ALTHOUGH the US elections ended two weeks ago, the US Senate races in the states of Georgia, Alaska, and Minnesota are yet to be decided and are potentially crucial in that a Democratic victory in all three of them would give President-elect Barack Obama's party a filibuster-proof 60 senatorial seats. The election of senators in each of these states has taken a number of odd twists and turns with perhaps the most bizarre being that of Minnesota, which has begun recounting nearly three million votes with the unofficial first count showing a 206 vote advantage for incumbent Republican Senator Norm Coleman over his Democratic challenger, the former comedian, Al Franken. In many ways Minnesota is a replay of Florida 2000. Minnesota's ballots are read by machine, but in the recount each ballot will be scrutinized by hand by state election officials in the presence of representatives of each candidate. The task of the officials is to attempt to determine the intent of each voter. In cases where the ovals on the ballot have not been clearly filled in, officials will attempt to interpret any stray marks which may give a clue to the voter's original intention. Then there is the issue of the large number of absentee ballots which have been rejected for one reason or another. One voter had his clearly marked absentee ballot rejected because he forgot to sign the envelope containing the ballot, and he is now suing to have his vote counted. The Minnesota recount is not expected to be completed before Dec 19, and although the voting machines in Minnesota do not allow for the creation of the infamous Florida hanging and pregnant chads, it is certain that the state courts will be asked to rule on a number of issues and some of these rulings may, as in 2000, end up appealed to the US Supreme Court. In the end if all else fails, there will be a re-election. In an age in which so many millions of votes are cast that one can easily be led to believe that whether one votes or not does not really matter, it is good to be reminded that every vote counts. __
