The state of Minnesota will now achieve a new personal milestone: Breaking their previous record for the longest unresolved election.
The Star Tribune points out that after today, the Senate race between Al Franken and Norm Coleman will have become the longest period that any statewide office in Minnesota remained up in the air, breaking the previous record of the 1962 gubernatorial election. In that prior election, however, the office itself did not actually stay vacant, like it is now.
However, this race is still not the all-time record-holder since the direct election of Senators began. That honor goes to the 1974 New Hampshire race, for which the seat stayed empty all the way into the Summer of 1975. Then again, we can’t rule that out for this race.
Another thing: That New Hampshire race ended in a do-over election, which Norm Coleman and his legal team have been quite openly agitating for.