These blog reports are from the non-partisan observers who are part of a joint effort sponsored by Citizens for Election Integrity Minnesota, League of Women Voters Minnesota and Common Cause Minnesota (Learn more about this effort »)
This effort is the only statewide, trained, non-partisan presence at the recounts.
The recount observer reports 48 missing ballots across three precincts. County officials will next inspect the optical scan voting machines to see if there are any jammed ballots.
The observer reports that the counting is at a standstill. One precinct is missing 35 ballots and another precinct is missing 14 ballots.
CEIMN will continue to monitor the situation and provide timely updates.
The observer reports that by the time she left at 4:45 PM yesterday, the county had finished a large precinct and only about 3,700 of the 6, 834 votes had been counted. However, she reports that the county's plan was to keep going and finish the recount last night.
The observer reports that this was the first day of the recount in Becker County where 3691 ballots (roughly 20%) were counted out of a total 18,093 ballots.
The observer reports that Goodhue County finished their recount today. There were 31 challenges total. Overall the observer reports that things went very smooth. Channel 4 and the Red Wing Eagle newspaper were present today.
The observer reports that both campaigns felt that the county auditor was not properly accepting their challenges. The observer gave the following example that she was able to see clearly: a ballot was marked with an X on the oval next to a US Senate candidate. This ballot did not have any of the other ovals filled in for a US Senate candidate. The observer reported a party representative challenged this ballot. The challenger felt the X indicated voter intent for their party's candidate.
The observer reports that each campaign had over 14 challengers. By midday, a total of 39 challenges had been made between the two campaigns. The observer reports that many challenges appeared frivolous.
The observer reports that as of 12:00pm today, Koochiching County has recounted 416 out of over 6000 ballots. The recount process is expected to continue after today.
Twenty of Eagan's precincts and five from Rosemount are being counted today. The recount process seemed tightly organized: eight tables with three official counters and a total of four party observers at each table (2 from each campaign). Other party observers are allowed close to the tables, but there's a tape about 4-5 feet out that separates the party observers from the rest of the public.
The observer reports that at the request of one of the campaigns, Ramsey County changed their counting process. Now they are first sorting the ballots and then counting the ballots. Before the counting and sorting was done simultaneously. The recount supervisor said this may slow down the recounting process a little bit.
