Back to my solo conversation I figured out another way to do it...
function getCount() {
var cnt = getElementsByClass('CharCount',document.getElementById("CE_Editor1_ID"),"span");
cnt = (cnt[0].innerHTML.replace("Characters:","")*1)
alert(cnt+100);
}
function getElementsByClass(searchClass,node,tag) {
var classElements = new Array();
if ( node == null )
node = document;
if ( tag == null )
tag = '*';
var els = node.getElementsByTagName(tag);
var elsLen = els.length;
var pattern = new RegExp("(^|\\s)"+searchClass+"(\\s|$)");
for (i = 0, j = 0; i < elsLen; i++) {
if ( pattern.test(els[i].className) ) {
classElements[j] = els[i];
j++;
}
}
return classElements;
}