Four days before the recount starts in Minnesota's U.S. Senate race, more than 400 volunteer recount observers aligned with Democrat Al Franken overflowed a college auditorium this morning for the first of three training sessions.
The large 9 a.m. turnout at St. Paul's Macalester College prompted campaign staffers to send a couple hundred would-be observers across Grand Avenue to a second training site.
Franken revved up his supporters with what he admitted was an oxymoron of a cheer, leading a chorus of: "What to do we want? Patience. When do we want it? Now."
He also brought in TV actor Brad Whitford, who played Josh Lyman on the series "West Wing." Whitford thanked the volunteers for what could be a "soul-sucking" job, joking that he wanted to confront the boredom issue head-on as they prepare to watch the hand-by-hand review of nearly three million ballots.
Volunteers for Republican incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman were scheduled to gather across the state, starting this weekend, for similar training sessions. Come Wednesday, the hundreds of volunteer recount observers will fan out across the state at 120 locations to challenge any disputed ballots in the recount.
With Coleman's lead at just over 200 votes, a state law will trigger the automatic recount starting Wednesday. The process will take at least a month and maybe longer, depending on legal challenges.
Franken, with his tongue in his cheek, told his volunteers that he had to give Coleman credit for his fiscal responsibility and empathy, referring to Coleman's Nov. 5 comments that he would walk away from a recount to prompt bi-partisan "healing" if he had been trailing Franken.
"The voters will decide this election, not the candidates," Franken said. "We just want every ballot counted."
