I like Al Franken. Yes, he's partisan, but I don't think he's a hack.

I don't like Norm Coleman. He is a hack.

But ... as I read it ... Coleman won the election so the Democrats stole the Senate seat for Franken.

voluntaryXchange reported two months ago that it was very unlikely for each of the 4 updates in the vote totals to break Franken's way without some underlying systemic bias.

It's gotten worse. There are now 7 major decisions in the recount, and they have all broken for Franken.

After the recount, 25 precincts now show more votes than voter signatures. This is double counting ... and surprise, surprise ... these votes break towards Franken.

In another case, a precinct has more votes than ballots. This indicates the double-counting was done on election night. These double-counted votes were not rejected ... and surprise, surprise ... they broke for Franken.

Of course, this precedent suggests that if you have more ballots than votes you ought to accept that double-counting too. But wait! If you don't double-count those (which was the final decision) ... surprise, surprise ... the decision breaks for Franken.

Lastly, there's the "5th pile" of absentee ballots that were counted over the weekend. These came about because:

... Counties were being asked to review the absentee ballots they rejected on November 4 and decide whether they want to change their minds [about any of them]

Most of these fall under the first example above: situations in which an election official signed a ballot which was not countersigned by a voter. Basically, they've permitted something that is a felony if you do it with a $2 personal check. Franken swung from about 200 votes behind to 200 votes ahead after these ballots were counted over the weekend.

Franken will be certified as the winner later today.

Honor codes for academic dishonesty routinely point out that it is cheating to be aware of problems that you do not take part in but which you do not actively inform upon (here's an example)

So, Franken's not a hack. He's a cheater.