If Minnesota Senate Race was using the runoff formula

Coleman has 1,211,565 votes, Franken has 1,211,359 votes, with votes for others, total votes cast was 2,883,137.

Thresshold is 7,208

Coleman's Margin is Zero. Franken's Margin is 206. Since 206 is less than 7,209, a runoff would be held if Franken accepts it.

The only two candidates in the runoff would be Coleman and Franken. Both parties would be able to send all of their observers, poll watchers, lawyers, etc.

Why do we need runoff elections?

Since the Presidential election of 2000, more than a handful of Federal elections in the fifty States have ended with the difference in vote totals between the winner and the loser falling into the margin of error. In 2000, it is possible if not likely that this resulted in the election of a different candidate for President that the one who would have won if the election had been perfect. This year, several senate races are within the margin of error. This opens the door to bias and fraud on the part of partisan election officials, judges and others who will end up determining who wins these elections. There is a better solution, which is to hold runoff elections when the difference is within the margin of error.

Margin of error

The margin of error is the difference in the results of an election if it had been perfect, and what the result actually is in real life.

Definitions

Definition of perfect election: A perfect election is when every voter who was legally deserving of the right to vote and who attempted to vote in a legal manner had his or her vote counted for the candidate who he or she intended to vote for.

Legally deserving of the right to vote means that the person had followed the established, legal procedure for registering to vote in the jurisdiction and was qualified to vote in that jurisdiction according to the laws in that jurisdiction. If a person didn't attempt to register to vote, they would not be legally deserving. If they did, but it was lost in the mail, they would be legally deserving.

attempted to vote in a legal manner means that the person showed up to the correct polling place or followed the rules for obtaining and submitting an absentee ballot, etc. If someone requested an absentee ballot and it was lost in the mail, this would be considered as attempted to vote in a legal manner. If someone showed up at the wrong polling place, this would not be considered as attempting to vote in a legal manner.

The candidate that he or she intended to vote for means that the vote is counted for the candidate who the citizen intended the vote to go to.

All of this is theoretical - only G-d knows who would have won an election if it had been perfect.

Election - Formula for determining if runoff election is necessary

1) Obtain official tally - sum of all votes cast (sum)
2) Multiply sum by .0025 (threshhold). Round the threshhold to a whole number.
3) Calculate each candidate's margin by subtracting the vote total for each candidate from the vote total for the candidate who received the most votes (margin)
4) Compare each candidates margin with the threshold. If the margin is greater than the threshhold plus one, the candidate is eliminated.
5) If after elimination, there is only one candidate left (ie, the one who had the most votes and thus whose margin was zero), that candidate wins the election.
5) If there are other candidates (other) who are not elimnated (their margin was greater than zero but less than or equal to the threshhold plus one), these other candidates should be offered the opportunity to participate in a runoff
6) If one or more of the other candidates chooses to participate in a runoff, the runoff election should take place on the second tuesday of December.
7) The runoff election itself would be decided who who gets the most votes. There would be no runoff of the runoff, even if the margin of victory is one vote. If the runoff ends in a tie, they would flip a coin.