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Winona County election officials started hand-counting more than 24,000 ballots at the County Government Center, watched by representatives of the incumbent, Sen. Norm Coleman, and his Democratic opponent, Al Franken.
Winona County is among the last of 87 Minnesota counties still recounting ballots in the Senate race, which, according to election-night totals on Nov. 4, was decided by just 215 votes out of 2.9 million cast.
The recount works like this: As election officials sort and count ballots, Coleman and Franken representatives may challenge officials’ judgment of a ballot if they believe a voter’s intent is unclear or if the ballot contains markings that could identify the voter.
The campaigns thus far have challenged more than 6,000 ballots statewide; a state canvassing board is scheduled to rule on them later this month.
The campaigns challenged 22 ballots in Winona County on Wednesday, with Franken representatives challenging 17 ballots and Coleman challenging five.
A separate dispute came when Franken representatives suggested election officials may have erred in recording the recount total in Goodview Precinct 2, which showed Franken with one less vote than was recorded on election night.
Coleman officials didn’t initially accept the Franken protest, and Winona County Auditor Cherie MacLennan will meet with both campaigns this morning to attempt to resolve the issue.
Another discrepancy occurred when a recount of Winona’s Third Ward showed Franken with one more vote than was recorded on election night. Coleman representatives initially protested that result but relented after judges recounted the ballots three more times and registered the same totals.
The single-vote discrepancies paled in comparison to recount snafus in other municipalities this week: Minneapolis officials on Wednesday retracted 133 ballots after discovering they were counted twice, while Ramsey County officials found 171 uncounted ballots on Tuesday. MacLennan said Winona’s first-day recount results underscore a stellar election-night performance by Auditor’s office staff and local election judges.
“They did a great job, and the totals show it,” MacLennan said.
MacLennan said Winona County chose to be one of the last recount counties to give auditor’s staffers a break after Election Day; she said it also allowed local officials to observe problems in other counties and prepare for them. The recount will cost the county an estimated $2,500, though state officials are expected to reimburse about $800 of that.
Troller wrote on Dec 5, 2008 8:38 AM: