But recounts needn't be like the "debacle" of 2000; in fact, they rarely are. They are far more frequently the best way to ensure that errors in counting do not result in the candidate who received fewer votes taking office. (Indeed, in 2004, a manual recount in the Washington governor's race reversed the results of the initial Election Day tabulations and machine recount.) Sensational and baseless reporting like that produced this week by NBC and The New York Times runs the risk of undermining public confidence in an essential part of the democratic process.

Jamison Foser is Executive Vice President at Media Matters for America.

In a November 12 press release, the Secretary of State's office announced the five members of the State Canvassing Board:

Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie today announced the members of the State Canvassing Board. By Minnesota law, representation must include two Minnesota Supreme Court justices, two district court judges and the board is chaired by the Secretary of State. Canvass board members named are Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Eric J. Magnuson and Justice G. Barry Anderson. Chief Judge Kathleen R. Gearin and Assistant Chief Judge Edward J. Cleary have also been tapped from the Second Judicial District to serve on the board. Ritchie made his selections based upon recommendations made by Chief Justice Magnuson and Chief Judge Gearin.

Magnuson and Anderson were appointed to the Minnesota Supreme Court by Pawlenty. The Associated Press reported of them:

• ERIC MAGNUSON: A former law firm colleague of Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Magnuson was appointed by Pawlenty to the Minnesota Supreme Court in June as its chief justice. Magnuson, 57, a noted appellate lawyer, sealed the governor's hold on the seven-member court as his fourth appointee. He worked with Pawlenty at the now-defunct Rider Bennett law firm and screened potential judicial appointees for Pawlenty from 2003 to 2008. Magnuson is viewed as a friend to social conservatives.

• G. BARRY ANDERSON: A former attorney for the state Republican Party, Anderson has served on the state Supreme Court since Pawlenty put him there in 2004. Anderson, 54, served on the state Court of Appeals for six years and has declined partisan endorsements in his judicial elections. He was city attorney in Hutchinson, Minn., from 1987 to 1998. Anderson specialized in civil trials before his judicial career began.

In a November 13 article the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported:

They're the Minnesota General Election Canvassing Board, and, after a hand recount of 2.92 million ballots, they will scrutinize some fraction of those ballots in an attempt to focus -- amid the circus of mass media scrutiny and political maneuvering, and through the scribble of errant pen strokes on bubble forms -- whether each voter wanted to re-elect Republican Sen. Norm Coleman or to replace him with Democrat Al Franken.

[...]

State law defines the canvassing board as two state Supreme Court justices, two district judges and the secretary of state. Ritchie asked Magnuson and Gearin to pick two from their respective pools. They picked themselves and their next-highest-ranking jurist.

Politically, the panel is diverse. Magnuson and Anderson were appointed by Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty. Gearin was elected in a nonpartisan race in 1986 and declined to say with what party, if any, she aligns herself. Cleary was appointed by Independence Party Gov. Jesse Ventura.

That mix is pleasing to Larry Jacobs, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute.

"These are some of our very best judges," he said. "I look at that and say, 'This is going to be fair.' "

Jacobs also noted that Ritchie and the canvassing board have little to do with the bulk of the recount process.

The AP reported on November 13 that "Fritz Knaak, Coleman's lead lawyer, said he was comfortable with the board's makeup. 'The people of this state should feel good about who's on the panel,' he said."

Similarly, during the November 12 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, Pawlenty said of the board: "In this case, the final decisions are made by a canvassing board of five people. It consists of the secretary of state plus four judges. Those folks were named today. The four judges that were named, two of them I appointed to the Minnesota Supreme Court ... two others have good reputations in Minnesota, so I think it's going to be a fair system."

Additionally, the Times stated that Knaak has been "[a]ccusing the Franken campaign of using 'shenanigans' to narrow Mr. Coleman's lead" during the pre-recount audit of votes in the Minnesota Senate race. However, the Times did not note, as Media Matters for America has documented, that Pawlenty has said that there is "no actual evidence that there's been any fraud or problems" in counting the votes. Nor did the Times note that with regard to one issue that Knaak raised, he subsequently said he's been assured there weren't any purported shenanigans. On November 8, Knaak said of the discredited rumor that ballots were left in Minneapolis director of elections Cindy Reichert's car: "We were actually told ballots had been riding around in her car for several days, which raised all kinds of integrity questions." However, Knaak also reportedly said that same day that he was assured the ballots weren't tampered with. On November 10, Knaak further stated: "It does not appear that there was any ballot-tampering, and that was our concern."

From the November 14 New York Times article:

The state canvassing board will meet Dec. 16 to review all challenged ballots, and hopes to conclude its work by Dec. 19, Mr. Ritchie said, although he made no promises.

Both campaigns are scrambling to assemble recount teams -- soliciting online donations, rounding up hundreds of volunteers and deploying legions of lawyers.

The Coleman team recently got $5,000 from the political action committee of Mitt Romney, the former Republican presidential hopeful.

The Franken's campaign is asking supporters to house volunteers who will travel across the state during the recount.

"The office is actually more crowded than it's ever been at any time in the campaign because we have to mount this so quickly," said Mr. Franken, who has appealed to major supporters for financial and legal help. "I'm sort of anxious to get to work, with multiple problems facing the country. It's weird to not be able to do that."

If Fritz Knaak has his way, Mr. Franken will never have a shot at solving those problems. A lawyer hired by Mr. Coleman expressly for the recount, Mr. Knaak described himself as "the new gun with the shiny pistol." Citing suspicion over what he called a series of "shenanigans" that have narrowed Mr. Coleman's lead, he has requested the official paper tape with the number of ballots and the time stamp printed out by each ballot machine, in every voting precinct.

In interviews, Mr. Coleman has said he had hoped taxpayers would be spared the expense of a recount, which Mr. Ritchie's office estimated at 3 cents a ballot, or about $87,000, not including each campaign's expenses.

As the recount nears, brickbats from the candidates, their surrogates and ordinary voters are coming fast and furious.

Mr. Coleman's campaign manager, Cullen Sheehan, accused the Franken campaign of "a brazen, last minute act of desperation," by asking Hennepin County, which includes Minneapolis, to reconsider 461 rejected absentee ballots.

Mr. Franken's lead lawyer, Marc Elias, called such assertions of ballot stuffing "fanciful and bogus."

Mr. Ritchie, who is in charge of the recount, lamented the campaigns' "hand grenades at each other." But as a well-known Democrat, he has not eluded those grenades, with Republicans strongly questioning his objectivity.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Coleman campaign cited "concerns about" Mr. Ritchie's "ability to act as an unbiased official."

From the November 12 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes:

SEAN HANNITY (co-host): All right. Now, for -- but we have a problem with the secretary of state, Mark Ritchie, do we not? He's a liberal partisan secretary of state. When you look through his record, he has ties to this controversial group we discuss a lot, ACORN. He attended the 2008 Democratic convention. How much faith and hope and confidence do you have in Ritchie considering his radical relationships and partisanship, even connected to MoveOn.org?

PAWLENTY: Well, all secretaries of states are elected, and they have partisan backgrounds of one party or the other. In this case, the final decisions are made by a canvassing board of five people. It consists of the secretary of state plus four judges. Those folks were named today. The four judges that were named, two of them I appointed to the Minnesota Supreme Court --

HANNITY: All right --

PAWLENTY: -- two others have good reputations in Minnesota, so I think it's going to be a fair system.