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 observers reports that the counting is going very well. The officials have finished counting the ballots from the older voting machines in the county and have now moved on to counting ballots from the newer machines. So far, the observers report a very smooth counting process. Approximately 40 people were present today, most of whom were party challengers.
The observer reports that there were no observers from the general public. Therefore the observer was able to go back and forth between the two counting tables unimpeded. As the afternoon progressed the counting proceeded without incident, with the exception of a single ballot from one precinct being challenged by both campaigns. Overall the observer reports that the county auditor ran a very tight ship, and was adept at defusing arguments between the campaigns before they got out of hand. The observer felt the experience was both educational and rewarding.
The observer reports that the recount in Ramsey Co. went smoothly on Friday. The process was orderly and civil. A few partisan observers contested ballots automatically/frivolously. The observer reported one glitch involving duplicate ballots: the original and duplicate ballots could not always be matched. This led to challenges and a lot of lost time in searching through piles of ballots. The election manager and two partisan spokespersons agreed among themselves how to treat mismatches that could not be reconciled.
The observer reports that approximately 80 people were present at the recount today. Roughly 20 were staff and most of the rest were challengers from the campaigns. Several media representative were present - the Star Tribune and the Uptake. Overall, the observer reports that it was a very well run process today.
The observer reports 45 challenges in Dakota today, 16 in one precinct (Apply Valley P-15). In this precinct, the officials could not find all of the absentee originals and there was confusion about the duplicates, so the Franken campaign challenged all the absentee ballots.
The observer reported this afternoon that the original count for Ward 1 came up very short. The first theory was that perhaps one of the ward boxes was mis-marked, but the officials checked and all the ward boxes were correctly marked.
Bloomington has 32 precincts. Today was their first day of counting and they did 9 precincts - 4 in the morning and 5 in the afternoon. They will count tomorrow, Monday and are also scheduled Tuesday. The observer reports that all was very smooth: staff and observers worked well together and made sure all disagreements were worked out. There were about twice as many Coleman observers as Franken. A photographer from the Minnesota Daily and Channel 5 were present.
The observer reports that Auditor has decided to complete entire recount today. Six out of a total 26 precincts are left. These six are the biggest precincts--all in the city of Owatonna.
The observer reports that the Senate race recount at Minnetonka City Hall was thorough and well-staffed by county elections staff. Four counting teams were
The observer reports that there was a lady bug stuck to one of the ballots. When one of the election officials pointed it out, one of the candidate representatives said, "Is that an identifying mark?" - Laughter ensued....
