Brett Favre and Lizard People: Are We Going to Have a New Senator This Year?

It doesn't look like it. The US State Senate recount drags on and on. During the three-week-long hand recount that ended on December 5, thousands of ballots were challenged by either the Norm Coleman or Al Franken campaign. In the past few weeks, over a thousand ballots a week have been examined by the State Canvassing Board, who decided which campaign to award each ballot to, or to reject the ballots. A voter who wrote "Brett Favre" for President has their ballot counted; a voter who wanted "Lizard People" in the Senate had their ballot rejected.

All through the re-count, Norm Coleman has been in the lead, but in the last couple of days Al Franken's fortunes have reversed and as of today, Franken is in the lead by 47 votes. But there are 1,600 mistakenly rejected absentee ballots that have yet to be counted which could give either candidate the win.

The Canvassing Board has scheduled a January 5 meeting to decide what to do with the absentee ballots. Both campaigns can object to the absentee ballots, there are still disputes over alleged twice-counted ballots, which may require every single vote re-counted again to make sure the same number of votes are recorded as there are ballots. So the final result is unlikely to be even that soon.

The next Congress convenes January 6 and as yet there is no plan as to what to do if Minnesota doesn't have anyone to send to join Amy Klobuchar in the Senate.

So the race is truly anyones for the taking, and it seems that it will come down to which side has the luck to challenge the right kind of votes that will give them the crucial few votes for the eventual win.

• View and decide on the disputed ballots for yourself at the Star Tribune website