Almost a month after the election, there are conflicting views on this question. In this AP story from an hour ago, it’s estimated that Coleman still leads by 215 out of some 2.9 million votes cast, though some counties won’t have their recount done until Friday. The biggest shift appears to arise from a voting machine in Ramsey County that broke down on Election Day; when the optical scan ballots were finally counted, Franken picked up 91 votes and Coleman 54. The Franken campaign, however, reportedly claims that its internal count has it up by 22 votes.
Meanwhile, the Minneapolis Star Tribune still has Coleman up by 295 votes and reports here that Franken is withdrawing 633 ballot challenges that it made, in order to speed up the process. That still leaves more than 5000 challenged ballots yet to be ruled on by the state canvassing board, if the Star Tribune’s numbers are accurate. With Secretary of State Mark Ritchie’s order that local election officials review 12,000 rejected absentee ballots, and the possibility that the Senate could ultimately resolve the election, the situation remains very fluid.
So who’s winning? It depends on who you ask, but at this moment it appears that Coleman is still winning … with Franken gaining.